How to Suppress the Root Array Element in XML Serialization?

XML Serialization: Suppressing Root Array Element

Question:

Can serialization of an XML collection's root element be disabled? Consider the following class with attributes:

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

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

This class generates XML with a root element:

<SHOPITEM xmlns:xsi="" xmlns:xsd="">
  <PRODUCTNAME>test</PRODUCTNAME>
  <Variants>
    <VARIANT>
      <PRODUCTNAME>hi 1</PRODUCTNAME>
    </VARIANT>
    <VARIANT>
      <PRODUCTNAME>hi 2</PRODUCTNAME>
    </VARIANT>
  </Variants>
</SHOPITEM>

How can be omitted from the output? Additionally, how can the xsi and xsd namespaces be removed from the root element?

Answer:

To eliminate the element, replace the [XmlArrayItem] attribute with [XmlElement] for the collection property:

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

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

To remove the xsi and xsd namespaces, create an XmlSerializerNamespaces instance with an empty namespace and use it during serialization:

// ...

ShopItem item = new ShopItem() { ProductName = "test", ... };

// This removes the xsi/xsd namespaces from serialization
XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add("", "");

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

The resulting XML will have the desired format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ibm850"?>
<SHOPITEM>
  <PRODUCTNAME>test</PRODUCTNAME>
  <VARIANT>
    <PRODUCTNAME>hi 1</PRODUCTNAME>
  </VARIANT>
  <VARIANT>
    <PRODUCTNAME>hi 2</PRODUCTNAME>
  </VARIANT>
</SHOPITEM>

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