XML serialization and "<" , ">" when generating an HTML document

Question

I'm trying to dynamically generate an HTML table by using XmlSerializer and a set of classes like this:

[XmlInclude(typeof(Th))]
public class Td
{
    [XmlElement("span")]
    public string Designation { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("colspan")]
    public int ColSpan { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("rowspan")]
    public int RowSpan { get; set; }

    public Td(string designation, int colspan)
    {
        Designation = designation;
        ColSpan = colspan;
        RowSpan = 1;
    }

    public Td()
    {            
    }

}

The problem here is that the Designation property can have a tag as value like <option...>, so when I serialize my model I get <option...> instead of <option...>

I can solve the problem by using the string.Replace method like this: Replace("<", "<").Replace(">", ">");

Is there a clean way to get the expected result without the use of string.Replace?

XML != HTML. Most XHTML work has been discontinued, afaik. – Marc Gravell Jun 06 '12 at 14:38 — Marc Gravell, Jun 06 '12 at 14:38

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 06 '12 at 14:43

2

You can create another property that exposes Designation as an XmlNode:

[XmlIgnore]
public string Designation { get; set; }

[XmlElement("span")]
public XmlNode DesignationAsXml
{
    get
    {
        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.InnerXml = "<root>" + this.Designation + "</root>";
        return doc.DocumentElement.FirstChild;
    }
    set
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }
}

answered Jun 06 '12 at 14:43

Michael Liu

52,147
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How would Deserialization work here? A serialized object will not deserialize with the same information here. – Joel Peltonen Jan 16 '13 at 12:42
1

@Nenotlep: The OP's scenario didn't require deserialization so I didn't bother implementing the property setter. To do so, simply assign `value.OuterXml` to `this.Designation` instead of throwing an exception. – Michael Liu Jan 16 '13 at 15:49

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 06 '12 at 14:38

0

Replacing it manually is needless. I think the best way is using System.XML.XmlWriter.WriteString class. Look for class definition here

answered Jun 06 '12 at 14:38

Johnny_D

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XML serialization and "<" , ">" when generating an HTML document

2 Answers2