How to serialize/deserialize a C# WCF DataContract to/from XML

Question

I am developing a WCF service which will be consumed by multiple different client applications. In order to make one functionality work, the server needs to read an XML file into a C# DataContract which is then passed on to the concerned client. As far as I understand from the MSDN website, this is possible but I couldn't find any complete examples. In particular, the website talks about a 'stream' parameter which I don't quite get yet.

My data contract has one property field which is a list of another data contract which has multiple simple property fields.

e.g.

    [DataContract]
    public class MyClass1 {
        [DataMember]
        public string name;
        [DataMember]
        public int age;
    }

    [DataContract]
    public class MyClass2 {
        [DataMember]
        public List<MyClass1> myClass1List;
    }

My classes look something like this.

Answer 1

Here is an example

MyClass1 obj = new MyClass1();
DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(MyClass1));

using (Stream stream = new FileStream(@"C:\tmp\file.xml", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
{
    using (XmlDictionaryWriter writer = 
        XmlDictionaryWriter.CreateTextWriter(stream, Encoding.UTF8))
    {
        writer.WriteStartDocument();
        dcs.WriteObject(writer, obj);
    }
}

---

Books b = new Books();

DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Books));

try
{
    Stream fs = new FileStream(@"C:\Users\temelm\Desktop\XmlFile.xml", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);

    XmlDictionaryWriter xdw = XmlDictionaryWriter.CreateTextWriter(fs, Encoding.UTF8);
    xdw.WriteStartDocument();
    dcs.WriteObject(xdw, b);
    xdw.Close();
    fs.Flush();
    fs.Close();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    s += e.Message + "\n";
}

Answer 2

This can be useful for you. When you need XElement. For instance when you going append node to XDocument or replece XElement of this document.

private XElement objectToXElement(SomeContractType obj)
        {
            DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(SomeContractType);

            var ms = new MemoryStream();
            var xw = XmlWriter.Create(ms);
            dcs.WriteObject(xw, obj);
            xw.Flush();
            xw.Close();
            ms.Position = 0;
            XElement xe = XElement.Load(ms);

            return xe;
        }

Answer 3

There is the NetDataContractSerializer which solves a whole bunch of problems when using WCF.

See here MSDN NetDataContractSerializer

It is typically used for wrapping all kinds of objects and pass it over WCF.

You can use it for wrapping objects into a byte[] and transport it over WCF, on the serverside, you can easily Deserialize the objects and do whatever you want with them.

Here is a discussion on how to use this Serializer correctly: MSDN Social

Code snippets are provided there also!