Adding xml attribute to property

Question

I have some class,fox example

public class Test
{
    [XmlElement(IsNullable = true)]
    public string SomeProperty{get;set;}
}

When I serialize object of this class,I get

    <test>
        <SomeProperty>value<someproperty>
    <test>

But I need add attribute to SomeProperty without changing structure of class and get this

    <test>
      <SomeProperty Search="true">value<someproperty>
    <test>

How can I do that?

PS:I know,that i can write object that include "SomeProperty" and Bool property "Search",but it will change structure of class

Answer 1

To do that with XmlSerializer, you would need to have a second type with an [XmlAttribute] an [XmlText]. The only other option is IXmlSerializable, which is: a lot of work and easy to get wrong.

Options:

• change the structure of SomeProperty
• add a shim property in parallel with SomeProperty - and mark SomeProperty as [XmlIgnore]
• use an entirely separate DTO model for serialization (always my go-to option when serialization doesn't fit cleanly)
• use IXmlSerializable (ouch)
• don't use XmlSerializer at all (looking at LINQ-to-XML or a DOM, for example)
• use XmlSerializer, but edit the xml afterwards (for example via a DOM or xslt)