Here is an implementation using VB.Net of XmlConverter class from my old post. I’ll not rewrite the post but just put the code and sample of its use. The idea is to allow some VB.Net guy to use the implementation as is and not to rewrite it from C# into VB.Net. BUT Let me underline that I’ve few projects with VB.Net but it is not my favorite language.

Why I’m providing this implementation? Because according to blog statistics my old post is the most popular post on my blog and I hope it will be useful for somebody who needds it in VB.Net. I’ll also provide an implementation using VB.Net of XmlUtils class which uses extensions methods.

Public Class XmlConverter    
    Public Shared Function ToXml(Of T As New)(ByVal value As T) As String
        Return ToXml(value, Encoding.UTF8)   
    End Function    
    Public Shared Function ToXml(Of T As New)(ByVal value As T, ByVal encoding As Encoding) As String
        Try
            Using stream As New MemoryStream()
                Using writer As TextWriter = New StreamWriter(stream, encoding)
                    Dim serializer As New XmlSerializer(GetType(T))
                    serializer.Serialize(writer, value)
                    Dim cnt As Integer = stream.Length
                    Dim arr(cnt) As Byte
                    stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin)
                    stream.Read(arr, 0, cnt)
                    Return encoding.GetString(arr, 0, arr.Length).Trim()
                End Using
            End Using
        Catch
        End Try
        Return Nothing
    End Function    
    Public Shared Function FromXml(Of T As New)(ByVal xml As String) As T
        Try
            Using stream As New StringReader(xml)
                Using reader As New XmlTextReader(stream)
                    Dim serializer As New XmlSerializer(GetType(T))
                    Return serializer.Deserialize(reader)
                End Using
            End Using
        Catch
        End Try
        Return Nothing
    End Function
End Class

 Below is the example of how to use XmlConverter. Note that the XML output is the same as those shown in my old post.

       
Dim contact As New Contact()
With contact
    .Name = "Anton"
    .Age = 28
    .Address = "Sofia"
    .Phone = "(000) 123 456 789"
End With
Dim contactXml As String = XmlConverter.ToXml(Of Contact)(contact)
Dim restoredContact As Contact = XmlConverter.FromXml(Of Contact)(contactXml)

Tags: Xml Serialization