从模拟对象列表创建xml时出错

Question

I wanted to generate a sample xml so I write a unit test in which I have created an object using moq. I tried to serialize it like this:

private AssetDescription GetAssetDescription(string description, string type, string name, string iconUrl)
{
        var asstDesp = new Mock<AssetDescription>(type);
        asstDesp.Setup(m => m.Description).Returns(description);
        asstDesp.Setup(m => m.Type).Returns(type);
        asstDesp.Setup(m => m.Name).Returns(name);
        asstDesp.Setup(m => m.IconUrl).Returns(iconUrl);

        return asstDesp.Object;
}

Note: here AssetDescription is a class like this:

[DataContract]
public class AssetDescription
{
    [DataMember]
    public virtual string Type { get;  set; }

    [DataMember]
    public virtual string Name { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public virtual string Description { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public virtual string IconUrl { get; set; }

    public AssetDescription(string type)
    {
        Type = type;
    }

    public AssetDescription()
    {
        // I have added a parameter less constructor to xml serialization.
    }
}

XML serialization method:

 public string SerializeObject(object obj)
 {
        var xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());

        using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
        {
            serializer.Serialize(ms, obj);
            ms.Position = 0;
            xmlDoc.Load(ms);
            return xmlDoc.InnerXml;
        }
}

Now I can serialize the AssetDescription successfully like this :

var ds = GetAssetDescription("Description1", "type1", "name1", "iconurl1");
var dsxml = SerializeObject(ds);

Problem : AssetDescription is a part of a list and that list is part of some other object I have created that object using moq. I have break down to this after some testing:- I am not able to serialize a list of AssetDescription it is throwing error.

Here is my list creating method:

private List<AssetDescription> GetListAssetDescriptions()
{
        var lst = new List<AssetDescription>
        {
            GetAssetDescription("Description1", "type1", "name1", "iconurl1"),
            GetAssetDescription("Description2", "type2", "name2", "iconurl2"),
            GetAssetDescription("Description3", "type3", "name3", "iconurl3"),
            GetAssetDescription("Description4", "type4", "name4", "iconurl4")
        };

        return lst;
}

I tried to serialize it like this:

var fgh = GetListAssetDescriptions();           
var fghd = SerializeObject(fgh);

but this error occurs:

There was an error generating the XML document

Questions:

1. can I generate xml from mock objects?

2. if yes, then does anybody know how to solve this error?

Answer 1

Not an answer, but I'm puzzled with this question. Let me ask you a few questions:

1. Why do you need mock there? AssetDescription is a POCO, not an interface. As far as your code goes, this class does not do anything. Why can't you just create a real object, not a mock ?
2. If you need mock there, what is the purpose of serialisation to xml? what do you do with it later?

Mocks are for testing only. One must think really hard before adding a Moq reference to non-testing project. Mocks have quite complex internal structure - they are designed to pretend to be something they are not. XML serialisation was not part of design for these guys, so no surprise you can't serialise mock into XML. And I'll go that far and say that there is no work-around for this. Because mocks must not be serialised.