Code Reference A collection of code for my reference (and perhaps other people too)

Serialization to XML with CDATA tags

Sometimes you need CDATA tags around complex text in your destination XML.

There is no build in way of doing so (that I have found).

I found this nifty CdataWrapper class on Marc Gravell's blog. Thanks Marc!

Here is the basic class.

public sealed class CDataWrapper : IXmlSerializable
{
        // implicit to/from string
        public static implicit operator string(CDataWrapper value)
        {
            return value == null ? null : value.Value;
        }
        public static implicit operator CDataWrapper(string value)
        {
            return value == null ? null : new CDataWrapper
            {
                Value =
                    value
            };
        }
        public System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchema GetSchema()
        {
            return null;
        }
        // "" => <Node/>
        // "Foo" => <Node><![CDATA[Foo]]></Node>
        public void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
        {
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Value))
            {
                writer.WriteCData(Value);
            }
        }
        // <Node/> => ""
        // <Node></Node> => ""
        // <Node>Foo</Node> => "Foo"
        // <Node><![CDATA[Foo]]></Node> => "Foo"
        public void ReadXml(XmlReader reader)
        {
            if (reader.IsEmptyElement)
            {
                Value = "";
            }
            else
            {
                reader.Read();
                switch (reader.NodeType)
                {
                    case XmlNodeType.EndElement:
                        Value = ""; // empty after all...
                        break;
                    case XmlNodeType.Text:
                    case XmlNodeType.CDATA:
                        Value = reader.ReadContentAsString();
                        break;
                    default:
                        throw new InvalidOperationException("Expected text/cdata");
                }
            }
        }
        // underlying value
        public string Value { get; set; }
        public override string ToString()
        {
            return Value;
        }
}

To use it, you must change your DataMember from String to CDataWrapper, make it private and give it a public property.

This:

[DataMember]
pubblic string Answer { get; set; }

Becomes this:

pubblic string Answer { get; set; }
[DataMember(Name="Answer", EmitDefaultValue=false)]
private CDataWrapper AnswerCDATA
{
    get { return Answer; }
    set { Answer = value; }
}

Then the serialization is done with one line:

.
.
.
XElement xml = Microsoft.ServiceModel.Web.SerializationExtensions.ToXml(object);
.

So simple!!!!