.
Hello,
I have this sample code :
public class Vehicule
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public Brand Brand { get; set; }
}
public class Car : Vehicule
{
public string Matriculation { get; set; }
}
public class Brand
{
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class Renault : Brand
{
public string Information { get; set; }
}
var car = new Car { Name = "Clio", Matriculation = "XXX-XXX", Brand = new Renault { Name = "Renault", Information = "Contact Infos" } };
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Car), new Type[] { typeof(Renault)});
serializer.Serialize(wr, car);
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Car xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Name>Clio</Name>
<Brand xsi:type="Renault">
<Name>Renault</Name>
<Information>Contact Infos</Information>
</Brand>
<Matriculation>XXX-XXX</Matriculation>
</Car>
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Vehicule));
serializer.Serialize(wr, car);
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Vehicule xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Name>Clio</Name>
<Brand>
<Name>Renault</Name>
</Brand>
</Vehicule>
You can't magically serialize a derived class as it's base because
"...Serialization checks type of instance by calling Object.getType() method. This method always returns the exact type of object."
http://bytes.com/topic/net/answers/809946-how-force-serialize-base-type
The solution here, if you really need to only serialize the base class is to implement the IXmlSerializable interface and create your own custom serializer.
IXmlSerializable: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.serialization.ixmlserializable(v=vs.110).aspx
One more thought. If you can work around the limitation of outputting the extra XML elements, you are able to serialize the derived class using only the base object by either 1) using XmlIncludeAttributes on the base class to tell it which types to expect or 2) using the XmlSerializer constructor overload that takes a list of types.
Edit: After thinking about this a little more, a workaround would be that you would add a Clone() method onto your base object, then serialize the clone of the base.
LinqPad code:
public class Vehicule
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public Brand Brand { get; set; }
public Vehicule Clone()
{
return new Vehicule { Name = this.Name, Brand = new Brand { Name = this.Brand.Name } };
}
}
public class Car : Vehicule
{
public string Matriculation { get; set; }
}
public class Brand
{
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class Renault : Brand
{
public string Information { get; set; }
}
void Main()
{
var car = new Car { Name = "Clio", Matriculation = "XXX-XXX", Brand = new Renault { Name = "Renault", Information = "Contact Infos" } };
var vehicle = car as Vehicule;
var serializer = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(Vehicule));
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings
{
Encoding = new UnicodeEncoding(false, false),
Indent = false,
OmitXmlDeclaration = false
};
using(StringWriter textWriter = new StringWriter()) {
using(XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(textWriter, settings)) {
serializer.Serialize(xmlWriter, vehicle.Clone());
}
textWriter.ToString().Dump();
}
}