Can I make XmlSerializer ignore the namespace on deserialization?

Question

Can I make XmlSerializer ignore the namespace (xmlns attribute) on deserialization so that it doesn't matter if the attribute is added or not or even if the attribute is bogus? I know that the source will always be trusted so I don't care about the xmlns attribute.

Answer 1

Yes, you can tell the XmlSerializer to ignore namespaces during de-serialization.

Define an XmlTextReader that ignores namespaces. Like so:

// helper class to ignore namespaces when de-serializing public class NamespaceIgnorantXmlTextReader : XmlTextReader {     public NamespaceIgnorantXmlTextReader(System.IO.TextReader reader): base(reader) { }      public override string NamespaceURI     {         get { return ""; }     } }  // helper class to omit XML decl at start of document when serializing public class XTWFND  : XmlTextWriter {     public XTWFND (System.IO.TextWriter w) : base(w) { Formatting= System.Xml.Formatting.Indented;}     public override void WriteStartDocument () { } } 

Here's an example of how you would de-serialize using that TextReader:

public class MyType1  {     public string Label     {         set {  _Label= value; }          get { return _Label; }      }      private int _Epoch;     public int Epoch     {         set {  _Epoch= value; }          get { return _Epoch; }      }         }        String RawXml_WithNamespaces = @"       <MyType1 xmlns='urn:booboo-dee-doo'>         <Label>This document has namespaces on its elements</Label>         <Epoch xmlns='urn:aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa'>0</Epoch>       </MyType1>";       System.IO.StringReader sr;     sr= new System.IO.StringReader(RawXml_WithNamespaces);     var s1 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyType1));     var o1= (MyType1) s1.Deserialize(new NamespaceIgnorantXmlTextReader(sr));     System.Console.WriteLine("\n\nDe-serialized, then serialized again:\n");     XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();     ns.Add("urn", "booboo-dee-doo");     s1.Serialize(new XTWFND(System.Console.Out), o1, ns);     Console.WriteLine("\n\n"); 

The result is like so:

    <MyType1>       <Label>This document has namespaces on its elements</Label>       <Epoch>0</Epoch>     </MyType1>