how to ignore inherited members with XMLSerialization

[rob.bowley]

I have a class which inherits from a generated abstract base class.

I simply want to hide some fields which are inherited from the base
class when it is serialised.

I have tried:

public class Details : GeneratedDetails
{
[XmlIgnore]
public new string Id
{
get{return base.lId;}
set{Id = value;}
}

and:

[XmlIgnore]
public override string Id
{
get{return base.lId;}
set{Id = value;}
}
}

All these do is serialise the base members instead. As the base class
is generated it is no good putting the [XMLIgnore] on the base class
members (although this is what I have had to do for now).

I have Googled extensively but found no examples or answers to this
problem - apart from creating a wrapper class which inherits from my
Details class and only exposes the members I want my visible in the
web service. That will create an immense amount of work as it will
mean replicating a load of methods and derived classes of the Details
class just for the web service and therefore defeating the object of
OO!

Please help!

[Dino Chiesa [Microsoft]]

How about using an Adapter pattern?

http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?AdapterPattern

Don't serialize the class, serialize the adapter class.

public class DetailsAdapter {

[XmlIgnore]
public string Id;

// other fields/props here

public Details ToDetails() {
// produce a Details instance here
}

}

-Dino
<ro********@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...

I have a class which inherits from a generated abstract base class.

I simply want to hide some fields which are inherited from the base
class when it is serialised.

I have tried:

public class Details : GeneratedDetails
{
[XmlIgnore]
public new string Id
{
get{return base.lId;}
set{Id = value;}
}

and:

[XmlIgnore]
public override string Id
{
get{return base.lId;}
set{Id = value;}
}
}

All these do is serialise the base members instead. As the base class
is generated it is no good putting the [XMLIgnore] on the base class
members (although this is what I have had to do for now).

I have Googled extensively but found no examples or answers to this
problem - apart from creating a wrapper class which inherits from my
Details class and only exposes the members I want my visible in the
web service. That will create an immense amount of work as it will
mean replicating a load of methods and derived classes of the Details
class just for the web service and therefore defeating the object of
OO!

Please help!

[Dino Chiesa [Microsoft]]

another thing you can try is including

[XmlIgnore]
public bool IdSpecified ;

in the derived class.

In .NET's XML Serialization, a public bool with a name of XxxxSpecified
indicates whether the public prop/field of name Xxxx is specified and should
be serialized.
see here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...ClassTopic.asp
(scroll that page down)

This may not work when you stuff the XxxSpecified field into a derived type;
I haven't tried it.
-Dino
<ro********@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...

I have a class which inherits from a generated abstract base class.

I simply want to hide some fields which are inherited from the base
class when it is serialised.

I have tried:

public class Details : GeneratedDetails
{
[XmlIgnore]
public new string Id
{
get{return base.lId;}
set{Id = value;}
}

and:

[XmlIgnore]
public override string Id
{
get{return base.lId;}
set{Id = value;}
}
}

All these do is serialise the base members instead. As the base class
is generated it is no good putting the [XMLIgnore] on the base class
members (although this is what I have had to do for now).

I have Googled extensively but found no examples or answers to this
problem - apart from creating a wrapper class which inherits from my
Details class and only exposes the members I want my visible in the
web service. That will create an immense amount of work as it will
mean replicating a load of methods and derived classes of the Details
class just for the web service and therefore defeating the object of
OO!

Please help!

[rob.bowley]

Interesting - I'll give it a try when I have a chance and post back

Thanks Dino

[rob.bowley]

Is that not the same as a wrapper?

[rob.bowley]

Hi Dino,

I have tried your second solution and it works - I created a boolean -
IdSpecified - in the base class set to true and then set it to false
in the constructor of the derived class. This hid the Id property from
serialisation.

However, the solution we are going with is to have all base members set
to XmlIgnore and then override them in the derived class. As the body
of the derived class is also initially generated, all fields will be
overriden so that they are exposed. Then, to hide a member, we simply
delete it from the derived class.

This also helps with changing a property's type in the derived class
(serialisation fails if a property is hiding an inherited property with
a different type) as it will not build unless you delete the generated
overriden property in the derived class.

I still think you should be able to hide an inherited property from the
derived class without manipulating the base class.

Thanks,

Rob

[Dino Chiesa [Microsoft]]

Glad to hear you succeeded.
This gets better in .NET 2.0, and better again in Indigo.
Another approach is to use attribute overrides. You can dynamically
generate attributes to hide and expose what you want.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...classtopic.asp

I can imagine reflecting on all the properties of a type (inherited or not)
and applying attributes on each one. . .
-D
<ro********@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11*********************@l41g2000cwc.googlegro ups.com...

Hi Dino,

I have tried your second solution and it works - I created a boolean -
IdSpecified - in the base class set to true and then set it to false
in the constructor of the derived class. This hid the Id property from
serialisation.

However, the solution we are going with is to have all base members set
to XmlIgnore and then override them in the derived class. As the body
of the derived class is also initially generated, all fields will be
overriden so that they are exposed. Then, to hide a member, we simply
delete it from the derived class.

This also helps with changing a property's type in the derived class
(serialisation fails if a property is hiding an inherited property with
a different type) as it will not build unless you delete the generated
overriden property in the derived class.

I still think you should be able to hide an inherited property from the
derived class without manipulating the base class.

Thanks,

Rob