xml serialization error on bool types - asp.net

Question

I am trying to find out how to solve the problem for serializing a type of bool from a camel case string.
I have the following xml
<Root>
<BoolElement>
False
</BoolElement>
</Root>
and the following class
[XmlRoot("Root")]
public class RootObj{
[XmlElement("BoolElement")]
public bool BoolElement{get;set;}
}
this will produce an error.
If I use the same class and rename the "False" to "false" it will work. The problem is that I can't edit the xml.
Does anyone know how can I solve this?

Answer 1

You could use a backing field to aid for the deserialization of this invalid XML (I say invalid because according to the xsd:boolean schema False is an invalid value):
[XmlRoot("Root")]
public class RootObj
{
[XmlElement("BoolElement")]
public string BackingBoolElement
{
set
{
BoolElement = bool.Parse(value.ToLower());
}
get
{
return BoolElement.ToString();
}
}
[XmlIgnore]
public bool BoolElement { get; set; }
}

Answer 2

False is not a valid value for an xsd:boolean (but as you note false and 0 are) - if you cannot change the source data, then you could have a separate property purely for XML serialisation:
[XmlRoot("Root")]
public class RootObj{
[XmlElement("BoolElement")]
public string BoolElementForSerialization
{
get
{
return (this.BoolElement ? "True" : "False");
}
set
{
this.BoolElement = (string.Compare(value, "false", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) != 0);
}
}
[XmlIgnore]
public bool BoolElement{get;set;}
}

Answer 3

I created a new Boolean type that can deserialize from any string. It may not be perfect but it suited my needs at the time.
For the class you want to use simply change the data type from bool to SerializableBoolean:
[XmlRoot("Root")]
public class RootObj{
[XmlElement("BoolElement")]
public SerializableBoolean BoolElement{get;set;}
}
You can then use the BoolElement property like any normal bool data type:
RootObj myObj = new RootObj();
if (myObj.BoolElement) { ... }
Here is the code for the SerializableBoolean class, note this code only handles deserializing, serializing to xml wasn't required for my purposes and so not implemented.
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerDisplay("{Value}")]
public struct SerializableBoolean: System.Xml.Serialization.IXmlSerializable
{
private bool Value { get; set; }
public override bool Equals(object obj)
{
if (obj is string stringBoolean)
{
bool.TryParse(stringBoolean, out bool boolean);
return Value == boolean;
}
else if (obj is bool boolean)
{
return Value == boolean;
}
else if (obj is SerializableBoolean serializableBoolean)
{
return Value == serializableBoolean.Value;
}
else
{
return Value == Convert.ToBoolean(obj);
}
}
public override int GetHashCode()
{
return -1937169414 + Value.GetHashCode();
}
public XmlSchema GetSchema()
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
public void ReadXml(XmlReader reader)
{
Value = Convert.ToBoolean(reader.ReadElementContentAsString());
}
public void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
public static bool operator ==(SerializableBoolean obj1, bool obj2)
{
return obj1.Value.Equals(obj2);
}
public static bool operator !=(SerializableBoolean obj1, bool obj2)
{
return !obj1.Value.Equals(obj2);
}
public static implicit operator SerializableBoolean(string value)
{
return new SerializableBoolean() { Value = Convert.ToBoolean(value) };
}
public static implicit operator SerializableBoolean(bool value)
{
return new SerializableBoolean() { Value = value };
}
public static implicit operator bool(SerializableBoolean b)
{
return b.Value;
}
}