Serialize an object to XML

Question

I have a C# class that I have inherited. I have successfully \"built\" the object. But I need to serialize the object to XML. Is there an easy way to do it?

It looks

Answer 1

I will start with the copy answer of Ben Gripka:

public void Save(string FileName)
{
    using (var writer = new System.IO.StreamWriter(FileName))
    {
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(this.GetType());
        serializer.Serialize(writer, this);
        writer.Flush();
    }
}

I used this code earlier. But reality showed that this solution is a bit problematic. Usually most of programmers just serialize setting on save and deserialize settings on load. This is an optimistic scenario. Once the serialization failed, because of some reason, the file is partly written, XML file is not complete and it is invalid. In consequence XML deserialization does not work and your application may crash on start. If the file is not huge, I suggest first serialize object to MemoryStream then write the stream to the File. This case is especially important if there is some complicated custom serialization. You can never test all cases.

public void Save(string fileName)
{
    //first serialize the object to memory stream,
    //in case of exception, the original file is not corrupted
    using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
    {
        var writer = new System.IO.StreamWriter(ms);    
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(this.GetType());
        serializer.Serialize(writer, this);
        writer.Flush();

        //if the serialization succeed, rewrite the file.
        File.WriteAllBytes(fileName, ms.ToArray());
    }
}

The deserialization in real world scenario should count with corrupted serialization file, it happens sometime. Load function provided by Ben Gripka is fine.

public static [ObjectType] Load(string fileName)
{
    using (var stream = System.IO.File.OpenRead(fileName))
    {
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof([ObjectType]));
        return serializer.Deserialize(stream) as [ObjectType];        
    }    
}

And it could be wrapped by some recovery scenario. It is suitable for settings files or other files which can be deleted in case of problems.

public static [ObjectType] LoadWithRecovery(string fileName)
{
    try
    {
        return Load(fileName);
    }
    catch(Excetion)
    {
        File.Delete(fileName); //delete corrupted settings file
        return GetFactorySettings();
    }
}