I built the following extension method in .NET 35. to XML serialize objects; thought it might be useful for someone else. I use to serialize collections to pass XML data to my stored procedures that save player skills and items in my PBBG engine.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
namespace WebTools
{
public static class XmlHelper
    {
public static string ToXml(this object obj)
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
{
serializer.Serialize(sw, obj);
return sw.ToString();
}
}
}
}

I wrote another extension method specific to retrieving the modified values of a collection. You have to control when the IsDirty flag is set yourself but my properties take care of that.

public interface IModifiable
    {
bool IsDirty { get; }
void MarkClean();
void MarkDirty();
}

 

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace WebTools
{
public static class ModifierHelpercs
    {
public static List<TSource> Modified<TSource>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source) where TSource : IModifiable
        {
return (from s in source where s.IsDirty select s).ToList();
}
}
}

I downloaded and installed the Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 and I am really liking it. Aside from the new .NET 3.5 features the IDE itself is awesome. Visual Studio remains one of the best IDEs out there. If you want some good articles on VS 2008 check out Scott Gu's blog post on VS 2008.