.Net convert object to XML (Serialization)

.NET OBJECT SERIALIZATION

Introduction

Serialization can be defined as the process of storing the state of an object instance to a storage medium. During this process, the public and private fields of the object and the name of the class, including the assembly containing the class, is converted to a stream of bytes, which is then written to a data stream. When the object is subsequently deserialized, an exact clone of the original object is created.

When implementing a serialization mechanism in an object-oriented environment, you have to make a number of tradeoffs between ease of use and flexibility. The process can be automated to a large extent, provided you are given sufficient control over the process. For example, situations may arise where simple binary serialization is not sufficient, or there might be a specific reason to decide which fields in a class need to be serialized. The following sections examine the robust serialization mechanism provided with the .NET Framework and highlight a number of important features that allow you to customize the process to meet your needs.

XML SERIALIZATION

It is widely used when two different domains talk. I faced a same situation where i had to develop an .net application where it needs to talk to a java application. I was forced to a situation where i need to send a object from my application to the other application by calling the exe. I was wondering how is that possible then i came through something called serialization of objects.

I used xml serialization and then converted the my object to xml and passed the xml string to the other application as a argument. To know how to pass a string as a argument 

CLICK HERE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT PASSING ARGUMENTS TO AN EXE

We will now see how the object is converted to xml serialization with an example

for example we have a class for which the object has to be sent.

public class MyObject

    {

        public string property1{ get; set; }

        public string property2 { get; set; }      

        public decimal property3 { get; set; }

        public int property4 { get; set; }      

    }

now we add values to all this properties

MyObject  myObject  =new MyObject();

myObject.Property1=sandeep;

myObject.Property2=naveen;

myObject.Property3=rajkumar;

myObject.Property1=rajendra

XmlSerializer xml = new XmlSerializer(myObject.GetType());

            string fileName =@ "C:/Test.xml";

            FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create);

            xml.Serialize(fileStream, myObject);

Now go to the path specified you will find the object serialized into xml.

Hope this helped u..

CHEERS..

THESANDEEP

www.thesandeep.com