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Attributes, names, and namespaces
By default, fields and properties serialize to an XML element. You can request an
XML attribute be used instead as follows:
[XmlAttribute] public int Age;
You can control an element or attribute’s name as follows:
public class Person
{
[XmlElement ("FirstName")] public string Name;
[XmlAttribute ("RoughAge")] public int Age;
}
Here’s the result:
Stacey
The default XML namespace is blank (unlike the data contract serializer, which uses
the type’s namespace). To specify an XML namespace, [XmlElement] and
[XmlAttribute] both accept a Namespace argument. You can also assign a name and
namespace to the type itself with [XmlRoot]:
[XmlRoot ("Candidate", Namespace = "http://mynamespace/test/")]
public class Person { ... }
This names the person element “Candidate” as well as assigning a namespace to this
element and its children.
XML element order
XmlSerializer writes elements in the order that they’re defined in the class. You can
change this by specifying an Order in the XmlElement attribute:
public class Person
{
[XmlElement (Order = 2)] public string Name;
[XmlElement (Order = 1)] public int Age;
}
If you use Order at all, you must use it throughout.
The deserializer is not fussy about the order of elements—they can appear in any
sequence and the type will properly deserialize.
Subclasses and Child Objects
Subclassing the root type
Suppose your root type has two subclasses as follows:
public class Person { public string Name; }
public class Student : Person { }
public class Teacher : Person { }
XML Serialization | 639
Serialization