Overriding a property with an attribute

Question

I\'m trying to find a way to change the serialization behavior of a property.

Lets say I have a situation like this:

[Serializable]
public class Reco         


        

Answer 1

The best I can think of...

[Serializable]
public class Record
{
   public DateTime LastUpdated {get; set; }
   public virtual bool ShouldSerializeLastUpdated() {return true;}
   // other useful properties ...
}

public class EmployeeRecord : Record
{
   public string EmployeeName {get; set; }
   public override bool ShouldSerializeLastUpdated() {return false;}
   // other useful properties ...
}

Basically, there are a few patterns that XmlSerializer respects; public bool ShouldSerialize*(), and public bool *Specified {get;set;} (note you should mark *Specified with [XmlIgnore] too...).

Not very elegant, I'll grant; but XmlSerializer only looks at public members, so you can't even hide them (short of [EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Never), Browsable(false)]).