Convert XML String to Object

Question

I am receiving XML strings over a socket, and would like to convert these to C# objects.

The messages are of the form:

<msg>
   <id>1</id>
   <action>stop</action>
</msg>

I am new to .Net, and am not sure the best practice for performing this. I've used JAXB for Java before, and wasn't sure if there is something similar, or if this would be handled a different way.

Answer 1

You need to use the xsd.exe tool which gets installed with the Windows SDK into a directory something similar to:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin

And on 64-bit computers:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin

And on Windows 10 computers:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\bin

On the first run, you use xsd.exe and you convert your sample XML into a XSD file (XML schema file):

xsd yourfile.xml

This gives you yourfile.xsd, which in a second step, you can convert again using xsd.exe into a C# class:

xsd yourfile.xsd /c

This should give you a file yourfile.cs which will contain a C# class that you can use to deserialize the XML file you're getting - something like:

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(msg));
msg resultingMessage = (msg)serializer.Deserialize(new XmlTextReader("yourfile.xml"));

Should work pretty well for most cases.

Update: the XML serializer will take any stream as its input - either a file or a memory stream will be fine:

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(msg));
MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(inputString));
msg resultingMessage = (msg)serializer.Deserialize(memStream);

or use a StringReader:

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(msg));
StringReader rdr = new StringReader(inputString);
msg resultingMessage = (msg)serializer.Deserialize(rdr);