XML Serialization structure

Question

Apologies on not being able to phrase the title more specifically but I can only explain by giving an example.

I'm trying to build a class that serializes to the following XML

<Customize>
    <Content></Content>
    <Content></Content>
    <!-- i.e. a list of Content -->

    <Command></Command>
    <Command></Command>
    <Command></Command>
    <!-- i.e. a list of Command -->
</Customize>

My C# is:

[XmlRoot]
public Customize Customize { get; set; }

and

public class Customize
{
    public List<Content> Content { get; set; }
    public List<Command> Command { get; set; }
}

However, this produces (as it should), the following:

<Customize>
    <Content>
        <Content></Content>
        <Content></Content>
    </Content>
    <Command>
        <Command></Command>
        <Command></Command>
        <Command></Command>
    </Command>
 </Customize>

Are there some xml serialization attributes that would help achieve my desired xml, or do I have to find another way to write the class?

Answer 1

Use XmlElementAttribute to mark your collection properties.

public class Customize
{
    [XmlElement("Content")]
    public List<Content> Content { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("Command")]
    public List<Command> Command { get; set; }
}

Quick test code:

var item = new Customize() { Content = new List<Content> { new Content(), new Content() }, Command = new List<Command> { new Command(), new Command(), new Command() } };

string result;

using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
    var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Customize));
    serializer.Serialize(writer, item);
    result = writer.ToString();
}

Prints:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<Customize xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Content />
  <Content />
  <Command />
  <Command />
  <Command />
</Customize>

Answer 2

public class Customize
{
    [XmlElement("Content")]
    public List<Content> Content { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("Command")]
    public List<Command> Command { get; set; }
}