How to Remove the Root Element from an XML Array Using XmlSerializer?

XML Serialization: Disabling the Root Element of an Array

In XML serialization, it's often desirable to suppress the rendering of the root element for collections. This can simplify XML structures and improve readability. This article explains how to achieve this using ASP.NET's XmlSerializer.

Consider the following ShopItem class with XML serialization attributes:

[XmlRoot(ElementName = "SHOPITEM", Namespace = "")]
public class ShopItem
{
    [XmlElement("PRODUCTNAME")]
    public string ProductName { get; set; }

    [XmlArrayItem("VARIANT")]
    public List<shopitem> Variants { get; set; }
}</shopitem>

Serializing an instance of this class produces the following XML:

<shopitem xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <productname>test</productname>
  <variants>
    <variant>
      <productname>hi 1</productname>
    </variant>
    <variant>
      <productname>hi 2</productname>
    </variant>
  </variants>
</shopitem>

As you can see, an unwanted root element is present. To disable its rendering, you need to replace the [XmlArrayItem] attribute with [XmlElement].

[XmlRoot("SHOPITEM")]
public class ShopItem
{
    [XmlElement("PRODUCTNAME")]
    public string ProductName { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("VARIANT")] // Replaced [XmlArrayItem]
    public List<shopitem> Variants { get; set; }
}</shopitem>

This modification yields the following simplified XML:

<shopitem>
  <productname>test</productname>
  <variant>
    <productname>hi 1</productname>
  </variant>
  <variant>
    <productname>hi 2</productname>
  </variant>
</shopitem>

Additionally, you may encounter XML namespaces such as xsi and xsd in the root element. To remove these, create an XmlSerializerNamespaces instance with an empty namespace and pass it during serialization.

Here's an example:

XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add("", "");

XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ShopItem));
ser.Serialize(Console.Out, item, ns);

This will eliminate the unwanted namespaces from the XML output.

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