Using XML in XNA to display maths questions which are associated with objects

Question

I've got a snake game with three objects: apple, pear & orange. I would like these to be associated with questions which I'm trying to create in XML. This is what I've done so far...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<XnaContent>
<Asset Type="System.Collections.Generic.List[System.String]">

<MathsQuiz>

<Question Value ="What is 3 x 3? Orange = 9, Pear = 10, Apple = 12" Right ="orange">
    <answer Value ="orange"/>
    <answer Value ="pear"/>
    <answer Value ="apple"/>
  </Question>

</MathsQuiz>
</Asset> 
</XnaContent>

I'm getting the error: "Error There was an error while deserializing intermediate XML. 'Element' is an invalid XmlNodeType. Line 7, position 6."

I'm guessing it's because of the line MathsQuiz but not sure.

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks, Tom

Answer 1

Much like this question, you cannot simply make up the XML format!

You have to use a format which matches the objects you will be deserializing!

Just as in my answer to that question, you can simply create some of your objects, serialize them, and see what they should look like in XML such that they can be deserialized. For example:

var sb = new StringBuilder();
using(XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sb))
{
    IntermediateSerializer.Serialize(writer, theRootObjectYouAreSerializing, null);
}
Console.Write(sb.ToString());

So in your case, if your question structure looks like this:

struct Question
{
    public string question; 
    public string correct;
    public List<string> answers;
}

Then your XML will look something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<XnaContent>
<Asset Type="MyNamespace.Question">
    <question>What is 3 x 3? Orange = 9, Pear = 10, Apple = 12</question>
    <correct>orange</correct>
    <answers>
        <Item>orange</Item>
        <Item>pear</Item>
        <Item>apple</Item>
    </answers>
</Asset>
</XnaContent>