Convert XML String to Object

Question

I am receiving XML strings over a socket  and would like to convert these to C  objects   The messages are of the form    lt msg gt      lt id gt 1 lt  id gt      lt action gt stop lt  action gt   lt  msg gt    I am new to  Net  and am not sure the best practice for performing this  I ve used JAXB for Java before  and wasn t sure if there is something similar  or if this would be handled a different way

User · Answer

I have gone through all the answers as at this date (2020-07-24), and there has to be a simpler more familiar way to solve this problem, which is the following.

Two scenarios... One is if the XML string is well-formed, i.e. it begins with something like <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?> or its likes, before encountering the root element, which is <msg> in the question. The other is if it is NOT well-formed, i.e. just the root element (e.g. <msg> in the question) and its child nodes only.

Firstly, just a simple class that contains the properties that match, in case-insensitive names, the child nodes of the root node in the XML. So, from the question, it would be something like...

public class TheModel
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Action { get; set; }
}

The following is the rest of the code...

// These are the key using statements to add.
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System.Xml;

bool isWellFormed = false;
string xml =  = @"
<msg>
   <id>1</id>
   <action>stop</action>
</msg>
";

var xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
xmlDocument.LoadXml(xml);
if (isWellFormed)
{
    xmlDocument.RemoveChild(xmlDocument.FirstChild); 
    /* i.e. removing the first node, which is the declaration part. 
    Also, if there are other unwanted parts in the XML, 
    write another similar code to locate the nodes 
    and remove them to only leave the desired root node 
    (and its child nodes).*/
}

var serializedXmlNode = JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(
            xmlDocument, 
            Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.Indented, 
            true
            );
var theDesiredObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TheModel>(serializedXmlNode);

User · Answer

Another way with an Advanced xsd to c  classes generation Tools   xsd2code com  This tool is very handy and powerfull  It has a lot more customisation than the xsd exe tool from Visual Studio  Xsd2Code   can be customised to use Lists or Arrays and supports large schemas with a lot of Import statements   Note of some features    Generates business objects from XSD Schema or XML file to flexible C  or Visual Basic code  Support Framework 2 0 to 4 x Support strong typed collection  List  ObservableCollection  MyCustomCollection   Support automatic properties  Generate XML read and write methods  serialization deserialization   Databinding support  WPF  Xamarin   WCF  DataMember attribute   XML Encoding support  UTF-8 32  ASCII  Unicode  Custom   Camel case   Pascal Case support  restriction support   StringLengthAttribute true false    RegularExpressionAttribute true false    RangeAttribute true false    Support large and complex XSD file  Support of DotNet Core  amp  standard

User · Answer

public string Serialize lt T gt  T settings        XmlSerializer serializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T        StringWriter outStream   new StringWriter        serializer Serialize outStream  settings       return outStream ToString

User · Answer

Create a DTO as CustomObject   Use below method to convert XML String to DTO using JAXB  private static CustomObject getCustomObject final String ruleStr        CustomObject customObject   null      try           JAXBContext jaxbContext   JAXBContext newInstance CustomObject class           final StringReader reader   new StringReader ruleStr           Unmarshaller jaxbUnmarshaller   jaxbContext createUnmarshaller            customObject    CustomObject  jaxbUnmarshaller unmarshal reader         catch  JAXBException e            LOGGER info  getCustomObject parse error     e             return customObject

User · Answer

You can generate class as described above  or write them manually    XmlRoot  msg    public class Message        XmlElement  id        public string Id   get  set         XmlElement  action        public string Action   get  set        Then you can use ExtendedXmlSerializer to serialize and deserialize   Instalation You can install ExtendedXmlSerializer from nuget or run the following command   Install-Package ExtendedXmlSerializer   Serialization   var serializer   new ConfigurationContainer   Create    var obj   new Message    var xml   serializer Serialize obj     Deserialization  var obj2   serializer Deserialize lt Message gt  xml     This serializer support    Deserialization xml from standard XMLSerializer Serialization class  struct  generic class  primitive type  generic list and dictionary  array  enum Serialization class with property interface Serialization circular reference and reference Id Deserialization of old version of xml Property encryption Custom serializer Support XmlElementAttribute and XmlRootAttribute POCO - all configurations  migrations  custom serializer     are outside the class   ExtendedXmlSerializer support  NET 4 5 or higher and  NET Core  You can integrate it with WebApi and AspCore

User · Answer

Simply Run Your Visual Studio 2013 as Administration     Copy the content of your Xml file   Go to Visual Studio 2013   Edit   Paste Special   Paste Xml as C  Classes  It will create your c  classes according to your Xml file content

User · Answer

You need to use the xsd exe tool which gets installed with the Windows SDK into a directory something similar to    C  Program Files Microsoft SDKs Windows v6 0A bin   And on 64-bit computers   C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v6 0A bin   And on Windows 10 computers   C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft SDKs Windows v7 0A bin   On the first run  you use xsd exe and you convert your sample XML into a XSD file  XML schema file    xsd yourfile xml   This gives you yourfile xsd  which in a second step  you can convert again using xsd exe into a C  class   xsd yourfile xsd  c   This should give you a file yourfile cs which will contain a C  class that you can use to deserialize the XML file you re getting - something like   XmlSerializer serializer   new XmlSerializer typeof msg    msg resultingMessage    msg serializer Deserialize new XmlTextReader  yourfile xml       Should work pretty well for most cases   Update  the XML serializer will take any stream as its input - either a file or a memory stream will be fine   XmlSerializer serializer   new XmlSerializer typeof msg    MemoryStream memStream   new MemoryStream Encoding UTF8 GetBytes inputString    msg resultingMessage    msg serializer Deserialize memStream     or use a StringReader   XmlSerializer serializer   new XmlSerializer typeof msg    StringReader rdr   new StringReader inputString   msg resultingMessage    msg serializer Deserialize rdr

