Generating an Xml Serialization assembly for a custom XmlSerializer

Question

I have methods in my class for serializing/deserializing using a different XML structure than what would be produced with the default serializer. The methods create an XmlSe

Answer 1

(Not yet enough points to comment)

You should consider biting the bullet and implement IXmlSerializable in a manner that allows you to decide what to serialize and what not, without changing attributes at runtime. Define your own attributes, constructor requirements and serialize them.

Perhaps you could even sack XML-Serialization and switch to JSon.Net where the need to jump through such hoops is rather unlikely.

Answer 2

If you by "custom XmlSerializer" mean that you use System.Xml.XmlSerializer with custom serialization code (either through IXmlSerializable or [XmlElement] attributes and friends), it should be looking for an assembly called MyAssembly.XmlSerializers.dll when serializing.

The naming of the assembly is important, and if you're unsure whether it's being looked for and what exact assembly name is being looked up, you can just attach an event handler to AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FirstChanceException which will fire for all exceptions in the app domain, including assembly loading exceptions. You can also hook into the AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyLoad and AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve events, which should fire every time an assembly is first loaded into the app domain.

Another important thing is that the version (and perhaps key; I'm not sure) of MyAssembly.dll and MyAssembly.XmlSerializers.dll must match and they should also be placed alongside each other. See this and this MSDN article for more information.