How and Why implement IXmlSerializable Interface

msdn note :

Provides custom formatting for XML serialization and deserialization.

There are two reasons to implement this interface. The first is to control how your object is serialized or deserialized by the XmlSerializer. For example, you can chunk data into bytes instead of buffering large data sets, and also avoid the inflation that occurs when the data is encoded using Base64 encoding. To control the serialization, implement the ReadXmland WriteXml methods to control the XmlReader and XmlWriter classes used to read and write the XML. For an example of this, see How To: Chunk Serialized Data.

The second reason is to be able to control the schema. To enable this, you must apply the XmlSchemaProviderAttribute to the serializable type, and specify the name of the static member that returns the schema. See theXmlSchemaProviderAttribute for an example.

A class that implements the interface must have a parameterless constructor. This is a requirement of the XmlSerializerclass.

[WebMethod]    
[System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapDocumentMethodAttribute(ParameterStyle=SoapParameterStyle.Bare)]
public SongStream DownloadSong(DownloadAuthorization Authorization, string filePath)
{
    // Turn off response buffering.
    System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response.Buffer = false;
    // Return a song.
    SongStream song = new SongStream(filePath);
    return song;
}
//the following class is defined in the server machine.

[XmlSchemaProvider("MySchema")]
public class SongStream : IXmlSerializable
{

    private const string ns = "http://demos.Contoso.com/webservices";
    private string filePath;

    public SongStream(){ }

    public SongStream(string filePath)
    {
     this.filePath = filePath;
    }

    // This is the method named by the XmlSchemaProviderAttribute applied to the type.
    public static XmlQualifiedName MySchema(XmlSchemaSet xs)
    {
     // This method is called by the framework to get the schema for this type.
     // We return an existing schema from disk.

     XmlSerializer schemaSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(XmlSchema));
     string xsdPath = null;
     // NOTE: replace the string with your own path.
     xsdPath = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("SongStream.xsd");
     XmlSchema s = (XmlSchema)schemaSerializer.Deserialize(
         new XmlTextReader(xsdPath), null);
     xs.XmlResolver = new XmlUrlResolver();
     xs.Add(s);

     return new XmlQualifiedName("songStream", ns);
    }


    void IXmlSerializable.WriteXml(System.Xml.XmlWriter writer)
    {
       // This is the chunking code.
       // ASP.NET buffering must be turned off for this to work.
 

     int bufferSize = 4096;
     char[] songBytes = new char[bufferSize];
     FileStream inFile = File.Open(this.filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);

     long length = inFile.Length;

     // Write the file name.
     writer.WriteElementString("fileName", ns, Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(this.filePath));

     // Write the size.
     writer.WriteElementString("size", ns, length.ToString());

     // Write the song bytes.
     writer.WriteStartElement("song", ns);

     StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(inFile, true);
     int readLen = sr.Read(songBytes, 0, bufferSize);

     while (readLen > 0)
     {
         writer.WriteStartElement("chunk", ns);
         writer.WriteChars(songBytes, 0, readLen);
         writer.WriteEndElement();

         writer.Flush();
         readLen = sr.Read(songBytes, 0, bufferSize);
     }

     writer.WriteEndElement();
     inFile.Close();

    }


    System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchema IXmlSerializable.GetSchema()
    {
     throw new System.NotImplementedException();
    }

    void IXmlSerializable.ReadXml(System.Xml.XmlReader reader)
    {
     throw new System.NotImplementedException();

    }
}

public class SongFile : IXmlSerializable
{
    public static event ProgressMade OnProgress;

    public SongFile()
    { }

    private const string ns = "http://demos.teched2004.com/webservices";
    public static string MusicPath;
    private string filePath;
    private double size;

    void IXmlSerializable.ReadXml(System.Xml.XmlReader reader)
    {
        reader.ReadStartElement("DownloadSongResult", ns);
        ReadFileName(reader);
        ReadSongSize(reader);
        ReadAndSaveSong(reader);
        reader.ReadEndElement();
    }

    void ReadFileName(XmlReader reader)
    {
        string fileName = reader.ReadElementString("fileName", ns);
        this.filePath = 
            Path.Combine(MusicPath, Path.ChangeExtension(fileName, ".mp3"));
    }

    void ReadSongSize(XmlReader reader)
    {
        this.size = Convert.ToDouble(reader.ReadElementString("size", ns));
    }

    void ReadAndSaveSong(XmlReader reader)
    {
        FileStream outFile = File.Open(
            this.filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);

        string songBase64;
        byte[] songBytes;
        reader.ReadStartElement("song", ns);
        double totalRead=0;
        while(true)
        {
            if (reader.IsStartElement("chunk", ns))
            {
                  songBase64 = reader.ReadElementString();
                  totalRead += songBase64.Length;
                  songBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(songBase64);
                  outFile.Write(songBytes, 0, songBytes.Length);
                  outFile.Flush();

                  if (OnProgress != null)
                  {
                      OnProgress(100 * (totalRead / size));
                  }
            }

            else
            {
                  break;
            }
        }

        outFile.Close();
        reader.ReadEndElement();
    }

    [PermissionSet(SecurityAction.Demand, Name="FullTrust")]
    public void Play()
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(this.filePath);
    }

    System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchema IXmlSerializable.GetSchema()
    {
        throw new System.NotImplementedException();
    }

    public void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
    {
        throw new System.NotImplementedException();
    }
}

To implement server-side chunking

1. On the server machine, the Web method must turn off ASP.NET buffering and return a type that implementsIXmlSerializable.

2. The type that implements IXmlSerializable chunks the data in the WriteXml method.

To implement client-side processing

1. Alter the Web method on the client proxy to return the type that implements IXmlSerializable. You can use a SchemaImporterExtension to do this automatically, but this is not shown here.

2. Implement the ReadXml method to read the chunked data stream and write the bytes to disk. This implementation also raises progress events that can be used by a graphic control, such as a progress bar.

see also : http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/43237/How-to-Implement-IXmlSerializable-Correctly