User · Answer

Just in case anyone might find this useful   public static class XmlConvert       public static string SerializeObject lt T gt  T dataObject                if  dataObject    null                        return string Empty                    try                       using  StringWriter stringWriter   new System IO StringWriter                                  var serializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T                    serializer Serialize stringWriter  dataObject                   return stringWriter ToString                                    catch  Exception ex                        return string Empty                       public static T DeserializeObject lt T gt  string xml           where T   new                 if  string IsNullOrEmpty xml                         return new T                      try                       using  var stringReader   new StringReader xml                                 var serializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T                    return  T serializer Deserialize stringReader                                   catch  Exception ex                        return new T                        You can call it using   MyCustomObject myObject   new MyCustomObject    string xmlString   XmlConvert SerializeObject myObject  myObject   XmlConvert DeserializeObject lt MyCustomObject gt  xmlString

User · Answer

Simplifying Damian s great answer   public static T ParseXml lt T gt  this string value  where T   class       var xmlSerializer   new XmlSerializer typeof T        using  var textReader   new StringReader value                 return  T  xmlSerializer Deserialize textReader

User · Answer

You have two possibilities    Method 1  XSD tool   Suppose that you have your XML file in this location C  path to xml file xml   Open Developer Command Prompt You can find it in Start Menu  gt  Programs  gt  Microsoft Visual Studio 2012  gt  Visual Studio Tools  Or if you have Windows 8 can just start typing Developer Command Prompt in Start screen Change location to your XML file directory by typing cd  D  C  path to xml  Create XSD file from your xml file by typing xsd file xml  Create C  classes by typing xsd  c file xsd   And that s it  You have generated C  classes from xml file in C  path to xml file cs  Method 2 - Paste special   Required Visual Studio 2012  with  Net Framework    4 5 as project target and  Windows Communication Foundation  individual component installed   Copy content of your XML file to clipboard Add to your solution new  empty class file  Shift Alt C  Open that file and in menu click Edit  gt  Paste special  gt  Paste XML As Classes    And that s it    Usage    Usage is very simple with this helper class   using System  using System IO  using System Web Script Serialization     Add reference  System Web Extensions using System Xml  using System Xml Serialization   namespace Helpers       internal static class ParseHelpers               private static JavaScriptSerializer json          private static JavaScriptSerializer JSON   get   return json     json   new JavaScriptSerializer                  public static Stream ToStream this string  this                        var stream   new MemoryStream                var writer   new StreamWriter stream               writer Write  this               writer Flush                stream Position   0              return stream                      public static T ParseXML lt T gt  this string  this  where T   class                       var reader   XmlReader Create  this Trim   ToStream    new XmlReaderSettings     ConformanceLevel   ConformanceLevel Document                 return new XmlSerializer typeof T   Deserialize reader  as T                     public static T ParseJSON lt T gt  this string  this  where T   class                       return JSON Deserialize lt T gt   this Trim                         All you have to do now  is       public class JSONRoot               public catalog catalog   get  set                          string xml   File ReadAllText   D  file xml        var catalog1   xml ParseXML lt catalog gt          string json   File ReadAllText   D  file json        var catalog2   json ParseJSON lt JSONRoot gt

User · Answer

In addition to the other answers here you can naturally use the XmlDocument class  for XML DOM-like reading  or the XmlReader  fast forward-only reader  to do it  by hand

User · Answer

I know this question is old  but I stumbled into it and I have a different answer than  well  everyone else  -   The usual way  as the commenters above mention  is to generate a class and de-serialize your xml   But  warning  shameless self-promotion here  I just published a nuget package  here  with which you don t have to  You just go   string xml   System IO File ReadAllText   C  test books xml    var book   Dandraka XmlUtilities XmlSlurper ParseText xml     That is literally it  nothing else needed  And  most importantly  if your xml changes  your object changes automagically as well   If you prefer to download the dll directly  the github page is here

User · Answer

You can use xsd exe to create schema bound classes in  Net then XmlSerializer to Deserialize the string   http   msdn microsoft com en-us library system xml serialization xmlserializer deserialize aspx

User · Answer

Try this method to Convert Xml to an object   It is made for exactly what you are doing   protected T FromXml lt T gt  String xml        T returnedXmlClass   default T        try               using  TextReader reader   new StringReader xml                         try                               returnedXmlClass                         T new XmlSerializer typeof T   Deserialize reader                             catch  InvalidOperationException                                   String passed is not XML  simply return defaultXmlClass                                   catch  Exception ex                   return returnedXmlClass               Call it using this code   YourStrongTypedEntity entity   FromXml lt YourStrongTypedEntity gt  YourMsgString

User · Answer

If you have the xsd of the xml message then you can generate c  classes using the  Net xsd exe tool   This  Net classes can then be used to generate the xml

[c#] Convert XML String to Object

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