Serialize a FeatureClass to XML in ESRI ArcGIS

How can I s开发者_运维技巧erialize an IFeatureClass object to XML?

There are some resources for using IXMLSerializer on other ArcObjects, but that won't work for IFeatureClass because it doesn't implement ISerializable.

I've actual found my own answer to this question. I'm posting this question and answer here for the benefit of others and for feedback/critique on my approach.

IFeatureClass cannot be serialized directly, but IRecordSet2 can be. So the first step is implementing a method to convert IFeatureClass to IRecordSet2:

private static IRecordSet2 ConvertToRecordset(IFeatureClass fc)
{
    IRecordSet recSet = new RecordSetClass();
    IRecordSetInit recSetInit = recSet as IRecordSetInit;
    recSetInit.SetSourceTable(fc as ITable, null);

    return (IRecordSet2) recSetInit;
}

Then it's easy to use IXMLSerializer to get XML:

public static XElement StoreAsXml(IFeatureClass fc)
{
    // Can't serialize a feature class directly, so convert
    //  to recordset first.
    IRecordSet2 recordset = ConvertToRecordset(fc);

    IXMLSerializer xmlSer = new XMLSerializerClass();
    string sXml = xmlSer.SaveToString(recordset, null, null);

    return XElement.Parse(sXml);           
}

However, when you convert to IRecordSet2, you lose the feature class name, so when writing to a file, I add an element to the XML to hold the feature class name:

public static void StoreToFile(IFeatureClass fc, string filePath)
{
    XElement xdoc = StoreAsXml(fc);

    XElement el = new XElement("FeatureClass", new XAttribute( "name", fc.AliasName ),
                                xdoc);

    el.Save(filePath);
}

Now, just reverse the process to read the XML into a feature class. Remember that an element was added to store the feature class name:

public static IFeatureClass RetreiveFromFile(string filepath)
{
    XElement xdoc = XElement.Load(filepath);
    string sName = xdoc.FirstAttribute.Value;
    XNode recordset = xdoc.FirstNode;

    return RetreiveFromXml(recordset, sName);
}

Simple de-serialization using IXMLSerializer to get a IRecordSet2:

public static IFeatureClass RetreiveFromXml(XNode node, string sName)
{
    IXMLSerializer xmlDeSer = new XMLSerializerClass();
    IRecordSet2 recordset = (IRecordSet2)xmlDeSer.LoadFromString(node.ToString(), null, null);

    return ConvertToFeatureClass(recordset, sName);
}

This was the tricky part. I'm open to suggestions on how to improve this ... covert the IRecordSet2 object into an IFeatureClass:

private static IFeatureClass ConvertToFeatureClass(IRecordSet2 rs, string sName)
{
    IWorkspaceFactory pWSFact = new ShapefileWorkspaceFactory();

    string sTempPath = Path.GetTempPath();
    IFeatureWorkspace pFWS = (IFeatureWorkspace)pWSFact.OpenFromFile( sTempPath, 0);

    // Will fail (COM E_FAIL) if the dataset already exists
    DeleteExistingDataset(pFWS, sName);

    IFeatureClass pFeatClass = null;
    pFeatClass = pFWS.CreateFeatureClass(sName, rs.Fields, null, null, esriFeatureType.esriFTSimple,
                                         "SHAPE", "");

    // Copy incoming record set table to new feature class's table
    ITable table = (ITable) pFeatClass;
    table = rs.Table;

    IFeatureClass result = table as IFeatureClass;

    // It will probably work OK without this, but it makes the XML match more closely
    IClassSchemaEdit3 schema = result as IClassSchemaEdit3;
    schema.AlterAliasName(sName);
    schema.AlterFieldAliasName("FID", "");
    schema.AlterFieldModelName("FID", "");
    schema.AlterFieldAliasName("Shape", "");
    schema.AlterFieldModelName("Shape", "");

    // If individual fields need to be edited, do something like this:
    //      int nFieldIndex = result.Fields.FindField("Shape");
    //      IFieldEdit2 field = (IFieldEdit2)result.Fields.get_Field(nFieldIndex);

    // Cleanup 
    DeleteExistingDataset(pFWS, sName);

    return table as IFeatureClass;
}

Finally, a utility method for deleting an existing dataset. This was copy/pasted from somewhere, but I can't remember the source.

public static void DeleteExistingDataset(IFeatureWorkspace pFWS, string sDatasetName)
{
    IWorkspace pWS = (IWorkspace)pFWS;
    IEnumDatasetName pEDSN = pWS.get_DatasetNames(esriDatasetType.esriDTFeatureClass);
    bool bDatasetExists = false;
    pEDSN.Reset();
    IDatasetName pDSN = pEDSN.Next();
    while (pDSN != null)
    {
        if (pDSN.Name == sDatasetName)
        {
            bDatasetExists = true;
            break;
        }
        pDSN = pEDSN.Next();
    }
    if (bDatasetExists)
    {
        IFeatureClass pFC = pFWS.OpenFeatureClass(sDatasetName);
        IDataset pDataset = (IDataset)pFC;
        pDataset.Delete();
    }
}