Reputation: 183
I have a class 'products' that is serializable to XML. I'm using the standard System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer to serialize and a XmlWriter 'writer' object to write the serialized results to a StreamWriter object. The serializer object now serializes the whole class in one go:
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(products));
serializer.Serialize(writer, products);
The class has a Dictionary<string,string> member called 'Specifications'. It is dynamically built, so I don't know the keys beforehand. Here's an example of what data the dictionary may contain (key: value):
I would like to be able to serialize that property into this:
...
<specifications>
<color>blue</color>
<length>110mm</length>
<width>55mm</width>
</specifications>
...
I know this is poor XML design, but it has to conform to a 3rd party specification.
Is there perhaps a standard attribute that I can use? If not, how would I be able to serialize the dictionary like that?
If you need more code snippets, let me know.
EDIT: Due to some changes in requirement, I let go of the Dictionary<string,string>. Instead, I created a class "Specification":
public class Specification
{
public string Name;
public string Value;
public bool IsOther;
public Specification() : this(null, null, false) { }
public Specification(string name, string value) : this(name, value, false) { }
public Specification(string name, string value, bool isOther)
{
Name = name;
Value = value;
IsOther = isOther;
}
}
To avoid repeating the element "spec" by having a List of "Specification" in the product class, I use a plural class "Specifications" that implements the IXmlSerializable interface:
public class Specifications: IXmlSerializable
{
public List<Specification> Specs = new List<Specification>();
public XmlSchema GetSchema()
{
return null;
}
public void ReadXml(XmlReader reader)
{
//I don't need deserialization, but it would be simple enough now.
throw new System.NotImplementedException();
}
public void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
{
//write all "standarad", named specs
//this writes the <color>blue</color>-like elements
Specs.Where(s => !s.IsOther).ToList().ForEach(s => writer.WriteElementString(s.Name, s.Value));
//write other specs
//this writes <other_specs>{name|value[;]}*</other_specs>
string otherSpecs = string.Join(";", Specs.Where(s => s.IsOther).Select(s => string.Concat(s.Name, "|", s.Value)));
if (otherSpecs.Length > 0) writer.WriteElementString("other_specs", otherSpecs);
}
}
The class "Specifications" is applied as:
public class Product
{
public Product()
{
Specifications = new Specifications();
}
[XmlElement("specs")]
public Specifications Specifications;
//this "feature" will not include <specs/> when there are none
[XmlIgnore]
public bool SpecificationsSpecified { get { return Specifications.Specs.Any(); } }
//...
}
Thank you for providing examples of IXmlSerializable and XmlWriter. I didn't know that interface and usage of XmlWriter - it proved to be a valuable inspiration for me!
*this was my first SO question. What's the most appropriate way to close it? I didn't provide this as my own answer as it is not a real answer to my initial question (about Dictionary).
Upvotes: 2
Views: 2590
Reputation: 116741
Assuming that your dictionary value are all simple types that can be converted to a string, you can create your own IXmlSerializable
dictionary wrapper to store and retrieve the keys and values:
public class XmlKeyTextValueListWrapper<TValue> : CollectionWrapper<KeyValuePair<string, TValue>>, IXmlSerializable
{
public XmlKeyTextValueListWrapper() : base(new List<KeyValuePair<string, TValue>>()) { } // For deserialization.
public XmlKeyTextValueListWrapper(ICollection<KeyValuePair<string, TValue>> baseCollection) : base(baseCollection) { }
public XmlKeyTextValueListWrapper(Func<ICollection<KeyValuePair<string, TValue>>> getCollection) : base(getCollection) {}
#region IXmlSerializable Members
public XmlSchema GetSchema()
{
return null;
}
public void ReadXml(XmlReader reader)
{
var converter = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(TValue));
XmlKeyValueListHelper.ReadXml(reader, this, converter);
}
public void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
{
var converter = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(TValue));
XmlKeyValueListHelper.WriteXml(writer, this, converter);
}
#endregion
}
public static class XmlKeyValueListHelper
{
public static void WriteXml<T>(XmlWriter writer, ICollection<KeyValuePair<string, T>> collection, TypeConverter typeConverter)
{
foreach (var pair in collection)
{
writer.WriteStartElement(XmlConvert.EncodeName(pair.Key));
writer.WriteValue(typeConverter.ConvertToInvariantString(pair.Value));
writer.WriteEndElement();
}
}
public static void ReadXml<T>(XmlReader reader, ICollection<KeyValuePair<string, T>> collection, TypeConverter typeConverter)
{
if (reader.IsEmptyElement)
{
reader.Read();
return;
}
reader.ReadStartElement(); // Advance to the first sub element of the list element.
