Is there a way for me to serialize an object in .NET without the XML Namespaces automatically serializing also? It seems that by default .NET believes the XSI and XSD namespaces should be included, but I don't want them there.
This question is related to
.net
xml-serialization
xml-namespaces
If you want to remove the namespace you may also want to remove the version, to save you searching I've added that functionality so the below code will do both.
I've also wrapped it in a generic method as I'm creating very large xml files which are too large to serialize in memory so I've broken my output file down and serialize it in smaller "chunks":
public static string XmlSerialize<T>(T entity) where T : class
{
// removes version
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
XmlSerializer xsSubmit = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sw, settings))
{
// removes namespace
var xmlns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
xmlns.Add(string.Empty, string.Empty);
xsSubmit.Serialize(writer, entity, xmlns);
return sw.ToString(); // Your XML
}
}
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings
{
OmitXmlDeclaration = true
};
XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add("", "");
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(BankingDetails));
using (XmlWriter xw = XmlWriter.Create(sb, settings))
{
xs.Serialize(xw, model, ns);
xw.Flush();
return sb.ToString();
}
If you are unable to get rid of extra xmlns attributes for each element, when serializing to xml from generated classes (e.g.: when xsd.exe was used), so you have something like:
<manyElementWith xmlns="urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:one" />
then i would share with you what worked for me (a mix of previous answers and what i found here)
explicitly set all your different xmlns as follows:
Dim xmlns = New XmlSerializerNamespaces()
xmlns.Add("one", "urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:one")
xmlns.Add("two", "urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:two")
xmlns.Add("three", "urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:three")
then pass it to the serialize
serializer.Serialize(writer, object, xmlns);
you will have the three namespaces declared in the root element and no more needed to be generated in the other elements which will be prefixed accordingly
<root xmlns:one="urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:one" ... />
<one:Element />
<two:ElementFromAnotherNameSpace /> ...
I Suggest this helper class:
public static class Xml
{
#region Fields
private static readonly XmlWriterSettings WriterSettings = new XmlWriterSettings {OmitXmlDeclaration = true, Indent = true};
private static readonly XmlSerializerNamespaces Namespaces = new XmlSerializerNamespaces(new[] {new XmlQualifiedName("", "")});
#endregion
#region Methods
public static string Serialize(object obj)
{
if (obj == null)
{
return null;
}
return DoSerialize(obj);
}
private static string DoSerialize(object obj)
{
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(ms, WriterSettings))
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
serializer.Serialize(writer, obj, Namespaces);
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());
}
}
public static T Deserialize<T>(string data)
where T : class
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(data))
{
return null;
}
return DoDeserialize<T>(data);
}
private static T DoDeserialize<T>(string data) where T : class
{
using (var ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data)))
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof (T));
return (T) serializer.Deserialize(ms);
}
}
#endregion
}
:)
I Suggest this helper class:
public static class Xml
{
#region Fields
private static readonly XmlWriterSettings WriterSettings = new XmlWriterSettings {OmitXmlDeclaration = true, Indent = true};
private static readonly XmlSerializerNamespaces Namespaces = new XmlSerializerNamespaces(new[] {new XmlQualifiedName("", "")});
#endregion
#region Methods
public static string Serialize(object obj)
{
if (obj == null)
{
return null;
}
return DoSerialize(obj);
}
private static string DoSerialize(object obj)
{
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(ms, WriterSettings))
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
serializer.Serialize(writer, obj, Namespaces);
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());
}
}
public static T Deserialize<T>(string data)
where T : class
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(data))
{
return null;
}
return DoDeserialize<T>(data);
}
private static T DoDeserialize<T>(string data) where T : class
{
using (var ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data)))
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof (T));
return (T) serializer.Deserialize(ms);
}
}
#endregion
}
:)
If you want to remove the namespace you may also want to remove the version, to save you searching I've added that functionality so the below code will do both.
I've also wrapped it in a generic method as I'm creating very large xml files which are too large to serialize in memory so I've broken my output file down and serialize it in smaller "chunks":
public static string XmlSerialize<T>(T entity) where T : class
{
// removes version
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
XmlSerializer xsSubmit = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sw, settings))
{
// removes namespace
var xmlns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
xmlns.Add(string.Empty, string.Empty);
xsSubmit.Serialize(writer, entity, xmlns);
return sw.ToString(); // Your XML
}
}
If you want to get rid of the extra xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" and xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema", but still keep your own namespace xmlns="http://schemas.YourCompany.com/YourSchema/", you use the same code as above except for this simple change:
// Add lib namespace with empty prefix
ns.Add("", "http://schemas.YourCompany.com/YourSchema/");
If you are unable to get rid of extra xmlns attributes for each element, when serializing to xml from generated classes (e.g.: when xsd.exe was used), so you have something like:
<manyElementWith xmlns="urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:one" />
then i would share with you what worked for me (a mix of previous answers and what i found here)
explicitly set all your different xmlns as follows:
Dim xmlns = New XmlSerializerNamespaces()
xmlns.Add("one", "urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:one")
xmlns.Add("two", "urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:two")
xmlns.Add("three", "urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:three")
then pass it to the serialize
serializer.Serialize(writer, object, xmlns);
you will have the three namespaces declared in the root element and no more needed to be generated in the other elements which will be prefixed accordingly
<root xmlns:one="urn:names:specification:schema:xsd:one" ... />
<one:Element />
<two:ElementFromAnotherNameSpace /> ...
If you want to get rid of the extra xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" and xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema", but still keep your own namespace xmlns="http://schemas.YourCompany.com/YourSchema/", you use the same code as above except for this simple change:
// Add lib namespace with empty prefix
ns.Add("", "http://schemas.YourCompany.com/YourSchema/");
Source: Stackoverflow.com