XmlHelper

The XmlHelper serializes and deserializes to/from XML and allows convenient access to optional element content and attributes when reading general XMLs.

With a few exceptions (e.g. arrays of ArrayList and arrays of List<T>), all public attributes and fields of any public class should be serialized without any further need to tag the elements. The only thing needed is a public default constructor.

For finer control, see the MSDN documentation on XmlSerializer: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.serialization.xmlserializer(v=vs.110).aspx

Examples

String serialization

{C#}
public class TestData
{
    // A public field - will be serialized
    public int field;

    // A private field with public property - will be serialized
    float property;
    public float Property
    {
        get { return property; }
        set { property = value;}
    }

    // An auto property - will be serialized
    public bool AutoProperty { get; set; }

    // A private field - will *not* be serialized
    string privateField = "Test";

    // A public field marked "XmlIgnore" - will *not* be serialized
    [XmlIgnore]
    public double publicNonSerialized = 5.5;

    // The public default constructor is needed for the XmlSerializer.
    public TestData()
    {
    }

    public TestData(int field, float property, bool autoProperty)
    {
        this.field = field;
        this.property = property;
        AutoProperty = autoProperty;
    }
}

{C#}
// Create a new TestData object
TestData data = new TestData(1, 2.3f, true);

// Serialize the TestData object into a string
string xmlString = data.SerializeToXmlString();

/* Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<TestData xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <field>1</field>
    <Property>2.3</Property>
    <AutoProperty>true</AutoProperty>
</TestData>
 */
Debug.Log(xmlString);

// Get the data back from the string
TestData deserializedData = xmlString.DeserializeFromXmlString<TestData>();

XmlNode content/attributes

{C#}
// Create an XmlDocument with test data
XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
xmlDocument.LoadXml("<enemyList>" +
                    "   <enemyData>" +
                    "       <name>Grunt</name>" +
                    "       <position x='5' y='3'/>" +
                    "   </enemyData>" +
                    "   <enemyData>" +
                    "       <name>Tank</name>" +
                    "       <position x='7' y='1'/>" +
                    "       <ranged>true</ranged>" +
                    "   </enemyData>" +
                    "</enemyList>");

// Read each enemyData element in the enemyList
foreach (XmlNode enemyData in xmlDocument["enemyList"].ChildNodes)
{
    // Get the name element content, if it exists, else set "???"
    string name = enemyData.GetElementString("name", "???");

    // Get the position element and then its attributes
    XmlNode position = enemyData["position"];
    int x = position.GetAttributeInt("x");
    int y = position.GetAttributeInt("y");

    // Get the ranged element content, if it exists, else set "false"
    bool ranged = enemyData.GetElementBool("ranged", false);

    // Output the result
    Debug.Log(string.Format("{0} at {1}|{2} is {3}",
                            name,
                            x,
                            y,
                            ranged ? "ranged" : "not ranged"));
}

/* Grunt at 5|3 is not ranged
   Tank at 7|1 is ranged
 */

Dependencies

None.