Remove <ArrayOf. From MVC Web Api response

Question

I am getting the following response from a standard MVC 4 WebApi project;

<ArrayOfProduct xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Product>
<Id>1</Id>
<Name>Tomato Soup</Name>
<Category>Groceries</Category>
<Price>1</Price>
</Product>
</ArrayOfProduct>

I am trying to make it so that it returns

<Products>
<Product>
<Id>1</Id>
<Name>Tomato Soup</Name>
<Category>Groceries</Category>
<Price>1</Price>
</Product>
</Products>

I have found many reference to various methods that supposedly solve this, none work;

Changing the default serializer does not work.

Creating a customer serializer for Product does not work.

Creating a new class that has List<Product> exposed with suitable XmlRoot and XmlElement attributes does not work.

Adding Datacontract attributes does not work.

Adding CollectionDatacontract attributes does not work.

This appears to be so simple to everyone else, except me!

Have you tried using the setting shown in this SO question and answer. Also, are you using the release version of the Web API? — Sixto Saez
– Sixto Saez, Commented Oct 24, 2012 at 19:52

Maggie Ying · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-24 20:41:01Z

16

Try using the XmlSeriazlier instead:

config.Formatters.XmlFormatter.UseXmlSerializer = true;

And then try defining a class that derives from the collection of Product, and use [XmlRoot("Products")] to rename the element name from 'ArrayOfProduct' to 'Products'.

For example, instead of using List, use the class Products:

[XmlRoot("Products")]
public class Products : List<Product> { }

public class Product
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Category { get; set; }
    public double Price { get; set; }
}

ApiController's action:

    public Products Get()
    {
        return new Products()
        {
            new Product() 
            {
                Id = 1,
                Name = "Tomato Soup", 
                Category = "Groceries",
                Price = 1
            }
        };
    }

answered Oct 24, 2012 at 20:41

Maggie Ying

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7 Comments

Tallmaris Over a year ago

Hi. Is there a way to to what you did but also change the Product xml element to something else? I cannot find a way to set the right attribute on the class to change the name...

Romko Over a year ago

2Tallmaris: use [DataContract] attribute to decorate a class or/and properties

Patrick Szalapski Over a year ago

What is config in your code? Do you mean GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter.UseXmlSerializer = true; ?

Genti Saliu Over a year ago

config is the argument that gets passed to method Register(HttpConfiguration config) in App_Start/WebApiConfig.

Shahdat Over a year ago

works good, still struggling to remove xmlns. xmlns:xsd="w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" any idea? I tried [XmlRoot("Orders", Namespace=null)] that did not work

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