How can I XML Serialize a DateTimeOffset Property?

Question

The DateTimeOffset property I have in this class doesn't get rendered when the data is represented as Xml. What do I need to do to tell the Xml serialization to render that proper as a DateTime or DateTimeOffset?

[XmlRoot("playersConnected")]
public class PlayersConnectedViewData
{
    [XmlElement("playerConnected")]
    public PlayersConnectedItem[] playersConnected { get; set; }
}

[XmlRoot("playersConnected")]
public class PlayersConnectedItem
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public DateTimeOffset connectedOn { get; set; }  // <-- This property fails.
    public string server { get; set; }
    public string gameType { get; set; }
}

and some sample data...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<playersConnected 
     xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
     xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <playerConnected>
    <name>jollyroger1000</name>
    <connectedOn />
    <server>log1</server>
    <gameType>Battlefield 2</gameType>
  </playerConnected>
</playersConnected>

Update

I'm hoping there might be a way through an Attribute which I can decorate on the property...

Bonus Question

Any way to get rid of those two namespaces declared in the root node? Should I?

Answer 1

It's a few years late, but here's the quick and easy way to completely serialize DateTimeOffset using ISO 8601:

[XmlElement("lastUpdatedTime")]
public string lastUpdatedTimeForXml // format: 2011-11-11T15:05:46.4733406+01:00
{
   get { return lastUpdatedTime.ToString("o"); } // o = yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.fffffffzzz
   set { lastUpdatedTime = DateTimeOffset.Parse(value); } 
}
[XmlIgnore] 
public DateTimeOffset lastUpdatedTime;