What serializer to use (to xml) for circular reference and custom field?

Question

I have the following xml:

<A name="">
    <B name="">
        <C name="">
            <B name=""/>
            <B name=""/>
        </C>
    </B>
    <B name="">
        <C name="">
            <B name=""/>
            <B name=""/>
            <B name=""/>
            <B name=""/>
        </C>
    </B>
</A>

Please notice that element C creates circular reference, so I can't use XmlSerializer.

How I can deserialize and serialize it? It seems that I can't use DataContractSerializer because:

1. DataContract doesn't support attributes ("Name" in my example)

2. DataContract doesn't support ignoring outer element name, for example

   List<B> BList;
   

Will be serialized to:

<C name="">
    <BList>
        <B name=""/>
        <B name=""/>
    </Blist>
</C>

But I want too keep structure like in first example.

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

you can achieve this with the help of XML Serializer and Deserializer

Class Structure:

[XmlRoot(ElementName = "A")]
    public class A
    {
        [XmlAttribute("Name")]
        public string Name { get; set; }
        private List<B> b = new List<B>();

        [XmlElement("B")]
        public List<B> B
        {
            get { return b; }
            set { b = value; }
        }
    }

    public class B
    {
        [XmlAttribute("Name")]
        public string Name { get; set; }
        private List<C> c = new List<C>();

        [XmlElement("C")]
        public List<C> C
        {
            get { return c; }
            set { c = value; }
        }
    }

    public class C
    {
        [XmlAttribute("Name")]
        public string Name { get; set; }
        private List<B> b = new List<B>();

        [XmlElement("B")]
        public List<B> B
        {
            get { return b; }
            set { b = value; }
        }
    }

To fill Objects ( update this as per your requirement ) :

private A a = new A();
        private void Load()
        {
            a.B.Clear();
            a.Name = string.Empty;
            for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
            {
                var tempB = new B();
                tempB.Name = string.Empty;
                for (int j = 0; j < 5; j++)
                {
                    var tempC = new C();
                    tempC.Name = string.Empty;
                    for (int k = 0; k < 3; k++)
                    {
                        var innerChildB = new B();
                        innerChildB.Name = string.Empty;
                        tempC.B.Add(innerChildB);
                    }
                    tempB.C.Add(tempC);
                }
                a.B.Add(tempB);
            }
        }

Serialization:

private void Serialize()
        {
            try
            {
                // to Save columnorders to the file
                var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(A));
                var ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
                ns.Add("", "");

                using (TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(@"D:\Test_Jun13.xml"))
                {
                    serializer.Serialize(writer, a, ns);
                }
            }
            catch { }
        }

Deserialization:

private void DeSerialize()
    {
        try
        {
            if (File.Exists(@"D:\Test_Jun13.xml"))
            {
                var deserializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(A));
                using (TextReader reader = new StreamReader(@"D:\Test_Jun13.xml"))
                {
                    var obj = deserializer.Deserialize(reader);
                    a = (A)obj;
                }
            }
        }
        catch
        {

        }


    }

XML File will look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<A Name="">
  <B Name="">
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
  </B>
  <B Name="">
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
  </B>
  <B Name="">
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
    <C Name="">
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
      <B Name="" />
    </C>
  </B>
</A>

will this fix your issue?