How can I convert a List<ExpandoObject> to an XML string

Question

I want to use a List of ExpandoObjects as a datasource for a Telerik Report but it seems that Telerik Reports don't currently support this. They do support having XML as a data source, so I am trying to convert my List of ExpandoObjects to an XML string.

I have seen (at Can I serialize an ExpandoObject in .NET 4?) that an individual ExpandoObject can be serialized to an XML string via jsonFx via this (VB.net code, not c#):

dim XMLwriter As New JsonFx.Xml.XmlWriter
dim serializedExpando as string = XMLwriter.Write(obj)

or its equivalent c# code:

JsonFx.Xml.XmlWriter XMLwriter = new JsonFx.Xml.XmlWriter();
String serializedExpando  = XMLwriter.Write(obj);

How can I serialize the whole list to an XML string?

Answer 1

You can serialize it by transforming the ExpandoObject to an IDictionary<string, object> first, and then using DataContractSerializer for serialization:

void Main()
{
    dynamic firstExpando = new ExpandoObject();
    firstExpando.Name = "Name";
    firstExpando.Age = 1;

    dynamic secondExpando = new ExpandoObject();
    secondExpando.Name = "SecondName";
    secondExpando.Age = 2;

    var expandoList = new List<ExpandoObject> {firstExpando, secondExpando};

    var list = expandoList.Select(expando => (IDictionary<string, object>)expando)
                          .ToList();

    var dataContractSerializer = new DataContractSerializer(list.GetType());
    using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
    {
        dataContractSerializer.WriteObject(memoryStream, list);
        string outputXml = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(memoryStream.ToArray())
    }
}