serialize object/expandoobject/dynamicobject/anonymous type object to XML

Hello, I have some trouble on how I should start on this one:
I want to create a function that can handle all of the above types and serilize them, so far I have this to serilize a normal object:

Code:

---

Public Function SerializeToXmlDocument(ByVal ObjInput As Object, Optional ByVal ParentNodeName As String = "") As XmlDocument
        Dim ser As New XmlSerializer(ObjInput.GetType, New XmlRootAttribute(ParentNodeName))

        Dim xd As XmlDocument = Nothing

        Using memStm As New MemoryStream()
            ser.Serialize(memStm, ObjInput)

            memStm.Position = 0

            Dim settings As New XmlReaderSettings()
            settings.IgnoreWhitespace = True

            Using xtr = XmlReader.Create(memStm, settings)
                xd = New XmlDocument()
                xd.Load(xtr)
            End Using
        End Using

        Return xd
    End Function

---

Like how to parse them to the function and thereafter detect which is which and do the different procedure for each case.
And if you have some vb.net code to serilize expandoobject or dynamicobject to XML, please feel free to share as I think the only solution for this is to handle each type differently.

Hi,

You need to look into Using Generics in the .NET Framework. Generics allow you pass different types to a Routine and then deal with them as per the Type that was passed. As a quick Example, I use two regular Extension Methods in my regular coding to Serialize and Deserialize different object types into a JSON Structure. i.e:-

vb.net Code:

<Extension()>
Public Function SerializeToJSON(Of T)(ByVal dataToSerialize As T) As String
  Dim jsonTool As New JavaScriptSerializer
  Return jsonTool.Serialize(dataToSerialize)
End Function
 
<Extension()>
Public Function DeserializeFromJSON(Of T)(ByVal dataToDeserialize As String, ByVal typeToDeserializeTo As T) As T
  Dim jsonTool As New JavaScriptSerializer
  Return jsonTool.Deserialize(Of T)(dataToDeserialize)
End Function

Even though this is Not XML this does demonstrate the principle of Serializing and Deserializing any object type using Generics.

I will now leave this to you to get working with XML rather than JSON.


Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Ian