XML Serialization and namespace prefixes

Question

I'm looking for a way with C# which I can serialize a class into XML and add a namespace, but define the prefix which that namespace will use.

Ultimately I'm trying to generate the following XML:

<myNamespace:Node xmlns:myNamespace="...">
  <childNode>something in here</childNode>
</myNamespace:Node>

I know with both the DataContractSerializer and the XmlSerializer I can add a namespace, but they seem to generate a prefix internally, with something that I'm not able to control. Am I able to control it with either of these serializers (I can use either of them)?

If I'm not able to control the generation of the namespaces will I need to write my own XML serializer, and if so, what's the best one to write it for?

Answer 1

To control the namespace alias, use XmlSerializerNamespaces .

[XmlRoot("Node", Namespace="http://flibble")]
public class MyType {
    [XmlElement("childNode")]
    public string Value { get; set; }
}

static class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
        ns.Add("myNamespace", "http://flibble");
        XmlSerializer xser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyType));
        xser.Serialize(Console.Out, new MyType(), ns);
    }
}

If you need to change the namespace at runtime, you can additionally use XmlAttributeOverrides .

Answer 2

When using generated code from a schema where the types have namespaces this namespace override applies at the root level but the tags within of varying types will have the namespace associated with the class.

I had an occasion to need to use two different generated classes but have different name spaces based on which server I was talking to (don't ask not under my control).

I tried all the overrides offered here and finally gave up and used a kind of brute force method that actually worked pretty well. What I did was serialize to a string. Then use string.replace to change the namespaces then posted the stream from the string by using a stringwriter. Same on the response - capture to a string - manipulate the namespace then deserialize the string from a string writer.

It may not be elegant or use all the fancy overrides but it got the job done.

Answer 3

I arrived here from another thread that appears "duplicated" but is not in my opinion.

I answered there but is not really legible so let me answer again here.

if your target is to do so something like:

<sample xmlns:sample="urn:sample:ns"> 
    <something>value<something>
    <sample:somethingelse>value2</sample:somethingelse>
    <new_root xmlns:newns="url:new:ns">
        <newns:item1>sample1</newns:item1> 
    </new_root>
</sample>

I did found a solution for you :).

What you need to do is in the "new_root" class add namespace declaration like this.

[XmlNamespaceDeclarations] 
public XmlSerializerNamespaces newns;

and in your item1 classe add the following decoration in order to use your namespace

[XmlElement("item1", Namespace = "url:new:ns")]