xaml Working with custom XAML files Writing an object to XAML

Example

Consider a structure of the following classes should be constructed in XAML an then read into a CLR object:

namespace CustomXaml
{
    public class Test
    {
        public string Value { get; set; }
        public List<TestChild> Children { get; set; } = new List<TestChild>(); 
    }
    
    public class TestChild
    {
        public string StringValue { get; set; }
        public int IntValue { get; set; }
    }
}

To write XAML the XamlServices class can be used. It is defined in System.Xaml which needs to be added to references. The following line then writes the instance test which is of type Test to the file test.xaml on disk:

XamlServices.Save("test.xaml", test);

The XamlServices.Save method has several overloads to write to streams and other targets. The resulting XAML should look something like this:

<Test Value="test" xmlns="clr-namespace:CustomXaml;assembly=CustomXaml"
                   xmlns:scg="clr-namespace:System.Collections.Generic;assembly=mscorlib"
                   xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
  <Test.Children>
    <scg:List x:TypeArguments="TestChild" Capacity="4">
      <TestChild IntValue="123" StringValue="abc" />
      <TestChild IntValue="456" StringValue="{x:Null}" />
    </scg:List>
  </Test.Children>
</Test>

The pure xmlns Definition allows the use of classes in the same namespace without prefix. The Definition of the xmlns:x is neccessary to use constructs like {x:Null}. The writer automatically adds the xmlns:scg to initialize a List<TestChild> for the Children property of the Test object. It does not rely on the property being initialized by the constructor.