using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Xml.Serialization;

using System.Xml;

using System.IO;

using System.Diagnostics;

using System.Collections.ObjectModel;

using System.Threading;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Xml.Linq;

using System.Reflection;

using System.Data;

using System.Xml.Schema;

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

using System.Net;

using System.Xml.XPath;

using System.Globalization;

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

using System.Collections;

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

using System.Runtime.Serialization;

​

    // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42539016/how-to-set-the-name-of-an-xml-element-on-the-class-rather-than-the-property

​

    [XmlRoot("Parent")]

    public class MyElement

    {

        [XmlElement(typeof(ChildElementA))]

        [XmlElement(typeof(ChildElementB))]

        public BaseChildElement[] MyChildren { get; set; }

    }

​

    public abstract class BaseChildElement { }

​

    [XmlType("ChildTypeA")]

    public class ChildElementA : BaseChildElement

    {

        [XmlAttribute]

        public string Content { get; set; }

    }

​

    [XmlType("ChildTypeB")]

    public class ChildElementB : BaseChildElement

    {

        [XmlAttribute]

        public string BContent { get; set; }

    }

​

    class TestClass

    {

        internal static void Test()

        {

            var test = new MyElement

            {

                MyChildren = new BaseChildElement []

                {

                    new ChildElementA { Content = "foo" },

                    new ChildElementB { BContent = "bar" },

                    new ChildElementA { Content = "tlon" },

                    new ChildElementB { BContent = "ukbar" },

                }

            };

​

            var xml = test.GetXml();

            Console.WriteLine("Initially serialized XML: ");

            Console.WriteLine(xml);

​

            var test2 = xml.LoadFromXml<MyElement>();

​

            var xml2 = test2.GetXml();

​

            Console.WriteLine("Deserialized and re-serialized XML: ");

            Console.WriteLine(xml2);

​

            Assert.IsTrue(XNode.DeepEquals(XElement.Parse(xml), XElement.Parse(xml2)));

            Console.WriteLine("Initial and re-serialized XML are equivalent.");

            Assert.IsTrue(test.MyChildren.Length == test2.MyChildren.Length

                          && test.MyChildren.Select(c => c.GetType()).SequenceEqual(test2.MyChildren.Select(c => c.GetType())));

            Console.WriteLine("Initial and de-serialized MyChildren collections have identical lengths and child types.");

        }

    }

​

    public class Program

    {

        public static void Main()

        {

            TestClass.Test();

        }

    }

​

    public static class XmlSerializationHelper

    {

        public static T LoadFromXml<T>(this string xmlString, XmlSerializer serial = null)

        {

            serial = serial ?? new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

            T returnValue = default(T);

            using (StringReader reader = new StringReader(xmlString))

            {

                object result = serial.Deserialize(reader);

                if (result is T)

                {

                    returnValue = (T)result;

                }

            }

            return returnValue;

        }

​

        public static string GetXml<T>(this T obj, XmlSerializer serializer = null, bool omitStandardNamespaces = false)

        {

            XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = null;

            if (omitStandardNamespaces)

            {

                ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();

                ns.Add("", ""); // Disable the xmlns:xsi and xmlns:xsd lines.

            }           

            using (var textWriter = new StringWriter())

            {

                var settings = new XmlWriterSettings() { Indent = true }; // For cosmetic purposes.

                using (var xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(textWriter, settings))

                    (serializer ?? new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType())).Serialize(xmlWriter, obj, ns);

                return textWriter.ToString();

            }

        }

    }

​

    public class AssertionFailedException : System.Exception

    {

        public AssertionFailedException() : base() { }

​

        public AssertionFailedException(string s) : base(s) { }

    }

​

    public static class Assert

    {

        public static void IsTrue(bool value)

        {

            if (value == false)

                throw new AssertionFailedException("failed");

        }

    }

​