XmlSerializerHelper

XmlSerializerHelper serializes and deserializes any .Net object from/to XML. It internally uses XmlSerializer which is part of the System.Reflection namespace. On top of XmlSerializer it adds a feature to preserve original type information.

Download and Install XmlSerializerHelper

This library is available on NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/XmlSerializerHelper/ Use the following command to install XmlSerializerHelper using NuGet package manager console:

PM> Install-Package XmlSerializerHelper

You can use this library in any .Net project which is compatible to PCL (e.g. Xamarin Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows Store, Universal Apps, etc.)

API Usage

Serializing a .Net object to XML

The following unit test shows how a simple .Net object of tpe SimpleSerializerClass is serialized to XML

// Arrange
IXmlSerializerHelper xmlSerializerHelper = new XmlSerializerHelper();
var obj = new SimpleSerializerClass { BoolProperty = true, StringProperty = "test" };
Type targetType = obj.GetType();

// Act
string serializedString = xmlSerializerHelper.SerializeToXml(obj);

// Assert
serializedString.Should().NotBeNullOrEmpty();

Deserialize an XML string to a .Net object

The following unit test shows the above serializedString can be deserialized again:

// Arrange
// ...

// Act
var deserializedObject = (SimpleSerializerClass)xmlSerializerHelper.DeserializeFromXml(targetType, serializedString);

// Assert
deserializedObject.Should().NotBeNull();
deserializedObject.BoolProperty.Should().BeTrue();
deserializedObject.StringProperty.Should().Be("test");

Validate the XSD schema for an XML file

XsdValidator can be used to validate XML content against a given XSD schema.

// Arrange
string xmlContent = XmlTestData.GetValidXmlContent();
string xsdContent = XmlTestData.GetXsdMarkup();

IXsdValidator xsdValidator = new XsdValidator();

// Act
var validationResult = xsdValidator.Validate(xmlContent, xsdContent);

// Assert
validationResult.IsValid.Should().BeTrue();

Using object extension methods

There is a number of extension methods for type System.Object in ObjectExtensions. You can simply call SerializeToXml resp. DeserializeFromXml on any .Net object. Following unit tests gives an example:

// Arrange
float inputValue = 123.456f;
string expectedOuput = @"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>"+Environment.NewLine+"<float>123.456</float>";

// Act
var serializedString = inputValue.SerializeToXml();

// Assert
serializedString.Should().Be(expectedOuput);

Dependency management

If you do not use an IoC framework, you can call XmlSerializerHelper.Current to get a singleton instance of IXmlSerializerHelper.

string serializedString = XmlSerializerHelper.Current.SerializeToXml(value: new object(), preserveTypeInformation: false);

The same applies to XsdValidator.Current. However, it is advised to register the mentioned interfaces along with their respective implementations in an IoC framework, such as Unity, Autofac, Ninject, etc...

License

This project is Copyright © 2019 Thomas Galliker. Free for non-commercial use. For commercial use please contact the author.