Why isn't my public property serialized by the XmlSerializer?

c# .net xml-serialization
Rory picture Rory · Feb 22, 2009 · Viewed 37.4k times · Source

This is one i struggled with for ages so thought I'd document somewhere. (Apologies for asking and answering a question.)

(C# .net 2.0) I had a class that was being serialized by XmlSerializer, I added a new public property however it wasn't being included in the output XML.

It's not mentioned in the docs anywhere I could find, but public properties must have a set as well as a get to be serialized! I guess this is because it assumes that if you're going to serialize then you'll want to deserialize from the same file, so only serializes properties that have both a set and a get.

Answer

Marc Gravell picture Marc Gravell · Feb 22, 2009

As mentioned, most properties must have both a getter and setter; the main exception to this is lists - for example:

private readonly List<Foo> bar = new List<Foo>();
public List<Foo> Bar {get { return bar; } } // works fine

which will work fine; however, if XmlSerializer finds a setter - it demands that it is public; the following will not work:

public List<Foo> Bar {get; private set;} // FAIL

Other reasons it might not serialize:

  • it isn't public with get and set (or is readonly for a field)
  • it has a [DefaultValue] attribute, and is with that value
  • it has a public bool ShouldSerializeFoo() method that returned false
  • it has a public bool FooSpecified {get;set;} property or field that returned false
  • it is marked [XmlIgnore]
  • it is marked [Obsolete]

Any of these will cause it not to serialize

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