Serializing while class inherits list of another class

Question

Hi I have a class BOOKING that inherits list of Message as follows below

Public Class BOOKING : Inherits List(Of Message)
Private Property MessageProperty As Message

<XmlAttribute>
Public Property partner As String
<XmlAttribute>
Public Property transaction As String
<XmlAttribute>
Public Property version As String


Public Property Message As Message
    Get
        Return MessageProperty
    End Get
    Set(value As Message)
        MessageProperty = value
    End Set
End Property

The Message Class has all the properties to make a booking When I try to serialize nothing is serializing here is the code I am using to set the properties and serialize the booking

Try
        Dim z As New BOOKING
        Dim x As New Message

        z.partner = "company name"
        z.transaction = "BOOKING"
        z.version = "1.0"
        x.MessageType = "C"
        x.CustomerNumber = "123"
        x.BookingReference = "5845"
        x.CustomerBookingReference = "036598"
        x.NoDrivers = "1"
        z.Message = x
        SaveAsXML(z)
        Return True
    Catch ex As Exception
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
    End Try

and my save as xml is below

Try
        Dim Samples As New List(Of BOOKING)
        Dim Files As String() = Directory.GetFiles("c:\ftptest\New Booking")
        For Each fl In Files

            'Deserialize XML file
            Dim objStreamReader As New StreamReader(fl)
            Dim i As New BOOKING
            Dim x As New XmlSerializer(i.GetType)
            i = x.Deserialize(objStreamReader)
            Samples.Add(i)
        Next
        Form1.DataGridView1.DataSource = Samples
        Return True
    Catch ex As Exception
        Throw ex
    End Try

the xml file results in this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ArrayOfMessage xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" />

The Layout of the booking has to be as follows

<BOOKING>
  <Message>
       message properties here
  </Message>
<BOOKING>

There can only be one message in each booking but for it to be the way it is above I was told it should be in it's own class to get that layout, So I was wondering how to serialize and possibly deserialize the above booking

Answer 1

The BOOKING class listed is invalid: the serializer will be confused by a class which is a List of the same Type as one of its properties. Since there is one Message per Booking packet, you do not need a List at all.

I have no idea where partner, transaction or version are supposed to show up. As is, I have them as Booking props because thats what your code shows. If there are supposed to be inside the block, then they are actually Message properties and Booking is empty.

Public Class BOOKING

    Public Property partner As String
    Public Property transaction As String
    Public Property version As String

    Public Property [Message] As BookingMessage

    Public Sub New()
        ' create a new Msg object
        [Message] = New BookingMessage
    End Sub

    ' Message Properties
    Public Class BookingMessage
        Public Property MessageType As String
        Public Property CustomerNumber As String
        Public Property BookingReference As String
        Public Property CustomerBookingReference As String
        Public Property NoDrivers As String

    End Class

End Class

Test code:

    Dim B As New BOOKING
    With B
        .partner = "Foo"
        .transaction = "ABC"
        .Message.BookingReference = "123456"
        .Message.CustomerBookingReference = "ziggy"
        .Message.NoDrivers = "1"
    End With

    Dim x As New Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(GetType(BOOKING))
    x.Serialize(New System.IO.FileStream("C:\Temp\Booking2.xml",
           IO.FileMode.OpenOrCreate), B)

Output:

<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<BOOKING xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">   
    <partner>Foo</partner> 
    <transaction>ABC</transaction>   
    <Message>
        <BookingReference>123456</BookingReference>
        <CustomerBookingReference>ziggy</CustomerBookingReference>
        <NoDrivers>1</NoDrivers>   
    </Message> 
 </BOOKING>