Array Serialization

[John Tear]

(Note I have posted to this group because I had no luck in
microsoft.public.dotnet.vb.general)

Hi all

This is probably an easy one... I would like to serialize an array to
an XML file but I cant quite get it right.

Here goes

I declare the array at the top of the class

Private marrApplications(100) As App

Then when I go to write the array...

Private Sub save_Applications()
'serialize the object
Dim oXS As XmlSerializer = New XmlSerializer(GetType(App))
Dim oStmW As StreamWriter
Dim i As Integer

Try
oStmW = New StreamWriter(Application.StartupPath.ToString&
"\\Applications.xml")
For i = 0 To m_applicationCount - 1
oXS.Serialize(oStmW, marrApplications(i))
Next
oStmW.Close()
Catch ex As Exception
Debug.Write(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub

It sort of saves the array but it is not properly formed in XML. Here
is the result...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Class_App xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Property_Name>Blah</Property_Name>
<Property_ConnectionString>Blah</Property_ConnectionString>
<Property_ConnectionCount>0</Property_ConnectionCount>
<Property_MaxConnections>100</Property_MaxConnections>
</Class_App><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Class_App xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Property_Name>Blah</Property_Name>
<Property_ConnectionString>Blah</Property_ConnectionString>
<Property_ConnectionCount>0</Property_ConnectionCount>
<Property_MaxConnections>100</Property_MaxConnections>
</Class_App>

I know this isnt right but what am I doing wrong?

Any help will be much appreciated, thanks.
John.

[Dino Chiesa [Microsoft]]

you are not serializing the array.
Your code is serializing N elements of the array, one at a time. Which is
why you get a stream with N xml documents, all concatenated together. The
concatenated result does not constitute a well formed xml doc, as you
pointed out.

Instead of serializing N array elements, serialize the entire array at once.
When you get the serializer, you should do

Dim oXS As XmlSerializer = New XmlSerializer(GetType(App[]))
(I am not a vb guy so I do not know if that is legal syntax for "GetType".
but you get the idea)

Then oXS.Serialize(oStmW, marrApplications)
( no iteration ! )

-Dino
"John Tear" <jo******@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:92**************************@posting.google.c om... (Note I have posted to this group because I had no luck in
microsoft.public.dotnet.vb.general)

Hi all

This is probably an easy one... I would like to serialize an array to
an XML file but I cant quite get it right.

Here goes

I declare the array at the top of the class

Private marrApplications(100) As App

Then when I go to write the array...

Private Sub save_Applications()
'serialize the object
Dim oXS As XmlSerializer = New XmlSerializer(GetType(App))
Dim oStmW As StreamWriter
Dim i As Integer

Try
oStmW = New StreamWriter(Application.StartupPath.ToString&
"\\Applications.xml")
For i = 0 To m_applicationCount - 1
oXS.Serialize(oStmW, marrApplications(i))
Next
oStmW.Close()
Catch ex As Exception
Debug.Write(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub

It sort of saves the array but it is not properly formed in XML. Here
is the result...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Class_App xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Property_Name>Blah</Property_Name>
<Property_ConnectionString>Blah</Property_ConnectionString>
<Property_ConnectionCount>0</Property_ConnectionCount>
<Property_MaxConnections>100</Property_MaxConnections>
</Class_App><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Class_App xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Property_Name>Blah</Property_Name>
<Property_ConnectionString>Blah</Property_ConnectionString>
<Property_ConnectionCount>0</Property_ConnectionCount>
<Property_MaxConnections>100</Property_MaxConnections>
</Class_App>

I know this isnt right but what am I doing wrong?

Any help will be much appreciated, thanks.
John.