IXmlSerializable Interface
.NET Framework Class Library
IXmlSerializable Interface

Provides custom formatting for XML serialization and deserialization.

Namespace:  System.Xml.Serialization
Assembly:  System.Xml (in System.Xml.dll)
Visual Basic (Declaration)
Public Interface IXmlSerializable
Visual Basic (Usage)
Dim instance As IXmlSerializable
C#
public interface IXmlSerializable
Visual C++
public interface class IXmlSerializable
JScript
public interface IXmlSerializable

There are two reasons to implement this interface. The first is to control how your object is serialized or deserialized by the XmlSerializer. For example, you can chunk data into bytes instead of buffering large data sets, and also avoid the inflation that occurs when the data is encoded using Base64 encoding. To control the serialization, implement the ReadXml and WriteXml methods to control the XmlReader and XmlWriter classes used to read and write the XML. For an example of this, see How To: Chunk Serialized Data.

The second reason is to be able to control the schema. To enable this, you must apply the XmlSchemaProviderAttribute to the serializable type, and specify the name of the static member that returns the schema. See the XmlSchemaProviderAttribute for an example.

A class that implements the interface must have a parameterless constructor. This is a requirement of the XmlSerializer class.

The following example code shows an implementation of the IXmlSerializable interface that serializes a private field.

C#
using System;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Schema;
using System.Xml.Serialization;


public class Person : IXmlSerializable
{

    // Private state

    private string personName;


    // Constructors

    public Person (string name)
    {
        personName = name;
    }

    public Person ()
    {
        personName = null;
    }


    // Xml Serialization Infrastructure

    public void WriteXml (XmlWriter writer)
    {
        writer.WriteString(personName);
    }

    public void ReadXml (XmlReader reader)
    {
        personName = reader.ReadString();
    }

    public XmlSchema GetSchema()
    {
        return(null);
    }


    // Print

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return(personName);
    }

}

Visual C++
#using <System.Xml.dll>

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Xml;
using namespace System::Xml::Schema;
using namespace System::Xml::Serialization;
public ref class Person: public IXmlSerializable
{
private:

   // Private state
   String^ personName;

public:

   // Constructors
   Person( String^ name )
   {
      personName = name;
   }

   Person()
   {
      personName = nullptr;
   }

   // Xml Serialization Infrastructure
   virtual void WriteXml( XmlWriter^ writer )
   {
      writer->WriteString( personName );
   }

   virtual void ReadXml( XmlReader^ reader )
   {
      personName = reader->ReadString();
   }

   virtual XmlSchema^ GetSchema()
   {
      return nullptr;
   }

   // Print
   virtual String^ ToString() override
   {
      return (personName);
   }
};

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 2.0, 1.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.0
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ReadXml Sample Wrong      Mortlath   |   Edit   |   Show History
This should be the method implementation:

public void ReadXml (XmlReader reader)
{
personName = reader.ReadString();
reader.ReadEndElement();
}
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