XML element name with special characters while serialising

Question

While serialising the object to the XML I use the attribute convention like [XmlElement("MyData:Pool1")] for me it does the job but the XML looks like

<_x005C_MyData_x003A_Pool1 >

I presume it convert to the colon or any special chars to some other formats, I tried changing with backslash, @ and $ signs preceding to the string, but it didn't helped me.

Any suggestions apart from using string / regex replace ?

  private void Serlise(Interface request)
    {
        var xsSubmit = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Interface));
        var ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
        ns.Add("", "");
        var xml = "";

        using (var encoder = new CustomEncoder())
        {
            using (var  writer = XmlWriter.Create(encoder))
            {
                xsSubmit.Serialize(writer, request,ns);
                xml = encoder.ToString();
            }
        }
        File.WriteAllText(@"output.xml", xml);
    }

Below is the class to be serialised

[System.SerializableAttribute()]

[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")] [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true, Namespace = "http://www.foo1.com/bar/test/")] [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(ElementName = "Pool", Namespace = "http://www.foo1.com/bar/test/", IsNullable = false)] public partial class Root {

private Tester adminField;

private string versionField;

[XmlElement("Test:Pool1")]
public Tester Admin
{
    get
    {
        return this.adminField;
    }
    set
    {
        this.adminField = value;
    }
}

 
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute()]
public string Version
{
    get
    {
        return this.versionField;
    }
    set
    {
        this.versionField = value;
    }
}

}

NOTE : Slightly adjusted namespace & class name on XML due to NDA

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><q1:MydataPool Version="1" xmlns:q1="http://www.foo1.com/bar/test"><q1:Data Id ="000123" Function="Hi"><q1:Hello Test="Abcd"  /></q1:Data></q1:MydataPool>

_x005C_MyData_x003A_Pool1 is a valid XML name. Have a look here at the W3 specs. There you will see that an XML Name can (only) start with an NameStartChar like ":" | [A-Z] | "_" | [a-z] | ... followed by additional NameStartChars and NameChars like "-" | "." | [0-9] | #xB7 | [#x0300-#x036F] | [#x203F-#x2040]. — zx485
– zx485, Commented Aug 18, 2021 at 22:14
This is a common convention for generating a valid element name from a string that contains characters that aren't allowed in an element name. What exactly is your problem with it? It isn't pretty, but it's a sensible way around the restrictions. — Michael Kay
– Michael Kay, Commented Aug 18, 2021 at 22:39
@MichaelKay, my real problem is the API is validating the kind of XML chunk I pass to it. It actively reject the one with strange chars like x003A . since I have no control over the API I had to stick with their conventions. — jidh
– jidh, Commented Aug 19, 2021 at 12:30

Alexander Petrov · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-22 14:23:12Z

1

Specify the namespace in the property attribute:

[XmlElement("Pool1", Namespace = "url")]
public Tester Admin

Set a prefix for this namespace:

var ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add("MyData", "url");

In the result, you will get

<MyData:Pool1>

answered Aug 22, 2021 at 14:23

Alexander Petrov

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