Greetings. I am new to XML serialization/deserialization and need some help. I have a huge XML file (let’s call it ItemDatabase.xml), and inside of it I want to get all the individual items out of it and assign them to instances of a class I have made in my scripts. Like so:
public List<Item> lootPileContents = new List<Item>();
public void CreateLootPile(TextAsset itemDatabase) {
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Item));
for(int i = 0; i < LOOT_PILE_ITEM_LIMIT; i++){
using(StringReader reader = new StringReader(itemDatabase.text) {
lootPileContents *= serializer.Deserialize(reader) as Item;*
}
}
}
The issue I have with the above code is that I don’t know if the whole XML file will just be treated as one whole Item. The XML file is setup like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
A precious stone
-
<word>Pearl</word>* -
<proportion>0.22</proportion>*
-
<word>Gem</word>* -
<proportion>0.17</proportion>*
-
<word>Amethyst</word>* -
<proportion>0.18</proportion>*
-
<word>Opal</word>* -
<proportion>0.18</proportion>*
-
<item>* -
<word>Silver</word>* -
<proportion>0.08</proportion>* -
</item>* -
<item>* -
<word>Jade</word>* -
<proportion>0.06</proportion>* -
</item>* -
<item>* -
<word>Quartz</word>* -
<proportion>0.06</proportion>* -
</item>* -
<item>* -
<word>Turquoise</word>* -
<proportion>0.05</proportion>* -
</item>*
…
I have public members in the Item class to handle category, group, category name, and proportion (All named appropriately: category, group, categoryName, proportion). So to reiterate: I need to grab individual items out of the XML file and assign them to instances of the Item class that is in a generic collection.
Eventually I would want to pick an item out at random with some additional constraints (no duplicates or other items from that group/category, etc.)
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Edit - Update #1: Here is the Item.cs class
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
[XmlArrayItem(“item”)]
public class Item {
[XmlNode(“name”)]
public string categoryName;
[XmlNode(“word”)]
public string word;
[XmlNode(“proportion”)]
public float proportion;
public Item() {
categoryName = “”;
word = “”;
proportion = 0.0f;
}
}
Edit - Update #2: I have created container classes for each of the different groupings in the Xml. I also rewrote the Item class to make it more simple.
Revised Item.cs:
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
public class Item {
[XmlElement(“word”)]
public string word;
public ItemTest() {
}
}
New ItemGroup.cs class:
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Collections.Generic;
public class ItemGroup {
[XmlArray(“group”), XmlArrayItem(“item”)]
public List items = new List();
public ItemGroup() {
}
}
New ItemCategory.cs class
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Collections.Generic;
public class ItemCategory {
[XmlElement(“name”)]
public string name;
[XmlArray(“category”), XmlArrayItem(“group”)]
public List groups = new List();
public ItemCategory() {
}
}
I have been testing using the smallest unit (item in this case) and adding layers of complexity to test. Currently I am able to correctly deserialize everything at and below the “ItemGroup” level. I can deserialize the following just fine:
Pancake
Waffle
Using this code:
ItemGroup DeserializeGroup(string p) {
XmlRootAttribute root = new XmlRootAttribute (“items”);
root.IsNullable = true;
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer (typeof(ItemGroup), root);
using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(p, FileMode.Open)) {
return serializer.Deserialize(stream) as ItemGroup;
}
}
But as soon as I add another layer of complexity I only get the first layer of information. So something like this:
Breakfast Food
Pancake
Waffle
Bacon
Eggs
With deserialization code:
ItemCategory DeserializeCategory(string p) {
XmlRootAttribute root = new XmlRootAttribute (“items”);
root.IsNullable = true;
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer (typeof(ItemCategory), root);
using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(p, FileMode.Open)) {
return serializer.Deserialize(stream) as ItemCategory;
}
}
Will only yield having the groups list in category being populated with empty groups. So how can I enable deep serialization of the rest of the XML file?