How can I force the use of an xsi:type attribute?

Question

How can I force .NET\'s XmlSerializer to add an xsi:type=\"FooClass\" to a member/node of type FooClass?

The scenario

Answer 1

I had no trouble producing the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<BazClass xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
   xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <Foo xsi:type="FooClass">
        <FooPropertyA>Hello</FooPropertyA>
        <FooPropertyB>5</FooPropertyB>
    </Foo>
</BazClass>

from

[XmlInclude(typeof(FooClass))]
//[XmlType(TypeName = "FooBase", Namespace = "urn:namespace", IncludeInSchema = true)]
public class FooBaseClass
{
    public string FooPropertyA { get; set; }
}

//[XmlType(TypeName = "Foo", Namespace = "urn:namespace", IncludeInSchema = true)]
public class FooClass : FooBaseClass
{
    public int FooPropertyB { get; set; } 
}

public class BazClass
{
    public FooBaseClass Foo { get; set; }
}

(note the XmlType attributes are commented out. I wanted to see what happened if a namespace was specified)

Please show the code you used, and the XML it produced.

Answer 2

XmlSerializer can be pretty dumb and straightforward at times, which works to your advantage in this case. Just put it there manually:

public class FooClass
{
    public int FooPropertyA { get; set; }
    public string FooPropertyB { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("type", Namespace="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance")]
    public string XsiType
    {
        get { return "Foo"; }
        set { }
    }
}

Answer 3

To support inheritance of types in other namespaces you need to use a solution similar to what Pavel Minaev suggested but with the XmlQualifiedName typed property instead of string, e.g.

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

namespace Test
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Base class which is XML serializable and extensible.
    /// </summary>
    [XmlRoot(XmlRootName, Namespace = XmlRootNamespace)]
    public abstract class BaseClassInOtherNamespace
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Name of the XML element 
        /// </summary>
        public const string XmlRootName = "Base";

        /// <summary>
        /// XML namespace in which this type is defined.
        /// </summary>
        public const string XmlRootNamespace = "urn:base";

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates an instance which serializes as the correct inherited XML type.
        /// </summary>
        protected BaseClassInOtherNamespace(XmlQualifiedName xsiType)
        {
            XsiType = xsiType;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// XML type for serialization.
        /// </summary>
        [XmlAttribute("type", Namespace = XmlSchema.InstanceNamespace)]
        public XmlQualifiedName XsiType { get; set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// Some base property.
        /// </summary>
        public int BaseProperty { get; set; }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Inheriting class extending the base class, created in a different XML namespace.
    /// </summary>
    [XmlRoot(XmlRootName, Namespace = XmlRootNamespace)]
    [XmlType(XmlTypeName, Namespace = XmlTypeNamespace)]
    public class InheritingClass : BaseClassInOtherNamespace
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Name of the XML element 
        /// </summary>
        public const string XmlTypeName = "Inheriting";

        /// <summary>
        /// XML namespace in which this type is defined.
        /// </summary>
        public const string XmlTypeNamespace = "urn:other";

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates an instance.
        /// </summary>
        public InheritingClass() : base(new XmlQualifiedName(XmlTypeName, XmlTypeNamespace))
        {
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Some new property in a different (inheriting) namespace.
        /// </summary>
        public int InheritingProperty { get; set; }
    }
}

Will serialize (and de-serialize) correctly as:

<Base xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:q1="urn:other" xsi:type="q1:Inheriting" xmlns="urn:base">
  <BaseProperty>0</BaseProperty>
  <q1:InheritingProperty>0</q1:InheritingProperty>
</Base>

This satisfies the requirement of truly extensible polymorphic XML types, i.e. the base class can be used anywhere and later add-ons can be assigned, serialized and de-serialized correctly in both .NET and with XSD validation.

Taking it further, you can also add a XmlSerializerNamespaces property with the XmlNamespaceDeclarationsAttribute to specify preferred prefixes and remove any unwanted namespaces, such as the xmlns:xsd (we only use xmlns:xsi) or even the XSI namespace for your non-inheriting XML serialized classes.