while (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
{
var key = XmlConvert.DecodeName(reader.Name);
string value;
if (reader.IsEmptyElement)
{
value = string.Empty;
// Move past the end of item element
reader.Read();
}
else
{
// Read content and move past the end of item element
value = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
}
collection.Add(new KeyValuePair<string,T>(key, (T)typeConverter.ConvertFromInvariantString(value)));
}
// Move past the end of the list element
reader.ReadEndElement();
}
public static void CopyTo<TValue>(this XmlKeyTextValueListWrapper<TValue> collection, ICollection<KeyValuePair<string, TValue>> dictionary)
{
if (dictionary == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("dictionary");
if (collection == null)
dictionary.Clear();
else
{
if (collection.IsWrapperFor(dictionary)) // For efficiency
return;
var pairs = collection.ToList();
dictionary.Clear();
foreach (var item in pairs)
dictionary.Add(item);
}
}
}
public class CollectionWrapper<T> : ICollection<T>
{
readonly Func<ICollection<T>> getCollection;
public CollectionWrapper(ICollection<T> baseCollection)
{
if (baseCollection == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException();
this.getCollection = () => baseCollection;
}
public CollectionWrapper(Func<ICollection<T>> getCollection)
{
if (getCollection == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException();
this.getCollection = getCollection;
}
public bool IsWrapperFor(ICollection<T> other)
{
if (other == Collection)
return true;
var otherWrapper = other as CollectionWrapper<T>;
return otherWrapper != null && otherWrapper.IsWrapperFor(Collection);
}
ICollection<T> Collection { get { return getCollection(); } }
#region ICollection<T> Members
public void Add(T item)
{
Collection.Add(item);
}
public void Clear()
{
Collection.Clear();
}
public bool Contains(T item)
{
return Collection.Contains(item);
}
public void CopyTo(T[] array, int arrayIndex)
{
Collection.CopyTo(array, arrayIndex);
}
public int Count
{
get { return Collection.Count; }
}
public bool IsReadOnly
{
get { return Collection.IsReadOnly; }
}
public bool Remove(T item)
{
return Collection.Remove(item);
}
#endregion
#region IEnumerable<T> Members
public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
{
return Collection.GetEnumerator();
}
#endregion
#region IEnumerable Members
System.Collections.IEnumerator System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
{
return GetEnumerator();
}
#endregion
}
And then use it like so:
[XmlRoot("products")]
public class Products
{
public Products()
{
Specifications = new Dictionary<string, string>();
}
[XmlIgnore]
[JsonProperty("specifications")] // For testing purposes, I compare Json.NET serialization before and after XML serialization. You can remove this.
public Dictionary<string, string> Specifications { get; set; }
[XmlElement("specifications")]
[JsonIgnore] // For testing purposes, I compare Json.NET serialization before and after XML serialization. You can remove this.
public XmlKeyTextValueListWrapper<string> XmlSpecifications
{
get
{
return new XmlKeyTextValueListWrapper<string>(() => this.Specifications);
}
set
{
value.CopyTo(Specifications = (Specifications ?? new Dictionary<string, string>()));
}
}
}
The fact that your dictionary values are simple types (directly convertible from and to text) makes it possible to avoid nested creations of XmlSerializer
, which is more complex. See here for an example.
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 34421
Make the dictionary NonSerialized
[XmlRoot("specifications")]
public class Specifications
{
[NonSerialized]
Dictionary<string, string> dict { get; set; }
[XmlElement("color")]
string color {get;set;}
[XmlElement("length")]
string length { get; set; }
[XmlElement("width")]
string width { get; set; }
public Specifications()
{
dict = new Dictionary<string, string>();
}
}
Upvotes: 0