XmlSerializer Deserialize returns empty array

I'm trying to deserialize the following XML (excerpt):

<NSArray> 
  <Song id="23507" type="Song"> 
    <title>Waking The Demon</title> 
    <artist id="17" type="Artist"> 
      <nameWithoutThePrefix>Bullet For My Valentine</nameWithoutThePrefix> 
      <useThePrefix>false</useThePrefix> 
      <name>Bullet For My Valentine</name> 
    </artist> 
  </Song> 
  <Song id="3663" type="Song"> 
    <title>Hand Of Blood</title> 
    <artist id="17" type="Artist"/> 
  </Song> 
  <Song id="59226" type="Song"> 
    <title>Your Betrayal</title> 
    <artist id="17" type="Artist"/> 
  </Song> 
</NSArray> 

with the following classes:

[GeneratedCode("xsd", "4.0.30319.1")]
[DebuggerStepThrough]
[XmlType(AnonymousType = true)]
[XmlRoot(ElementName = "NSArray", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
public class SearchResult
{
    [XmlElement("Song", Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public Song[] Items { get; set; }
}

[GeneratedCode("xsd", "4.0.30319.1")]
[DebuggerStepThrough]
[XmlType(AnonymousType = true)]
[XmlRoot(Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
public class Song
{
    [XmlElement(Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string Title { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("artist", Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public Artist Artist { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute]
    public string Type { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute]
    public string Id { get; set; }
}

[GeneratedCode("xsd", "4.0.30319.1")]
[DebuggerStepThrough]
[XmlType(AnonymousType = true)]
public class Artist
{
    [XmlElement(Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string NameWithoutThePrefix { get; set; }

    [XmlElement(Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string UseThePrefix { get; set; }

    [XmlElement(Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute]
    public string Type { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute]
    public string Id { get; set; }
}

and the following code:

    var request = WebRequest.Create(string.Format("http://myurl.com");
    request.BeginGetResponse(GetEventResponseCallback, request);

    private void GetEventResponseCallback(IAsyncResult result)
    {
        var request = (HttpWebRequest)result.AsyncState;
        var response = request.EndGetResponse(result);

开发者_开发百科        if (response.GetResponseStream() == null) return;
        using (var stream = response.GetResponseStream())
        {
            _xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(stream);
            var songs = _xmlSerializer.Deserialize(_xmlReader) as SearchResult;
        }
    }

However, on var songs = _xmlSerializer.Deserialize(_xmlReader) as SearchResult;, the Deserialization executes successfully, but the songs variable does not contain any data. If I inspect with the debugger, it returns Could not evaluate expression for all the values in the array.

Any hints? Thanks.

Your SearchResult class needs some fixing. You're really close, the code is only missing a few element names and the serializable attributes.

Here's a class that works:

[GeneratedCode("xsd", "4.0.30319.1")]
[DebuggerStepThrough]
[XmlType(AnonymousType = true)]
[XmlRoot(ElementName = "NSArray", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
[Serializable]
public class SearchResult
{
    [XmlElement("Song", Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public Song[] Items { get; set; }
}

[GeneratedCode("xsd", "4.0.30319.1")]
[DebuggerStepThrough]
[XmlType(AnonymousType = true)]
[XmlRoot(ElementName="Song", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
[Serializable]
public class Song
{
    [XmlElement("title", Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string Title { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("artist", Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public Artist Artist { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("type")]
    public string Type { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("id")]
    public string Id { get; set; }
}

[GeneratedCode("xsd", "4.0.30319.1")]
[DebuggerStepThrough]
[XmlType(AnonymousType = true)]
[Serializable]
public class Artist
{
    [XmlElement("nameWithoutThePrefix", Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string NameWithoutThePrefix { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("useThePrefix", Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string UseThePrefix { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("name", Form = XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("type")]
    public string Type { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("id")]
    public string Id { get; set; }
}

I have a class that I am serializing and deserializing. Compared to the attributes you are using... you have a lot that I don't have (on the class), but one that you are missing is [Serializable]

Mine looks like this:

[Serializable]
public class Settings
{
    [XmlElement]
    public int Version { get; set; }

    [XmlElement]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    // more settings
}

So start with something simple like this, that works, then add in each new tag one at a time, and you will quickly find which one is causing it to break.

Since you are having trouble deserializing, here is the code I am using. In another class, I have:

public string FilePath { get; set; }
public Settings LoadSettings()
{
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Settings));

    Settings settings = null;

    using(TextReader reader = new StreamReader(this.FilePath))
    {
        settings = (Settings)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
    }

    return settings;
}