How to Serialize One-to-Many
In .NET it is fairly easy to serialize some custom object (for example Order) to XML. Need just to use attributes provided by System.Xml.Serialization correctly:
- Serializable
- XmlElement
- XmlAttribute
However, it is less trivial to serialize a composite object, each instance of which may have an array of another custom object type as property (one-to-many relation). For example Order and OrderItem. Hint - use Type attribute and call the property - ArrayOf.... For example, Order can be defined like so:
[Serializable]
public class Order
{
public Order()
{
}
private int orderId;
private DateTime orderDate = DateTime.MinValue;
private OrderItem[] arrayOfOrderItem;
[XmlElement(ElementName = "OrderId")]
public int OrderId
{
get { return orderId; }
set { orderId = value; }
}
[XmlElement(ElementName = "OrderDate")]
public DateTime OrderDate
{
get { return orderDate; }
set { orderDate = value; }
}
[XmlElement(ElementName = "ArrayOfOrderItem", Type = typeof(OrderItem[]))]
public OrderItem[] ArrayOfOrderItem
{
get { return arrayOfOrderItem; }
set { arrayOfOrderItem = value; }
}
}
OrderItem needs to be defined as Serializable also. Enjoy.
Monday, March 19, 2007 12:58 AM
