Implementing Custom Serialization

Summary

XML serialization is responsible for serializing instances of .NET types to XML and deserializing XML to instances of .NET types. This includes support for instances of built-in .NET types, classes, and structures as well as composite types such as arrays, nested object hierarchies, and objects that support the ICollection and IEnumerable interfaces. It also supports serializing .NET type definitions into an XML schema.

XML serialization has default behaviors that might not be appropriate in all situations, so the .NET platform provides a collection of attributes that you can apply to .NET type definitions, variable declarations, and parameter declarations to control the behavior of .NET serialization.

If the collection of attributes is not sufficient, you can use the IXmlSerializable interface. This interface allows fine-grained control over how an instance of a .NET type is serialized to XML.