I have some XML that contains some null elements, for example:
<Document>
<StartDate/>
<EndDate/>
</Document>
I would like to process the XML using the .NET serialization tools
(XSD.exe). The schema for the XML is under external control (i.e. I can't
change it).
As far as I can tell there is no way to detect the presence of null elements
(like StartDate and EndDate above) in deserialized objects (i.e. the
generated objects are identical if the elements are null or if they are not
present).
Am I correct in my understanding of this? Can you recommend an approach for
solving this problem?
7  2168 
Hi Jason,
Yes, when deserialized to an object, the results are the same if the
element does not exist or it has no value. Could you let me know why you
need to distinguish between no value and no element? As far as I know, we
have to parse the xml manually to achieve this.
Kevin Yu
Microsoft Online Community Support
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Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the response.
The xml we are dealing with is being used as a kind of query template for an
application. The null elements identify data that should be provided by our
application which is the recipient of this XML. I guess the problem could be
easily solved by modifying the XML by adding attributes to the empty elements
- but the problem is that the XML is being defined externally - we do not
have control over the format.
I guessed that maybe the best way around this would be to pre-process the
XML to identify the null elements before deserializing it. Is this the kind
of approach you would recommend?
Jason
"Kevin Yu [MSFT]" wrote: Hi Jason,
Yes, when deserialized to an object, the results are the same if the
element does not exist or it has no value. Could you let me know why you
need to distinguish between no value and no element? As far as I know, we
have to parse the xml manually to achieve this.
Kevin Yu
Microsoft Online Community Support
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
=============== ===========
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
=============== ===========
(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)
Does the schema support use of xsi:nil? If so you can use
[XmlElement(IsNu llable=true)]
in your class and get a null reference rather than an empty string.
=============== =======
Clive Dixon
Digita Ltd. ( www.digita.com)
"Jason" <Ja***@discussi ons.microsoft.c om> wrote in message
news:01******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the response.
The xml we are dealing with is being used as a kind of query template for
an
application. The null elements identify data that should be provided by
our
application which is the recipient of this XML. I guess the problem could
be
easily solved by modifying the XML by adding attributes to the empty
elements
- but the problem is that the XML is being defined externally - we do not
have control over the format.
I guessed that maybe the best way around this would be to pre-process the
XML to identify the null elements before deserializing it. Is this the
kind
of approach you would recommend?
Jason
"Kevin Yu [MSFT]" wrote:
Hi Jason,
Yes, when deserialized to an object, the results are the same if the
element does not exist or it has no value. Could you let me know why you
need to distinguish between no value and no element? As far as I know, we
have to parse the xml manually to achieve this.
Kevin Yu
Microsoft Online Community Support
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
=============== ===========
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
=============== ===========
(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)
Thanks for the response.
The problem is that we don't own the schema - so we can't change it ourselves.
I think that the solution has to be to parse the document with using the
other XML tools?
"Clive Dixon" wrote: Does the schema support use of xsi:nil? If so you can use
[XmlElement(IsNu llable=true)]
in your class and get a null reference rather than an empty string.
=============== =======
Clive Dixon
Digita Ltd. (www.digita.com)
"Jason" <Ja***@discussi ons.microsoft.c om> wrote in message
news:01******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the response.
The xml we are dealing with is being used as a kind of query template for
an
application. The null elements identify data that should be provided by
our
application which is the recipient of this XML. I guess the problem could
be
easily solved by modifying the XML by adding attributes to the empty
elements
- but the problem is that the XML is being defined externally - we do not
have control over the format.
I guessed that maybe the best way around this would be to pre-process the
XML to identify the null elements before deserializing it. Is this the
kind
of approach you would recommend?
Jason
"Kevin Yu [MSFT]" wrote:
Hi Jason,
Yes, when deserialized to an object, the results are the same if the
element does not exist or it has no value. Could you let me know why you
need to distinguish between no value and no element? As far as I know, we
have to parse the xml manually to achieve this.
Kevin Yu
Microsoft Online Community Support
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
=============== ===========
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
=============== ===========
(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)
I'm not actually sure if xsi:nil is something you need to permit in the
schema itself or whether you can just go ahead use it in XML anyway, though
I don't really know about these things.
Your own processing seems like the only way if the data cannot contain
xsi:nil attributes, though I would think you are breaking W3C in doing this
which I think expects <Element/> and <Element></Element> to be treated
identically.
