How to Serialize a Collection

In a fragment of a code I'm working on, I must serialize a collection of links into an XML file. Fortunately, .NET Framework provides a quick XmlSerializer class to do the dirty job for you.

Well, almost…

**The problem
**

If you try to serialize a class derived from CollectionBase, the Serialize method will throw a nasty exception.

**The workaround
**

Use a container class, put the CollectionBase-derived class as a property, decorate this property with XmlArray and XmlArrayItem tags.

> \[Serializable\]  
> 
> public class CollectionContainer  
> 
> {  
> 
> private LinkCollection \_links= new ColeccionEnlaces();  
> 
> \[XmlArray("Links")\]  
> 
> \[XmlArrayItem("Link",typeof(Link))\]  
> 
> public LinkCollection Links  
> 
> {  
> 
> get  
> 
> {  
> 
> return \_links;  
> 
> }  
> 
> set  
> 
> {  
> 
> \_links = value;  
> 
> }  
> 
> }  
> 
> }