XML serialization with a validating reader

Posted 5:44 PM
XML serialization is so brain-dead easy in .NET that you sometimes forget that XML is still crufted together by lesser platforms. Here's the basic boilerplate for serialization while validating against XML schema: Given a simple XML document:

<xml version="1.0"?>
<Foo>
  <n>42</n>
  <s>zaphod</s>
</Foo>

Create a simple schema, here the element 'n' must exist once:

<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="Foo">
  <xs:complexType>
   <xs:sequence>
    <xs:element name="n" type="xs:int"/>
    <xs:element name="s" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" />
   </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>

And deserialize like this:

using(FileStream stream = new FileStream("C:\\foo.xml", FileMode.Open))
{
    XmlValidatingReader reader = new XmlValidatingReader(new XmlTextReader(stream));
    reader.Schemas.Add(null, "c:\\foo.xsd");
    reader.ValidationType = ValidationType.Schema;
    XmlSerializer s = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Foo));
    Foo f = (Foo)s.Deserialize(reader);
    ....
}

New from W3

Posted 5:41 PM
XPointer is out!

Turning an array of objects into a DataTable

Posted 5:40 PM
In the previous incarnation of the blog, I had a similar example. I've got a couple of non-programming posts, but first I need to build up my geek index: private DataTable f(MyObject[] objs) { DataTable tab = new DataTable(); // For each interesting item in the table, create // a column tab.Columns.Add("ID", typeof(int)); ... // After the table schema is created, // add a new row for each array element foreach(MyObject obj in objs) { DataRow row = tab.NewRow(); row[0] = obj.ID; // and so on ... tab.Rows.Add(row); } return tab; }

Can you hear me now?

Posted 5:34 PM
Testing...