XML serialization and deserialization

• US 20050097504A1
• Filed: 12/10/2004
• Published: 05/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Christensen, Erik B., Pharies, Stefan H., Ballinger, Keith W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,676,740 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4493 Object persistence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

An object instance is serialized to a serial format, such as an extensible Markup Language (XML) document, based on a mapping between an arbitrary annotated source code file and a schema. The arbitrary annotated source code contains at least one programming type that describes a shape of an object instance and the schema describes a format of a document having a serial format. The mapping defines a correspondence between the shape of the object instance and the format of the document having the serial format. Subsequently, an object instance is converted to the serial format by converting public properties, public fields and method parameters of the object instance to a document having the serial format based on the mapping. Once the mapping is defined, an XML document can also be converted to an object instance based on the mapping.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

compiling source code that includes a programming type and an attribute, the attribute specifying a name of an XML element to be stored when serializing an instance of the programming type.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the attribute is named XmlRootAttribute.

4. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein the attribute is named XmlRootAttribute.

3. A method comprising:

compiling source code that includes a programming type and an attribute, the attribute specifying a name of an XML namespace to be stored when serializing an instance of the programming type.

5. A method comprising:

compiling source code that includes a class, a method with a return value, and an attribute, the attribute indicating that the return value is to be serialized to XML formatted data.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the attribute specifies an XML element name.

7. A method according to claim 5, wherein the attribute is named XmlElementAttribute.

8. A method according to claim 5, wherein the attribute specifies an XML attribute name.

9. A method according to claim 5, wherein the attribute specifies an XML attribute name and the attribute is named XmlAttributeAttribute.

10. A method according to claim 5, wherein the attribute specifies that the return value of the method is to be serialized into an XML array.

11. A method according to claim 5, wherein the attribute is named XmlArrayAttribute and wherein the attribute specifies that the return value is to be serialized into an XML array.

12. A method comprising:

compiling source code that includes a class, a member of the class, and an attribute, the attribute indicating that the property is to be serialized to XML formatted data.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the attribute specifies an XML element name.

14. A method according to claim 12, wherein the attribute specifies an XML element name and the attribute is named XmlElementAttribute.

15. A method according to claim 12, wherein the attribute specifies an XML attribute name.

16. A method according to claim 12, wherein the attribute specifies an XML attribute name and the attribute is named XmlAttributeAttribute.

17. A method according to claim 12, wherein the member of the class is a property.

18. A method according to claim 12, wherein the member of the class is an enum.

19. A method according to claim 12, wherein the member of the class is an enum and the attribute is named XmlEnumAttribute.

20. A method according to claim 12, wherein the member of the class is a method.

21. A method according to claim 12, wherein the member of the class is a method and the attribute is named XmlIncludeAttribute.

22. A method comprising:

compiling source code that includes a class, a member of the class, and an attribute, the attribute indicating that the method is not to be serialized to XML formatted data.

23. A method according to claim 22, wherein the attribute is named XmlIgnoreAttribute.

24. A method according to claim 22, wherein the member of the class is a property.

25. A method according to claim 22, wherein the member of the class is a method.