C# XML without declaration and namespace

Question

Hello,
Is there an easy way to get the XML without declaration and namespace? If yes, how?

public static class XMLHelper  
     {  
         public static string ToXML<T>(this T obj)  
         {  
             using (var stringwriter = new System.IO.StringWriter())  
             {  
                 var serializer = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(T));  
                 serializer.Serialize(stringwriter, obj);  
                 return stringwriter.ToString();  
             }  
         }  
     }  

Answer 1

@Markus Freitag To override the behaviour of XmlSerializer you need XmlWriterSettings for override or remove XML declaration and XmlSerializerNamespaces for override namespace:

public static string ToXML<T>(this T obj)  
{  
 // Remove Declaration  
 var settings = new XmlWriterSettings  
        {  
             Indent = true,  
             OmitXmlDeclaration = true  
        };  
  
 // Remove Namespace  
    var ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces(new[] { XmlQualifiedName.Empty });  
  
    using (var stream = new StringWriter())  
    using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(stream, settings))  
    {  
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));  
        serializer.Serialize(writer, obj, ns);  
        return stream.ToString();  
    }  
}  

See full example here.

Answer 2

You can manually add an empty namespace to avoid adding those default namespaces:

    class Program  
    {  
        static void Main(string[] args)  
        {  
            XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();  
            settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;  
            using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create("d:\\my.xml", settings))  
            {  
                XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Foo));  
                XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();  
                ns.Add("", "");  
                Foo foo = new Foo();  
                foo.Bar = "abc";  
                ser.Serialize(writer, foo, ns);  
            }  
        }  
    }  
  
    public class Foo  
    {  
        public string Bar { get;  set; }  
    }  

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Answer 3

The most natural and easy way to implement it is via XSLT.
Please find below an example of it.

The XSLT is generic. It will remove (1) XML prolog declaration, and (2) any namespace(s) from any XML file.

Input XML

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<AMOUNT_MONEY xmlns="http://www.somewhere.com/ABC" version="5.252">
   <CURRENT_ADDRESS occupancy_status="RENT" occupancy_description="">
      <FORMER_ADDRESS street_address_1="1234 CIRCLE LN" county=""/>
   </CURRENT_ADDRESS>
</AMOUNT_MONEY>

XSLT

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>

 <xsl:template match="/|comment()|processing-instruction()">
 <xsl:copy>
 <xsl:apply-templates/>
 </xsl:copy>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="*">
 <xsl:element name="{local-name()}">
 <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
 </xsl:element>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="@*">
 <xsl:attribute name="{local-name()}">
 <xsl:value-of select="."/>
 </xsl:attribute>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Output XML

<AMOUNT_MONEY version="5.252">
 <CURRENT_ADDRESS occupancy_status="RENT" occupancy_description="">
 <FORMER_ADDRESS street_address_1="1234 CIRCLE LN" county="" />
 </CURRENT_ADDRESS>
</AMOUNT_MONEY>

c# to launch XSLT transformation

void Main()
{
   const string SOURCEXMLFILE = @"e:\Temp\UniversalShipment.xml";
   const string XSLTFILE = @"e:\Temp\RemoveNamespaces.xslt";
   const string OUTPUTXMLFILE = @"e:\temp\UniversalShipment_output.xml";

   try
   {
      XsltArgumentList xslArg = new XsltArgumentList();

      using (XmlReader src = XmlReader.Create(SOURCEXMLFILE))
      {
         XslCompiledTransform xslt = new XslCompiledTransform();
         xslt.Load(XSLTFILE, new XsltSettings(true, true), new XmlUrlResolver());

         XmlWriterSettings settings = xslt.OutputSettings.Clone();
         settings.IndentChars = "\t";
         // to remove BOM
         settings.Encoding = new UTF8Encoding(false);

         using (XmlWriter result = XmlWriter.Create(OUTPUTXMLFILE, settings))
         {
            xslt.Transform(src, xslArg, result, new XmlUrlResolver());
            result.Close();
         }
      }
      Console.WriteLine("File '{0}' has been generated.", OUTPUTXMLFILE);
   }
   catch (Exception ex)
   {
      Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
   }
}