XmlAttributes.XmlAnyElements Property

Definition

Namespace:

System.Xml.Serialization

Assemblies:

netstandard.dll, System.Xml.XmlSerializer.dll

Source:

XmlAttributes.cs

Gets the collection of XmlAnyElementAttribute objects to override.

C#

public System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAnyElementAttributes XmlAnyElements { get; }

Property Value

XmlAnyElementAttributes

An XmlAnyElementAttributes object that represents the collection of XmlAnyElementAttribute objects.

Examples

The following example creates a new XmlAnyElementAttribute object and adds it to the collection of objects accessed through the XmlAnyElements property. The XmlAttributes object is then added to a XmlAttributeOverrides object which is used to create an XmlSerializer object. The XmlSerializer is used to serialize or deserialize an object. To see the effect of using the XmlAnyElementAttributes property, create an XML document named "UnknownElements.xml" by running the SerializeObject method in the Main method. Edit the resulting document to include other (unknown) elements. Comment out the SerializeObject call in the Main method, and uncomment the call to the DeserializeObject method, which prints out the name and value of any unknown XML element.

C#

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Xml;

public class Group{
   public string GroupName;
   [XmlAnyElement]
   public object[]Things;
}

public class Test{
   static void Main(){
      Test t = new Test();
      // 1 Run this and create the XML document.
      // 2 Add new elements to the XML document.
      // 3 Comment out the new line, and uncomment
      // the DeserializeObject line to deserialize the
      // XML document and see unknown elements.
      t.SerializeObject("UnknownElements.xml");
     
      // t.DeserializeObject("UnknownElements.xml");
   }

   private void SerializeObject(string filename){
      XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof (Group));
      TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(filename);
      Group g = new Group();
      g.GroupName = "MyGroup";
      ser.Serialize(writer, g);
      writer.Close();
   }

   private void DeserializeObject(string filename){

      XmlSerializer ser = CreateOverrideSerializer();
      // A FileStream is needed to read the XML document.
      FileStream fs = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open);
     Group g = (Group)
        ser.Deserialize(fs);
     fs.Close();
     Console.WriteLine(g.GroupName);
     Console.WriteLine(g.Things.Length);
     foreach(XmlElement xelement in g.Things){
     Console.WriteLine(xelement.Name + ": " + xelement.InnerXml);
     }
   }

   private XmlSerializer CreateOverrideSerializer(){
      XmlAnyElementAttribute myAnyElement = 
      new XmlAnyElementAttribute();
      XmlAttributeOverrides xOverride = 
      new XmlAttributeOverrides();
      XmlAttributes xAtts = new XmlAttributes();
      xAtts.XmlAnyElements.Add(myAnyElement);
      xOverride.Add(typeof(Group), "Things", xAtts);
      return new XmlSerializer(typeof(Group) , xOverride);
   }
}

Remarks

The XmlAnyElementAttribute can be applied to a member that returns an array of XmlElement objects on deserialization. This allows the XmlSerializer to deserialize any elements that do not have a corresponding member in the object being deserialized--thus those elements are "unknown" to the XmlSerializer. This is useful when the XML stream has been altered by an XML Web service, or when it is known that random data is always included with the XML stream.

The XmlAnyElements property allows you to override the serialization of a member to function as a member to which the XmlAnyElementAttribute has been applied.

Applies to

See also

• XmlAnyAttribute