How to serialize/deserialize a C# WCF DataContract to/from XML

Question

I am developing a WCF service which will be consumed by multiple different client applications. In order to make one functionality work, the server needs to read an XML file into a C# DataContract which is then passed on to the concerned client. As far as I understand from the MSDN website, this is possible but I couldn't find any complete examples. In particular, the website talks about a 'stream' parameter which I don't quite get yet.

My data contract has one property field which is a list of another data contract which has multiple simple property fields.

e.g.

    [DataContract]
    public class MyClass1 {
        [DataMember]
        public string name;
        [DataMember]
        public int age;
    }

    [DataContract]
    public class MyClass2 {
        [DataMember]
        public List<MyClass1> myClass1List;
    }

My classes look something like this.

Answer 1

Here is an example

MyClass1 obj = new MyClass1();
DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(MyClass1));

using (Stream stream = new FileStream(@"C:\tmp\file.xml", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
{
    using (XmlDictionaryWriter writer = 
        XmlDictionaryWriter.CreateTextWriter(stream, Encoding.UTF8))
    {
        writer.WriteStartDocument();
        dcs.WriteObject(writer, obj);
    }
}

---

Books b = new Books();

DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Books));

try
{
    Stream fs = new FileStream(@"C:\Users\temelm\Desktop\XmlFile.xml", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);

    XmlDictionaryWriter xdw = XmlDictionaryWriter.CreateTextWriter(fs, Encoding.UTF8);
    xdw.WriteStartDocument();
    dcs.WriteObject(xdw, b);
    xdw.Close();
    fs.Flush();
    fs.Close();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    s += e.Message + "\n";
}

Answer 2

This can be useful for you. When you need XElement. For instance when you going append node to XDocument or replece XElement of this document.

private XElement objectToXElement(SomeContractType obj)
        {
            DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(SomeContractType);

            var ms = new MemoryStream();
            var xw = XmlWriter.Create(ms);
            dcs.WriteObject(xw, obj);
            xw.Flush();
            xw.Close();
            ms.Position = 0;
            XElement xe = XElement.Load(ms);

            return xe;
        }