Serialization in C# and in .NET is really simple if just need to convert simple objects and collections in XML format. This article will show you the basic steps to serialize and deserialize objects into a xml file. Keep in mind that are different ways to accomplish this task, and you are always allowed to create you own serialization pattern implementing the ISerializable interface into your objects and collection. This time i will only cover the simple way by creating a colloection of my object that i want to serialize, a static manager (to simplify the serialization / deserialization process) and a simple console application to display you the result.
Imagine you need to save or load a specific configuration file for your application at runtime… would it be nice to create a simple XML file which allows to edit it? Here’s the deal:
First of all you need to create an object that you need to serialize:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Collections;
namespace SampleSerailizer
{
[Serializable]
public class Configuration
{
public Configuration()
{
}
[XmlAttribute("Name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("ID")]
public int ID { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Values")]
public string[] Values { get; set; }
}
}
You can see how is easy to determine which properties needs to be serialized: just add the proper decoration attribute to your properties. You can use theXmlIgnore decoration
if you want to skip this process for a specific property.
Now we need a class that will care to do this job. I have created a static class named ConfigurationManager and created 2 static methods that allows me to save or to load my objects:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.IO;
namespace SampleSerailizer
{
public static class ConfigurationManager
{
public static List<Configuration> LoadConfiguration(string path)
{
List<Configuration> toReturn;
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Configuration>));
TextReader reader = new StreamReader(path);
toReturn = (List<Configuration>)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
reader.Close();
return toReturn;
}
public static void SaveConfiguration(List<Configuration> configuration, string path)
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Configuration>));
TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(path);
serializer.Serialize(writer, configuration);
writer.Close();
}
}
}
You are done! Let’s create some sample data and try to serialize it into a XML format.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Collections;
namespace SampleSerailizer
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// lets add some sample configurations
List<Configuration> list = new List<Configuration>();
list.Add(new Configuration() {
ID = 1 ,
Name = "Application Configuration",
Values = new string[] { "sample data 1", "sample data 2" }
});
list.Add(new Configuration()
{
ID = 2,
Name = "More Configurations",
Values = new string[] { "sample data 3", "sample data 4" }
});
//save the configuration to a xml file
ConfigurationManager.SaveConfiguration(list, @"sample configuration.xml");
//load the configuration from a xml file
List<Configuration> loadedConfiguration =
ConfigurationManager.LoadConfiguration(@"sample configuration.xml");
// display the configuration collection
foreach (var conf in loadedConfiguration)
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat(conf.ID, ". - ", conf.Name));
foreach (var str in conf.Values)
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat("--- ", str));
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
The output displayed in the console compared to the sample configuration.xml shows that it works..
Console output:
sample configuration.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ArrayOfConfiguration xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Configuration Name="Application Configuration" ID="1">
<Values>sample data 1</Values>
<Values>sample data 2</Values>
</Configuration>
<Configuration Name="More Configurations" ID="2">
<Values>sample data 3</Values>
<Values>sample data 4</Values>
</Configuration>
</ArrayOfConfiguration>
This snipped can be used for a quickly reference to this approach. For a deeper explanation, consider visiting the msdn.
Download the source code: SampleSerailizer.rar (23.84 kb)