How do I use XmlSerializer to insert an xml string

Question

I have defined the following class:

public class Root
{
    public string Name;
    public string XmlString;
}

and created an object:

Answer 1

You can (ab)use the IXmlSerializable interface an XmlWriter.WriteRaw for that. But as garethm pointed out you then pretty much have to write your own serialization code.

using System;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Schema;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace ConsoleApplicationCSharp
{
  public class Root : IXmlSerializable
  {
    public string Name;
    public string XmlString;

    public Root() { }

    public void WriteXml(System.Xml.XmlWriter writer)
    {
      writer.WriteElementString("Name", Name);
      writer.WriteStartElement("XmlString");
      writer.WriteRaw(XmlString);
      writer.WriteFullEndElement();
    }

    public void ReadXml(System.Xml.XmlReader reader) { /* ... */ }
    public XmlSchema GetSchema() { return (null); }
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      Root t = new Root
      {
        Name = "Test",
        XmlString = "bar"
      };
      System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer x = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Root));
      x.Serialize(Console.Out, t);
      return;
    }
  }
}

prints

  Test
  bar