=============== =======
Clive Dixon
Digita Ltd. ( www.digita.com)
"Jason" <Ja***@discussi ons.microsoft.c om> wrote in message
news:CD******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Thanks for the response.
The problem is that we don't own the schema - so we can't change it
ourselves.
I think that the solution has to be to parse the document with using the
other XML tools?
"Clive Dixon" wrote:
Does the schema support use of xsi:nil? If so you can use
[XmlElement(IsNu llable=true)]
in your class and get a null reference rather than an empty string.
=============== =======
Clive Dixon
Digita Ltd. (www.digita.com)
"Jason" <Ja***@discussi ons.microsoft.c om> wrote in message
news:01******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... > Hi Kevin,
>
> Thanks for the response.
>
> The xml we are dealing with is being used as a kind of query template
> for
> an
> application. The null elements identify data that should be provided by
> our
> application which is the recipient of this XML. I guess the problem
> could
> be
> easily solved by modifying the XML by adding attributes to the empty
> elements
> - but the problem is that the XML is being defined externally - we do
> not
> have control over the format.
>
> I guessed that maybe the best way around this would be to pre-process
> the
> XML to identify the null elements before deserializing it. Is this
> the
> kind
> of approach you would recommend?
>
> Jason
>
> "Kevin Yu [MSFT]" wrote:
>
>> Hi Jason,
>>
>> Yes, when deserialized to an object, the results are the same if the
>> element does not exist or it has no value. Could you let me know why
>> you
>> need to distinguish between no value and no element? As far as I know,
>> we
>> have to parse the xml manually to achieve this.
>>
>> Kevin Yu
>> Microsoft Online Community Support
>>
>> =============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
>> =============== ===========
>> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader
>> so
>> that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
>> =============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
>> =============== ===========
>>
>> (This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.)
>>
>>
Oh - it is not the distinction between
<Element/> and <Element></Element>
we are interested in. It is purely the difference between the presence of
an element and its absence.
"Clive Dixon" wrote: I'm not actually sure if xsi:nil is something you need to permit in the
schema itself or whether you can just go ahead use it in XML anyway, though
I don't really know about these things.
Your own processing seems like the only way if the data cannot contain
xsi:nil attributes, though I would think you are breaking W3C in doing this
which I think expects <Element/> and <Element></Element> to be treated
identically.
=============== =======
Clive Dixon
Digita Ltd. (www.digita.com)
"Jason" <Ja***@discussi ons.microsoft.c om> wrote in message
news:CD******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Thanks for the response.
The problem is that we don't own the schema - so we can't change it
ourselves.
I think that the solution has to be to parse the document with using the
other XML tools?
"Clive Dixon" wrote:
Does the schema support use of xsi:nil? If so you can use
[XmlElement(IsNu llable=true)]
in your class and get a null reference rather than an empty string.
=============== =======
Clive Dixon
Digita Ltd. (www.digita.com)
"Jason" <Ja***@discussi ons.microsoft.c om> wrote in message
news:01******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com...
> Hi Kevin,
>
> Thanks for the response.
>
> The xml we are dealing with is being used as a kind of query template
> for
> an
> application. The null elements identify data that should be provided by
> our
> application which is the recipient of this XML. I guess the problem
> could
> be
> easily solved by modifying the XML by adding attributes to the empty
> elements
> - but the problem is that the XML is being defined externally - we do
> not
> have control over the format.
>
> I guessed that maybe the best way around this would be to pre-process
> the
> XML to identify the null elements before deserializing it. Is this
> the
> kind
> of approach you would recommend?
>
> Jason
>
> "Kevin Yu [MSFT]" wrote:
>
>> Hi Jason,
>>
>> Yes, when deserialized to an object, the results are the same if the
>> element does not exist or it has no value. Could you let me know why
>> you
>> need to distinguish between no value and no element? As far as I know,
>> we
>> have to parse the xml manually to achieve this.
>>
>> Kevin Yu
>> Microsoft Online Community Support
>>
>> =============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
>> =============== ===========
>> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader
>> so
>> that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
>> =============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
>> =============== ===========
>>
>> (This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.)
>>
>>
Hi Jason,
This behavior really depends on the deserialized object. If the memeber is
a string, absence means it's a null reference and empty means it's an empty
string during deseiralization . But for DateTime, it's a little difference,
and in this case, I think you have to do something with the raw xml, not
the serializer.
Kevin Yu
Microsoft Online Community Support
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
=============== ===========
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=============== =============== =============== =============== =============== =
=============== ===========
(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)
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