Using XmlSerializer with an array in the root element

Question

I have an XML document similar to the following:

<scan_details>
    <object name="C:\Users\MyUser\Documents\Target1.doc">
        ...
    </object>
    <object name="C:\Users\MyUser\Documents\Target2.doc">
        ...
    </object>
    ...
</scan_details>

I am hoping to use the System.Xml.Serialization attributes to simplify XML deserialization. The issue I have is I cannot work out how to specify that the root node contains an array.

I have tried creating the following classes:

[XmlRoot("scan_details")]
public class ScanDetails
{
    [XmlArray("object")]
    public ScanDetail[] Items { get; set; }
}

public class ScanDetail
{
    [XmlAttribute("name")]
    public string Filename { get; set; }
}

However when I deserialize the XML into the ScanDetails object the Items array remains null .

How do I deserialize an array in a root node?

Answer 1

You should use [XmlElement] , and not [XmlArray] to decorate the Items property - it's already an array, and you only want to set the element name.

public class StackOverflow_12924221
{
    [XmlRoot("scan_details")]
    public class ScanDetails
    {
        [XmlElement("object")]
        public ScanDetail[] Items { get; set; }
    }

    public class ScanDetail
    {
        [XmlAttribute("name")]
        public string Filename { get; set; }
    }

    const string XML = @"<scan_details> 
                            <object name=""C:\Users\MyUser\Documents\Target1.doc""> 
                            </object> 
                            <object name=""C:\Users\MyUser\Documents\Target2.doc""> 
                            </object> 
                        </scan_details> ";

    public static void Test()
    {
        XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ScanDetails));
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(XML));
        var obj = xs.Deserialize(ms) as ScanDetails;
        foreach (var sd in obj.Items)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(sd.Filename);
        }
    }
}