Problem deserializing validated XML, can't convert to/from array
-
03-07-2019 - |
Question
I'm a bit out of my element. I've used xsd.exe to create an xsd schema from an xml file, and then to create a C# class from that xsd. That all seems to work fine.
At the moment I'm just trying to get the XML deserialized. The file I'm deserializing if the very same file I used to build the class originally. Here's my code:
String xsdPath=@"C:\Users\tol56881\Documents\dnd4e.xsd";
String xmlPath=@"C:\Users\tol56881\Documents\dnd4e.xml";
String xsdNamespace="";
//Validation stuff
XmlParserContext context = new XmlParserContext(null, null, "", XmlSpace.None);
XmlValidatingReader vr = new XmlValidatingReader(xmlPath, XmlNodeType.Element, context);
vr.ValidationType = ValidationType.Schema;
vr.Schemas.Add(xsdNamespace, xsdPath);
while (vr.Read()) ;
//Actually reading the file
TextReader tr = new StreamReader(xmlPath);
D20Character character = (D20Character)(new XmlSerializer(typeof(D20Character))).Deserialize(tr);
It compile fine, but when I try to run it I get the an error that's repeated for four different objects. I've given an example below, changing the names of the objects.
Unable to generate a temporary class (result=1).
error CS0030: Cannot convert type 'Namespace.ObjectName[]' to 'Namespace.ObjectName'
error CS0029: Cannot implicitly convert type 'Namespace.ObjectName' to 'Namespace.ObjectName[]'
So it seems like the program is trying to go from array to object and back to array, but I'm not really sure. The auto-generated class code is a huge mess that's difficult to wade through. I'm hoping that maybe there's something simple I'm missing here.
Thanks!
Solution
I managed to fix this. Each of the four objects in question were generated as doubly-indexed arrays, such as:
private loot[][] lootTallyField;
and
public loot[][] LootTally
{
get
{
return this.lootTallyField;
}
set
{
this.lootTallyField = value;
}
}
All I did was remove one set of brackets, and it all seems to be working fine. No problems with deserialization and a quick inspection of the deserialized object makes it look like the data was loaded correctly.
private loot[] lootTallyField;
and
public loot[] LootTally
{
get
{
return this.lootTallyField;
}
set
{
this.lootTallyField = value;
}
}
Still not sure why xsd.exe made these doubly-indexed if they're not supposed to be. I feel like I'm still missing something, hence why this question is still open.
Particularly, if I ever need to re-generate this code, then I'd need to reapply the fix, which kind of defeats the purpose of using a partial class in the first place...
OTHER TIPS
There is a problem on xsd.exe tool, I will try to explain.
If you have a complexType with a sequence inside that has a child complexType with a sequence and the first one does not have any other elements / attributes, then the generated class will have only 1 generated type, instead of 2 and it will be a double array.
If you make the double array into a single array, you will be able to deserialize your xml just fine. HOWEVER this will produce the following unexpected result. If your xml looks like the below.
<root>
<loot>
<tally>value1</tally>
<tally>value2</tally>
</loot>
<loot>
<tally>value3</tally>
<tally>value4</tally>
</loot>
</root>
Then your deserialized object, in the lootTally array would only contain the value3 and value4 items instead of having all 4.
So you have 2 options to fix this correctly:
- Alter the xsd file by adding a dummy in the first sequence, and run xsd.exe again, so that when it generates the class it will not create a double array, and then you can delete the dummy attribute from the class.
- Alter the generated class, add a new class named loot which will contain an array of tally objects which you already have (and only need to alter the name).
Please note that in option 2 you may have to change some declarations if you have an XmlArrayItemAttribute to XmlElementAttribute.
Hope this helps