xml serialization

[paulanthony22]

Anyone any good tutorials on doing deep xml serialisation with vb.net I want to output relatively simple xml such as seen below, but cant seem to get my classes right..

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<Brochures>
	<brochure>
		<name>Brochure1</name>
		<version>1.0</version>
		<file>/documents/pdfs/Brochure1.pdf</file>
	</brochure>
	<brochure>
		<name>Brochure2</name>
		<version>1.0</version>
		<file>/documents/pdfs/Brochure2.pdf</file>
	</brochure>
</Brochures>

Class...

Imports System.Xml.Serialization

Public Class Brochures
    Public Items() As brochure
End Class

Public Class brochure
    Private _name As String
    Private _version As String
    Private _file As String

    Public Property Name() As String
        Get
            Return _name
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _name = value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public Property Version() As String
        Get
            Return _version
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _version = value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public Property File() As String
        Get
            Return _file
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _file = value
        End Set
    End Property


    Public Sub New(ByVal name As String, ByVal file As String, ByVal version As String)
        Me.Name = name
        Me.File = file
        Me.Version = version
    End Sub
End Class

 

[JohnH]

Here are some changes, the Serialization attribute need to be there for both classes, the XmlElement attribute can be applied to Items so the xml will nest 'Brochures/brochure' instead of 'brochures/Items/brochure', also classes to be serialized need a parameterless constructor so this is added to the brochure class.

    <Serializable()> Public Class Brochures
        <System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement("brochure")> _
        Public Items() As brochure
    End Class

    <Serializable()> Class brochure

        Public Sub New()
        End Sub

        ' otherwise same as your class

    End Class

You can also use sample data like you posted above and the Xsd.exe utility to first generate a xsd schema and from this a VB.Net class that represents it that data, ready strongly typed, ready for serialization. (though like your class this tool use array properties, I prefer collections)

 

[paulanthony22]

(though like your class this tool use array properties, I prefer collections)

can you give me an example using collections? I'm open to alternative design options, but I think I read somewhere that collections cannot be serialised?

 

[JohnH]

change "Public Items() As brochure" to "Public Items As New List(Of brochure)", it will be much easier to work with in code than array.