Obsolete attribute causes property to be ignored by XmlSerialization

Question

I\'m refactoring some objects that are serialized to XML but need to keep a few properties for backwards compatibility, I\'ve got a method that converts the old object into

Answer 1

Another workaround is to subscribe to XmlSerializer.UnknownElement, when creating the serializer for the datatype, and then fix old data that way.

http://weblogs.asp.net/psteele/archive/2011/01/31/xml-serialization-and-the-obsolete-attribute.aspx

Maybe consider to have the method for subscribing as a static method on the class for datatype.

static void serializer_UnknownElement(object sender, XmlElementEventArgs e)
{
    if( e.Element.Name != "Hobbies")
    {
        return;
    }

    var target = (MyData) e.ObjectBeingDeserialized;
    foreach(XmlElement hobby in e.Element.ChildNodes)
    {
        target.Hobbies.Add(hobby.InnerText);
        target.HobbyData.Add(new Hobby{Name = hobby.InnerText});
    }
}