Custom serialization object type in C# throws exception

[Opa]

Hi

I'm having problem serialization an object instance which contains a public property on the object type
My object hierarchy is many levels deep, so for simplicty I created to following which produces the same error

Let's say there is a class called ParkingSpot with a public member Vehicle having an object type of object
For simplicity, let's say that Vehicle could be anything, hence I create a new object of Car typ
and assign it to the Vehicle property of the ParkingSpot object

When I try to serialize the ParkingSpot class, I get an error with an inner exception stating
_innerException : {"The type SerializationTe st.Car was not expected. Use the XmlInclude or SoapInclude attribute to specify types that are not known statically."

My classes are the following

using System
using System.Runtime. Serialization
using System.Xml.Seri alization

public class ParkingSpot : ISerializable

private object _vehicle
public ParkingSpot(){

[XmlElement("Veh icle")
public object Vehicl

ge

return _vehicle

se

_vehicle = value
#region ISerializable Member
public void GetObjectData(S erializationInf o info, StreamingContex t context

// TODO: Add ParkingSpot.Get ObjectData implementatio

#endregio
public class Ca

public string Make
public string Model
public Car(){

I have a button on a form with the following serialization code

private void btnSerialize_Cl ick(object sender, System.EventArg s e

ParkingSpot parkingSpot = new ParkingSpot()
Car car = new Car()
car.Make = "Nissan"
car.Model = "Maxima"
parkingSpot.Veh icle = car;

tr

// Serializatio
XmlSerializer s = new XmlSerializer(t ypeof(ParkingSp ot))
TextWriter w = new StreamWriter(@" C:\ParkingSpot. xml")
s.Serialize(w, parkingSpot)
w.Close()

catch (Exception exp

Console.WriteLi ne ("{0}",exp.Mess age);

Does anyone know what the problem is
I tried changing the [XmlElement] attribute to [XmlAnyElement] attribute, but this causes another error

Please help, I've been stumped on this one for over a day

Thanks a lot

[Mickey Williams]

1)You don't need to implement ISerializable or use the [Serializable]
attribute for XML serialization. ISerializable and the Serializable
attribute are for full-fidelity runtime serialization. XML serialization is
for the most part concerned with an object's public shape.

2) Doesn't Car need to be a subclass of Vehicle in your example?

3) [XmlElement] and [XmlAnyElement] won't help.

4) When you XML {serialize|dese rialize} objects with polymorphic fields, you
must take steps to ensure that the serializer is aware of the additional
types that might be present. Given:

public class ParkingSpot
{
public Vehicle;
}

and:

class Vehicle {...}
class Car: Vehicle {...}

One approach is to add an XmlInclude attribute to the Vehicle base class,
like this:
[XmlInclude(type of(Car))]
public class Vehicle
{
....
}

Alternatively, you can attribute the ParkingSpot class:
[XmlInclude(type of(Car))]
public class ParkingSpot { }

Another method is to pass an array of additional types to the serializer
when it's constructed, like so:
XmlSerializer s = new XmlSerializer(t ypeof(ParkingSp ot),
new Type[] {typeof(Car)});

--
Mickey Williams
Author, "Microsoft Visual C# .NET Core Reference", MS Press
www.neudesic.com
www.servergeek.com/blogs/mickey