XmlSerializer Collection with Collections

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From: magister (yurps_at_yahoo.co.uk)
Date: 06/29/04 

Date: 29 Jun 2004 08:56:26 -0700

Hello I got this working but it is not how I really want it, basically
I have an xml file which has a root of <test> and can be filled with 3
different types of <question> elements with different attributes, all
share a base set of 4, one of the question types can have children
with <option> elements, this is how the xml looks after
serialization....

If you notice there is an extra <SelectionList> around the <option>'s
in the
final <question>, how can I write my class so I don't have this extra
<SelectionList> element....my class follows, you can see in the 2nd
public Question constructor is where I add the OptionList type....any
ideas, I know that really there is nothing wrong with having an extra
<SelectionList> element around the <option> elements but I really want
to know if my class is properly constucted.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Test xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <Question text="What is love?" type="Input" score="3"
mandatory="false" multiLine="false" maxlength="0" minlength="0"
validate="None" />
  <Question text="This is better than sliced bread?" type="Input"
score="9" mandatory="false" multiLine="false" maxlength="0"
minlength="0" validate="None" />
  <Question text="input question" type="Input" score="8"
mandatory="true" multiLine="true" maxlength="7" minlength="1"
initialvalue="hello" validate="Currency" answer="this is the answer"
/>
  <Question text="What is square root of 2?" type="selection"
score="3" mandatory="false" multiLine="false" maxlength="0"
minlength="0" validate="None">
    <SelectionList>
      <Option text="first" selected="true" tooltip="hovertext"
answer="false" />
      <Option text="second" selected="true" tooltip="hovertext"
answer="true" />
    </SelectionList>
  </Question>
</Test>

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace TestCreator
{
        public class TestSerializer
        {
                public TestSerializer()
                {
                        //
                        // TODO: Add constructor logic here
                        //
                }
                
                //test class which will be serialized
                [XmlRoot("Test")]
                public class QuestionList
                {
                        private ArrayList listQuestions;

                        public QuestionList()
                        {
                                listQuestions = new ArrayList();
                        }

                        [XmlElement("Question")]
                        public Question[] Questions
                        {
                                get
                                {
                                        Question[] questions = new Question[ listQuestions.Count ];
                                        listQuestions.CopyTo( questions );
                                        return questions;
                                }
                                set
                                {
                                        if( value == null ) return;
                                        Question[] questions = (Question[])value;
                                        listQuestions.Clear();
                                        foreach( Question question in questions )
                                                listQuestions.Add( question );
                                }
                        }

                        public int AddQuestion( Question question )
                        {
                                return listQuestions.Add( question );
                        }
                }
        
                public class OptionList
                {
                        private ArrayList listOptions;
                                
                        public OptionList()
                        {
                                listOptions = new ArrayList();
                        }
                        [XmlElement("Option")]
                        public Option[] Options
                        {
                                get
                                {
                                        Option[] options = new Option[ listOptions.Count ];
                                        listOptions.CopyTo( options );
                                        return options;
                                }
                                set
                                {
                                        if( value == null ) return;
                                        Option[] options = (Option[])value;
                                        listOptions.Clear();
                                        foreach( Option option in options )
                                                listOptions.Add( option );
                                }
                        }
                        public int AddOption( Option option )
                        {
                                return listOptions.Add( option );
                        }
                }

                public class Question
                {
                        [XmlAttribute("text")] public string questionText;
                        [XmlAttribute("type")] public string type;
                        [XmlAttribute("score")] public int score;
                        [XmlAttribute("mandatory")] public bool mandatory;
                        [XmlAttribute("multiLine")] public bool multiline;
                        [XmlAttribute("maxlength")] public int maxlength;
                        [XmlAttribute("minlength")] public int minlength;
                        [XmlAttribute("initialvalue")] public string initialvalue;
                        [XmlAttribute("validate")] public Validation validate;
                        [XmlAttribute("answer")] public string answer;
                        [XmlElement("SelectionList")] public OptionList optionlist;
                        //[XmlElement("go")] public ArrayList optionlist;
                        
                        public enum Validation
                        {
                                None,
                                Date,
                                Integer,
                                Currency
                        }
                        public Question()
                        {
                        }

                        public Question( string QuestionText, string Type, int Score, bool
Mandatory, OptionList opl )
                        {
                                questionText = QuestionText;
                                type = Type;
                                score = Score;
                                mandatory = Mandatory;
                                optionlist = opl;
                        }

                        public Question( string QuestionText, string Type, int Score, bool
Mandatory, bool MultiLine, int MaxLength, int MinLength, string
InitialValue, Validation Validate, string Answer)
                        {
                                questionText = QuestionText;
                                type = Type;
                                score = Score;
                                mandatory = Mandatory;
                                multiline = MultiLine;
                                maxlength = MaxLength;
                                minlength = MinLength;
                                initialvalue = InitialValue;
                                validate = Validate;
                                answer = Answer;
                        }
                }
                
                public class Option
                {
                        [XmlAttribute("text")] public string label;
                        [XmlAttribute("selected")] public bool selected;
                        [XmlAttribute("tooltip")] public string tooltip;
                        [XmlAttribute("answer")] public bool answer;
                                                
                        public Option()
                        {
                        }

                        public Option( string Label, bool Selected, string Tooltip, bool
Answer )
                        {
                                label = Label;
                                selected = Selected;
                                tooltip = Tooltip;
                                answer = Answer;
                        }
                }

                public static void Serialize(QuestionList myList)
                {
                        XmlSerializer s = new XmlSerializer( typeof( QuestionList ) );
                        TextWriter w = new StreamWriter( @"c:\list.xml" );
                        s.Serialize( w, myList );
                        w.Close();
                }
        }
}

To test do this:
TestSerializer.QuestionList myList = new
TestSerializer.QuestionList();
myList.AddQuestion( new TestSerializer.Question("What is
love?","Input",3,false ) );

TestSerializer.OptionList opl = new TestSerializer.OptionList();
opl.AddOption( new TestSerializer.Option("first",true,"hovertext",false));
opl.AddOption( new TestSerializer.Option("second",true,"hovertext",true));
myList.AddQuestion( new TestSerializer.Question("What is the square
root of 2?","selection",3,false,opl ) );
TestSerializer.Serialize(myList);

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