Using XmlSerializer with private and public const properties

Question

What\'s the simplest way to get XmlSerializer to also serialize private and \"public const\" properties of a class or struct? Right not all it will output for me is things

Answer 1

XmlSerializer only looks at public fields and properties. If you need more control, you can implement IXmlSerializable and serialize whatever you would like. Of course, serializing a constant doesn't make much sense since you can't deserialize to a constant.

Answer 2

Here's my solution to putting immutable values in a property that will serialize to XML:

[XmlElement]
public string format { get { return "Acme Order Detail XML v3.4.5"; } set { } }

Answer 3

One other solution the use of Newtonsoft.Json:

   var json = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { root = result });
   var xml = (XmlDocument)Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeXmlNode(json);

Sure, this one has unfortunately detour via json.

Answer 4

Check out DataContractSerializer, introduced in .NET 3.0. It also uses XML format, and in many ways, it is better than XmlSerializer, including dealing with private data. See http://www.danrigsby.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/07/xmlserializer-vs-datacontractserializer-serialization-in-wcf/ for a full comparison.

If you only have .NET 2.0, there's the BinarySerializer that can deal with private data, but of course it's a binary format.

Answer 5

It doesn't make sense to consider const members, as they aren't per-instance; but if you just mean non-public instance members: consider DataContractSerializer (.NET 3.0) - this is similar to XmlSerializer, but can serialize non-public properties (although it is "opt in").

See here for more.

Answer 6

Even though it's not possible to serialize private properties, you can serialize properties with an internal setter, like this one :

public string Foo { get; internal set; }

To do that, you need to pre-generate the serialization assembly with sgen.exe, and declare this assembly as friend :

[assembly:InternalsVisibleTo("MyAssembly.XmlSerializers")]