CCNetConfig

This weeks Little Class is the System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer. The XmlSerializer class generates an XmlDocument from .NET types. It can also load that XmlDocument in to create the object as well. One thing that is important when serializing a type is the use of the Xml Serialization Attributes. You will see in the comments in the code below how the comments determine the way the Xml is created and read back in.

  1using System;
  2using System.Collections.Generic;
  3using System.Text;
  4using System.Xml.Serialization;
  5using System.IO;
  6
  7namespace ALittleClass ...{
  8  class Program ...{
  9    static void Main ( string[ ] args ) ...{
 10      // create the XmlSerializerFactor
 11      XmlSerializerFactory factory = new XmlSerializerFactory ( );
 12      // Create the memory stream that will be used to store the serialized data
 13      MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream ( );
 14      // create the serializer
 15      XmlSerializer serializer = factory.CreateSerializer ( typeof ( Settings ) );
 16      using ( ms ) ...{
 17        // create the settings class
 18        Settings settings = new Settings ( );
 19        // set some values.
 20        settings.Name = "Ryan";
 21        settings.ShowName = false;
 22        settings.Friends.Add ( "Nick" );
 23        settings.Friends.Add ( "Scott" );
 24        settings.Friends.Add ( "Kevin" );
 25        settings.Friends.Add ( "Jeff" );
 26        settings.Friends.Add ( "Jon" );
 27        // display when the settings class was created
 28        Console.WriteLine ( "Settings Created at {0}\n", settings.TimeStamp.ToString ( ) );
 29        // serialize the settings
 30        serializer.Serialize ( ms, settings );
 31
 32        // reset the position of the memory stream
 33        ms.Position = 0;
 34        // create a stream reader to read the xml
 35        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader ( ms );
 36        using ( sr ) ...{
 37          // output the xml
 38          while ( !sr.EndOfStream )
 39            Console.WriteLine ( sr.ReadLine ( ) );
 40          // reset the position again so the xml can be deserialized
 41          ms.Position = 0;
 42          Console.WriteLine ( "-------" );
 43          // sleep for 5 seconds so we can see that the setting class was recreated again at a later time
 44          System.Threading.Thread.Sleep ( 5000 );
 45          // create an xml text reader so we can check that it can be deserialized
 46          System.Xml.XmlTextReader reader = new System.Xml.XmlTextReader ( ms );
 47          using ( reader ) ...{
 48            // destroy our original settings object
 49            settings = null;
 50            // check that we can deserialize
 51            if ( serializer.CanDeserialize ( reader ) ) ...{
 52              // deserialize the xml to a Settings object
 53              settings = serializer.Deserialize ( reader ) as Settings;
 54              // ouput the values in the settings object
 55              Console.WriteLine ( "Name: {0}", settings.Name );
 56              Console.WriteLine ( "ShowName: {0}", settings.ShowName );
 57              Console.WriteLine ( "Friends:" );
 58              foreach ( string friend in settings.Friends ) ...{
 59                Console.WriteLine ( "\t{0}", friend );
 60              }
 61              // display when this settings object was created... should be 5 seconds after the first one
 62              Console.WriteLine ( "Settings Created at {0}", settings.TimeStamp.ToString ( ) );
 63            } else // we had a problem
 64              Console.WriteLine ( "Unable to load in settings xml" );
 65          }
 66        }
 67      }
 68      // wait for enter
 69      Console.ReadLine ( );
 70    }
 71  }
 72
 73
 74  // This attribute sets what the expected root element name will be.
 75  [XmlRoot ( "MySettings" )]
 76  public class Settings ...{
 77    private string _name;
 78    private bool _showName = true;
 79    private List<string> _friends;
 80    private DateTime _creationTime = DateTime.MinValue;
 81    public Settings ( ) ...{
 82      _friends = new List<string> ( );
 83      this.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now;
 84    }
 85    // This attribute sets that all the items in the collection will be contained in an element named Friends
 86    [XmlArray ( "Friends" ),
 87      // This attribute sets that each item in the collection will have its own element named Friend
 88    XmlArrayItem ( "Friend" )]
 89    public List<string> Friends ...{
 90      get ...{ return _friends; }
 91      set ...{ _friends = value; }
 92    }
 93    // This attribute sets that this property will be an attribute of the root element
 94    [XmlAttribute ( "ShowName" )]
 95    public bool ShowName ...{
 96      get ...{ return _showName; }
 97      set ...{ _showName = value; }
 98    }
 99
100    // This attribute sets that this property will be an element named Name
101    [XmlElement ( "Name" )]
102    public string Name ...{
103      get ...{ return _name; }
104      set ...{ _name = value; }
105    }
106    // This attribute sets that this property will not be serialized.
107    [XmlIgnore]
108    public DateTime TimeStamp ...{
109      get ...{ return this._creationTime; }
110      set ...{ this._creationTime = value; }
111    }
112  }
113}
114

Settings Created at 9/28/2007 7:06:29 PM

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<MySettings xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" ShowName="false">
  <Friends>
    <Friend>Nick</Friend>
    <Friend>Scott</Friend>
    <Friend>Kevin</Friend>
    <Friend>Jeff</Friend>
    <Friend>Jon</Friend>
  </Friends>
  <Name>Ryan</Name>
</MySettings>
-------
Name: Ryan
ShowName: False
Friends:
        Nick
        Scott
        Kevin
        Jeff
        Jon
Settings Created at 9/28/2007 7:06:34 PM

DotNetKicks announced a set of alpha JSON services that allow developers to get popular stories, upcoming stories, and information about the DotNetKicks system and service. DotNetKicks is now an open source project hosted on Google Code.

There is also a test page provided so you can try out the services. A full list of supported calls can also be seen on the test page.

I have put up the first version of the source browser. This allows access to view the latest source that CCNet has used for building a release. Since the source browser uses the files that are used in building, the source browser will not be available when CruiseControl is checking for modifications or building.

For viewing purposes, there is a toolbar with buttons to hide the file treeview and the information panel on the right. This gives almost 100% of the width of the screen for viewing the source code. The initial load of the page may be slow because currently the entire tree is loaded. The next version will dynamically load child nodes when they are expanded.

This is a reoccurring topic that I am starting where I will pick a class in the .NET framework and describe what it is and give some example code for using it. This will be a weekly post and I am starting off with the System.TimeZone class.

The System.TimeZone class represents a timezone is a geographical region in which the same standard time is used. This class does not have any public constructors, instead you use the static CurrentTimeZone property to get an instance of the CurrentSystemTimeZone.