How to XML Serialize a 'Type'

Question

How do I serialize a 'Type'?

I want to serialize to XML an object that has a property that is a type of an object. The idea is that when it is deserialized I can create an object of that type.

public class NewObject
{
}

[XmlRoot]
public class XmlData
{
    private Type t;

    public Type T
    {
        get { return t; }
        set { t = value; }
    }
}
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        XmlData data = new XmlData();
        data.T = typeof(NewObject);
        try
        {
            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(XmlData));
            try
            {
                using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("test.xml", FileMode.Create))
                {
                    serializer.Serialize(fs, data);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {

            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {

        }
    }

I get this exception: "The type ConsoleApplication1.NewObject was not expected. Use the XmlInclude or SoapInclude attribute to specify types that are not known statically."

Where do I put the [XmlInclude]? Is this even possible?

Answer 1

Type class cannot be serialized because System.RuntimeType is not accessible to our code, it is an internal CLR type. You may work around this by using the type's name instead, like this:

public class c 
{       
    [XmlIgnore]
    private Type t;
    [XmlIgnore]
    public Type T {
        get { return t; }
        set { 
                t = value;
                tName = value.AssemblyQualifiedName;
            }
    }

    public string tName{
        get { return t.AssemblyQualifiedName; }
        set { t = Type.GetType(value);}
    }
}