C # XML Deserialization with nested nested tags
I know there are several questions on Stackoverflow already on this subject, but I still couldn't find an answer about repeating tags. If I have an XML structure like this:
<root>
<block>
<PositionX>100</PositionX>
<PositionY>100</PositionY>
<block>
<PositionX>10</PositionX>
<PositionY>15</PositionY>
<button>
</button>
</block>
<button>
</button>
</block>
</root>
The above structure can have buttons within blocks and blocks within blocks. This is the code I'm currently using that doesn't allow nested elements:
Deserialization:
public static GUI Deserialize(string filename)
{
GUI gui = null;
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(GUI));
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(filename);
gui = (GUI)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
reader.Close();
return gui;
}
Root class:
[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("View")]
public class GUI
{
[XmlArray("Blocks")]
[XmlArrayItem("Block", typeof(GUIBlock))]
public GUIBlock[] Blocks { get; set; }
}
Block:
[Serializable()]
public class GUIBlock
{
[XmlElement("Name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Position")]
[XmlAttribute("X")]
public int PositionX { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Position")]
[XmlAttribute("Y")]
public int PositionY { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Width")]
public int Width { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Height")]
public int Height { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Background")]
public string Background { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Opacity")]
public int Opacity { get; set; }
// I also want to allow nested Blocks and Buttons in here, but I **dont** explicitly want to say:
[XmlArray("Blocks")]
[XmlArrayItem("Block", typeof(GUIBlock))]
public GUIBlock[] Blocks { get; set; }
}
Is there a way to get an answer that will recursively loop through the element without defining every possible combination?
I do not want to specify a block of blocks and a list of buttons and a button a list of blocks and a list of blocks. And add additional parameters for each new tag.
I could also do this without deserializing and using XPath, but then I don't know the parent / child information unless I research myself. Any help on this?
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I assume you are asking how can I deserialize an array of objects without creating a ListNode that contains those elements?
For example, you have a requirement that your XML should look like this:
<Library>
<Location></Location>
<Book></Book>
<Book></Book>
<Book></Book>
</Library>
AND CANNOT look like this:
<Library>
<Location></Location>
<BookCollection>
<Book></Book>
<Book></Book>
<Book></Book>
<BookCollection>
</Library>
The way you would do it in a C # object looks like this:
[Serializable]
public class Library
{
[XmlElement]
public string Location {get;set;}
[XmlElement("Book")]
public Book[] Book {get; set;}
}
public class Book
{
/// ....
}
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You need to create a recursive function to go through each node, but what you can do is simply:
// This groups all sub-elements of a node by their name.
// If there is more than one node with the same name, .Count() will return > 1
Int32 numberOfSameNameNodes =
node.Elements()
.GroupBy(element => element.Name)
.Count(elementsGroupedByName => elementsGroupedByName.Count() > 1);
// if there are duplicately named sub-nodes then
if (numberOfSameNameNodes > 0)
{
...
}
And this will determine if the node has sub-nodes that are duplicated.
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