How to decorate / define class members for an optional XML element to be used with XmlSerializer?

Question

I have the following XML structure. An element theElementcan contain an element theOptionalListor not:

<theElement attrOne="valueOne" attrTwo="valueTwo">
    <theOptionalList>
        <theListItem attrA="valueA" />
        <theListItem attrA="anotherValue" />
        <theListItem attrA="stillAnother" />
    </theOptionalList>
</theElement>
<theElement attrOne="anotherOne" attrTwo="anotherTwo" />

What is a clean way to express the appropriate class structure?

I am sure of the following:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace MyNamespace
{
    public class TheOptionalList
    {
        [XmlAttributeAttribute("attrOne")]
        public string AttrOne { get; set; }

        [XmlAttributeAttribute("attrTwo")]
        public string AttrTwo { get; set; }

        [XmlArrayItem("theListItem", typeof(TheListItem))]
        public TheListItem[] theListItems{ get; set; }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            StringBuilder outText = new StringBuilder();

            outText.Append("attrOne = " + AttrOne + " attrTwo = " + AttrTwo + "\r\n");

            foreach (TheListItem li in theListItems)
            {
                outText.Append(li.ToString());
            }

            return outText.ToString();
        }
    }
}

As well as:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace MyNamespace
{
    public class TheListItem
    {
        [XmlAttributeAttribute("attrA")]
        public string AttrA { get; set; }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            StringBuilder outText = new StringBuilder();

            outText.Append("  attrA = " + AttrA + "\r\n");                
            return outText.ToString();
        }
    }
}

But what about theElement? I take the element theOptionalListas an array type so that it reads what it finds in the file (either nothing or one), and then checks the code, is it there or not? Or is there another decorator I can put on? Or does it just work?

EDIT: I ended up using the information in this answer .

Answer 1

IsNullable = true XmlArrayItem.

Answer 2

, bool, , .

- XmlSerializer XmlIgnoreAttribute . propertyNameSpecified. , "MyFirstName" "MyFirstNameSpecified", XmlSerializer, XML- "MyFirstName". .

public class OptionalOrder
{
    // This field should not be serialized 
    // if it is uninitialized.
    public string FirstOrder;

    // Use the XmlIgnoreAttribute to ignore the 
    // special field named "FirstOrderSpecified".
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIgnoreAttribute]
    public bool FirstOrderSpecified;
}

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.serialization.xmlserializer.aspx

Answer 3

XxySpecifed ShouldSerialize

[XmlElement]
public List<string> OptionalXyz {get; set;}

public bool ShouldSerializeOptionaXyz() {
    return OptionalXyz != null && OptionalXyz.Count > 0 ;
}