WCF, XML deserialization

Question

I have a simple WCF service

[ServiceContract]
public interface IService1
{
    [OperationContract]
    string GetData(ShoppingCart value);
}

public class ShoppingCart
{
    public string name;
    [XmlElement("ShoppingCartItem")]
    public ShoppingCartItem[] ShoppingCartItems;
}

public class ShoppingCartItem
{
    public string Description;
}

And a simple test console. When I add my service reference to test console, My ShoppingCart class comes to TestConsole reference.cs file. So I can write like this on TestConsole project:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    ShoppingCart body = new ShoppingCart();
    FileStream myFileStream = new FileStream(@"C:\Resources\Xmls\New Folder\shoppingCart.xml", FileMode.Open);
    XmlSerializer mySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ShoppingCart));
    ShoppingCart cart = (ShoppingCart)mySerializer.Deserialize(myFileStream);    
}

My shoppingCart.xml file is like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
 <ShoppingCart> 
   <name>test</name>
   <ShoppingCartItem>
     <Description>XBox 360</Description>
   </ShoppingCartItem>
   <ShoppingCartItem>
     <Description>Cell Phone</Description>
   </ShoppingCartItem>
</ShoppingCart> 

So, I am waiting that when code comes to

ShoppingCart cart = (ShoppingCart)mySerializer.Deserialize(myFileStream);

line, there should be two items. But it seems like this:

Could you please explain why my list is not populated?

Answer 1

You need to add XmlElement attribute like this:

public class ShoppingCart
{
    [XmlElement("ShoppingCartItem")]
    public ShoppingCartItem[] ShoppingCartItems;
}

If it's possible to change the Xml-file to this structure and remove the XmlElement attribute that's an alternative

<ShoppingCart>
  <name>test</name>
  <ShoppingCartItems>
   <ShoppingCartItem>
     <Description>XBox 360</Description>
   </ShoppingCartItem>
   <ShoppingCartItem>
     <Description>Cell Phone</Description>
   </ShoppingCartItem>
  </ShoppingCartItems>
</ShoppingCart>