Load XML file into either List MyType or ObservableCollection MyType

Question

I have been searching and trying different suggestions for three days now, full time.  I am building a universal app for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1.  The problem, apparently, is that doing this is different between Windows 7.1, Windows
Phone 7.1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1, and Windows 8.1 universal apps.  You find hundreds of different ways of doing this, none of which work.
My XML file is of the form:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<ArrayOfPrize xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Prize>
    <PrizeName>Dog</PrizeName>
    <PrizePath>http://www.dog.com</PrizePath>
    <PrizeOwner>System</PrizeOwner>
    <PrizeChecked>false</PrizeChecked>
    <Won>false</Won>
  </Prize>
</ArrayOfPrize>
I get errors like you can't do this with non-public types to header is missing, or I get a deaklock.  Every suggestion I have tried has led to either the same error message as the last one, or the same as some previous error message.  Microsoft
conveniently left out this common case in their Universal App samples.  Please don't refer me to other articles, because if they were on the internet I have probably already tried them.  Sorry, my frustration is showing through.  Feel free to
refer me to other articles.
Below is my latest attempt that does not work:
public async Task<T> ReadObjectFromXmlLocalFile(string filename)
 try
  T objectFromXml = default(T);
  XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
  Windows.Storage.StorageFolder localFolder = Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder;
  StorageFile file = await localFolder.GetFileAsync(filename);
  string xmlText = await FileIO.ReadTextAsync(file);
  StringReader reader = new StringReader(xmlText);
  objectFromXml = (T)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
  return objectFromXml;
 catch (Exception e)
  ErrorBucket.AddError(e.Message);
  return default(T);
Incidentally, every folder path leads to either C:\Data\SharedData... or C:\Data\Users..., which is very strange, since my project is not even on the C drive.  I have recreated the directory structure that it is looking for and put my files there, but
eventually this is going to be an issue.  The program used to look in the correct place and then it stopped and starting looking in C:\Data, and I have no idea why.
Larry Maturo

Answer 1

Try code below.  I always like to write XML from the code before reading.  It is easier to debug the class formats when writing than reading.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Data;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Xml.Schema;
using System.IO;
namespace XMLSerialize
class Program
const string FILENAME = @"c:\temp\test.xml";
static void Main(string[] args)
ArrayOfPrize arrayOfPrize = new ArrayOfPrize(){
prizes = new List<Prize>(){
new Prize(){
prizeName = "Dog",
prizePath = "http://www.dog.com",
prizeOwner = "System",
prizeChecked = false,
won = false
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ArrayOfPrize));
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(FILENAME);
serializer.Serialize(writer, arrayOfPrize);
writer.Flush();
writer.Close();
writer.Dispose();
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ArrayOfPrize));
XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(FILENAME);
ArrayOfPrize newArrayOfPrize = (ArrayOfPrize)xs.Deserialize(reader);
[Serializable, XmlRoot("ArrayOfPrize")]
public class ArrayOfPrize
[XmlElement("Prize")]
public List<Prize> prizes;
[Serializable, XmlRoot(ElementName = "Prize")]
public class Prize
[XmlElement("PrizeName")]
public string prizeName { get; set; }
[XmlElement("PrizePath")]
public string prizePath { get; set; }
[XmlElement("PrizeOwner")]
public string prizeOwner { get; set; }
[XmlElement("PrizeChecked")]
public Boolean prizeChecked { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Won")]
public Boolean won { get; set; }
jdweng