Deserializing XML in Asp.NET Core MVC

Question

I'm trying to add a custom xml deserializer to the ASP.Net Core pipeline for one of my controllers. I've been able to do it for JSON like this:

    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        // Add framework services.
        services.AddMvc();
        services.Configure<MvcOptions>(options =>
        {
            options.RespectBrowserAcceptHeader = true;

            // Input formatters
            var xmlInputFormatting = new XmlDataContractSerializerInputFormatter();
            var jsonInputFormatting = new JsonInputFormatter();
            jsonInputFormatting.SerializerSettings.Converters.Add(new BatchContentConverter());

            options.InputFormatters.Clear();
            options.InputFormatters.Add(jsonInputFormatting);
            options.InputFormatters.Add(xmlInputFormatting);
        }
    }

(a lot unnecessary code has been removed for brevity).

The controller action where this should end up is:

    public IActionResult Post([FromBody]IBatchContent batchContent)
    {
    }

Is there any way to do something similar for XML using either the XMLSerializerInputFormatter or the XmlDataContractSerializerInputFormatter? I've tried creating a class descended from DataContractResolver and assigning it to the SerializerSettings.DataContractResolver property but it never seems to get called.

Kiran · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-09 20:14:29Z

1

The Xml formatters are not added by default. You would need to include the package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters.Xml which has XmlSerializerInputFormatter, XmlSerializerOutputFormatter, XmlDataContractSerializerInputFormatter and XmlDataContractSerializerOutputFormatter

answered Jun 9, 2016 at 20:14

Kiran

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2 Comments

Jeff Hornby Over a year ago

I am actually adding them, i just removed them from the code sample for brevity: i'm trying to figure out how to add custom de-serializers to them in the same way that i'm adding the BatchContentConverter for Json in the sample above

Kiran Over a year ago

You are trying to customize the existing(xmlserializer and datacontractserializer) serializers to have some custom behavior? If so you should probably check the capability of those serializers as MVC's formatters are just wrappers around them. Ofcourse if MVC is not exposing some settings which would enable your scenario, that would be interesting.

Stephen M. · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-13 17:10:18Z

You just need to do the following:

Create a class that inherits from the "XmlSerializerInputFormatter" class found in "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters" namespace and override the protected method "CreateSerializer". The method summary states "[this method is] Called during deserialization to get the System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer".

public class IBatchCollectionXmlSerializer : XmlSerializerInputFormatter
{

    protected override XmlSerializer CreateSerializer(Type type)
    {
        //init expected type
        Type expectedType = typeof(IBatchContent);
        //init xml serializer
        XmlSerializer serializer = null;

        //if not expected type
        if (expectedType != type)
        {
            //return default serializer
            serializer = base.CreateSerializer(type);
        }
        //if expected type
        else
        {
            //add concrete type to deserialize to
            Type[] extraTypes = new Type[] { typeof (BatchContentConcrete) };
            //create custom xml serializer here
            serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(IBatchContent), extraTypes);
        }

        //return serializer
        return serializer;
    }
}

Add this to your input formatters during mvc service configuration in your Startup.cs file

services.Configure<MvcOptions>(options =>
{
    options.RespectBrowserAcceptHeader = true;

    // Input formatters
    var xmlInputFormatting = new IBatchCollectionXmlSerializer();
    var jsonInputFormatting = new JsonInputFormatter();
    jsonInputFormatting.SerializerSettings.Converters.Add(new BatchContentConverter());

    options.InputFormatters.Clear();
    options.InputFormatters.Add(jsonInputFormatting);
    options.InputFormatters.Add(xmlInputFormatting);
}

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