Error Deserializing Xml to Object - xmlns='' was not expected

Question

I am having real trouble trying to deserialize some XML and was hoping someone can offer some assistance. I have read a lot of similar posts but I am unable to resolve this.

XML I am attempting to deserialize

<register-account success="false">
  <user-name>xxxxx</user-name>
  <password>fghgh</password>
  <email>test@example.com</email>
  <error>
    <errorcode>120</errorcode>
    <errormessage>The password is invalid</errormessage>
  </error>
</register-account>

Class I am trying to deserialize to:

[Serializable, XmlRoot(ElementName = "register-account", Namespace = "MyNamespace")]
[XmlType("register-account")]
public class RegisterAccountResponse
{
    [XmlAttribute("success")]
    public bool Success { get; set; } 

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the Tennant email address
    /// </summary>
    [XmlElement("email")]
    public string Email { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the tennant password
    /// </summary>
    [XmlElement("password")]
    public string Password { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the Tennant username
    /// </summary>
    [XmlElement("user-name")]
    public string Username { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// A Tenant Portal error relating to the RegisterAccountRequest
    /// </summary>
    [XmlElement("error")]
    public QubeError Error;
}

Deserialization Method

    public static T Deserialize<T>(string data) where T : class
    {
        if (data == null)
        {
            return null;
        }

        if (data.Trim().Length == 0)
        {
            return null;
        }

        var ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

        using (var sr = new StringReader(data))
        {
            return (T)ser.Deserialize(sr);
        }
    }

Deserialization Method Call

var data = Helper.Deserialize<RegisterAccountResponse>(xml);

Exception:

There is an error in XML document (1, 2). ---> System.InvalidOperationException: was not expected. at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReaderData.Read5_data()

Inner Exception as follows:

<register-account xmlns=''> was not expected.

Answer 1

Simply take off the Namespace = :

[XmlRoot("register-account"), XmlType("register-account")]
public class RegisterAccountResponse {...}

since your xml doesn't seem to be in an xml-namespace. Also, [Serializable] isn't used by XmlSerializer .

If your xml was using a namespace it would have an xmlns at the root.

Also, to help with callers you could add where T : class, new() (the , new() being the addition) to your Deserialize method, since XmlSerializer demands a public parameterless constructor.

Answer 2

Nothing worked here for me

What worked is to MAKE SURE that the C# Class (main class) you are trying to map/deserialize the xml string to HAS AN XmlRootAttribute that matches the root element of the response.

Check my full answer with an exmaple https://stackoverflow.com/a/61525536/1594274

Answer 3

I found doing the following fixed this for me

if (elem.Attribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "xsi") == null) {
    elem.Add(new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "xsi", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"));
}

if (elem.Attribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "xsd") == null) {
    elem.Add(new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "xsd", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"));
}