Re: Serializing a List<Interface> Property

From:
"sloan" <sloan@ipass.net>
Newsgroups:
microsoft.public.dotnet.framework
Date:
Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:22:53 -0400
Message-ID:
<e5cbJBnKKHA.4316@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl>
Here is a work around.

http://jachman.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/how-to-serialize-interface-types-and-lists-using-the-xmlserializer/

Basically, the "concrete" type is stored in the custom xml.

"Roman" <roman.mellenberger@info-research.ch> wrote in message
news:7ec2041f-9bba-4f2f-82db-94998ee60c1e@z28g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...

Hi there,

I was trying to serialize an object with a List<Interface> as
property. If I do this i get an exception. when I add an extra proerty
with type object[] to my class and mark the original property with
[XmlIgnore] it works.
Is there a bettert way to do this without adding this property?

Thanks in advance
Roman

Code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Xml;

namespace SerializeTest
{
 public class Program
 {
   static void Main(string[] args)
   {
     // Create objects
     MainClass cm = new MainClass();

     cm.TestList.Add(new Test1());

     // Try to serialize MainClass
     XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter(Console.Out);

     XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MainClass), new Type
[]{typeof(Test1)});
     ser.Serialize(writer, cm);

     Console.ReadLine();

   }
 }

 [Serializable]
 public class MainClass
 {
   private List<ITest> _test = new List<ITest>();

   public object[] TestListO
   {
     get
     {
       return (object[])_test.ToArray();
     }
     set
     {
       foreach (object o in value)
       {
         if (o is ITest
           && !_test.Contains((ITest)o))
         {
           _test.Add((ITest)o);
         }
       }
     }
   }

   [XmlIgnore]
   public List<ITest> TestList
   {
     get { return _test; }
     set { _test = value; }
   }
 }

 [Serializable]
 public class Test1 : ITest
 {

   #region ITest Members

   public void Test()
   {
     Console.WriteLine(this.GetType().Name);
   }

   #endregion
 }

 public interface ITest
 {
   void Test();
 }
}

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