Automatically created C# classes for xml deserialization don't work

Question

I am struggling to create deserialization classes for this xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:stn="urn:response">
    <SOAP-ENV:Body>
        <Response>
            <Records xsi:type="SOAP-ENC:Array" SOAP-ENC:arrayType="stn:Record[1]">
                <item xsi:type="stn:Record">
                    <person xsi:type="xsd:string">John Johnos</person>
                    <address xsi:type="xsd:string">Some Street 1</address>
                    <age xsi:type="xsd:string">24</age>
                </item>
            </Records>
            <status xsi:type="SOAP-ENC:Array" SOAP-ENC:arrayType="stn:status[1]">
                <item xsi:type="stn:status">
                    <status xsi:type="xsd:string">success</status>
                    <message xsi:type="xsd:string"/>
                </item>
            </status>
        </Response>
    </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

I have tried to use automatically created code (in VisualStudio 12: Edit -> Paste Special -> Paste XML as Classes):

/// <remarks/>
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true, Namespace = "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(Namespace = "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/", IsNullable = false)]
public partial class Envelope
{

    private EnvelopeBody bodyField;

    private string encodingStyleField;

    /// <remarks/>
    public EnvelopeBody Body
    {
        get
        {
            return this.bodyField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.bodyField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute(Form = System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Qualified)]
    public string encodingStyle
    {
        get
        {
            return this.encodingStyleField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.encodingStyleField = value;
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true, Namespace = "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/")]
public partial class EnvelopeBody
{

    private Response responseField;

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Namespace = "")]
    public Response Response
    {
        get
        {
            return this.responseField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.responseField = value;
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true)]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
public partial class Response
{

    private ResponseRecords recordsField;

    private ResponseStatus statusField;

    /// <remarks/>
    public ResponseRecords Records
    {
        get
        {
            return this.recordsField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.recordsField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    public ResponseStatus status
    {
        get
        {
            return this.statusField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.statusField = value;
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true)]
public partial class ResponseRecords
{

    private ResponseRecordsItem itemField;

    private string arrayTypeField;

    /// <remarks/>
    public ResponseRecordsItem item
    {
        get
        {
            return this.itemField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.itemField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute(Form = System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Qualified, Namespace = "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/")]
    public string arrayType
    {
        get
        {
            return this.arrayTypeField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.arrayTypeField = value;
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true)]
public partial class ResponseRecordsItem
{

    private string personField;

    private string addressField;

    private byte ageField;

    /// <remarks/>
    public string person
    {
        get
        {
            return this.personField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.personField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    public string address
    {
        get
        {
            return this.addressField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.addressField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    public byte age
    {
        get
        {
            return this.ageField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.ageField = value;
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true)]
public partial class ResponseStatus
{

    private ResponseStatusItem itemField;

    private string arrayTypeField;

    /// <remarks/>
    public ResponseStatusItem item
    {
        get
        {
            return this.itemField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.itemField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute(Form = System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Qualified, Namespace = "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/")]
    public string arrayType
    {
        get
        {
            return this.arrayTypeField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.arrayTypeField = value;
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true)]
public partial class ResponseStatusItem
{

    private string statusField;

    private object messageField;

    /// <remarks/>
    public string status
    {
        get
        {
            return this.statusField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.statusField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    public object message
    {
        get
        {
            return this.messageField;
        }
        set
        {
            this.messageField = value;
        }
    }
}

I tried to deserialize with help of XMLSerializer:

var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Envelope));
var reader = new StringReader(response);
var flResponse = (Envelope)serializer.Deserialize(reader);

The error message I got:

Message=The specified type was not recognized: name='Array', namespace='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/', at <Records xmlns=''>.

Could you please help me to greate deserialization classes for this xml?

Answer 1

I tried a lot of thing and finaly figured it out. Xml you posted is invalid because xsi:type doesn't work in deserialization.

Valid XML should look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:stn="urn:response">
    <SOAP-ENV:Body>
        <Response>
            <Records>
                <item>
                    <person >John Johnos</person>
                    <address >Some Street 1</address>
                    <age >24</age>
                </item>
            </Records>
            <status>
                <item>
                    <status >success</status>
                    <message/>
                </item>
            </status>
        </Response>
    </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Code then should look like:

XDocument xml = XDocument.Parse(xmlInput);

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Response));

using (StringReader stream = new StringReader(items[0].ToString()))
{
    var output = (Response)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
}

Autogenerate class will be from:

<Response>
  <Records  xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <item>
      <person>John Johnos</person>
      <address >Some Street 1</address>
      <age>24</age>
    </item>
  </Records>
  <status xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <item >
      <status >success</status>
      <message />
    </item>
  </status>
</Response>

Hope this is clear enough. Not sure how to get rid of types from Envelope so, this is probably not the solution you want.

Method i use for getting things from Envelope is XDocument.Descendants(elemmentName) which return array or List of elements of that name and then you can fill objects. Its more work, but i think its better than transforming xml for deserialization.

Answer 2

Why not generate a serialization library for the entire schema?

1. Download the XSD schema file from the URL in the message and save it somewhere

   http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/

2. Open a Visual Studio Command Prompt and enter the following command

   xsd /classes SoapEncoding.xsd

3. The output will be a file titled SoapEncoding.cs.

4. Import this file into your project and try to deserialize the message again.

If all goes well, everything should work this time around.