using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;

namespace WpfApplication3
{
    public static class XmlSerializeHelper
    {
        public static string Serialize<T>(T obj)
        {
            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
            var stream = new StringWriter();
            var settings = new XmlWriterSettings
            {
                NewLineChars = "\n",
                IndentChars = "\t",
                Indent = true,
            };

            var xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(stream, settings);

            serializer.Serialize(xmlWriter, obj);
            return stream.ToString();
        }

        public static T Deserialize<T>(string xmlString)
        {
            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
            var stream = new StringReader(xmlString);
            return (T)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
        }

        public static TS Serialize<T, TS>(T obj, TS stream) where TS : Stream 
        {
            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
            return (TS)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
        }

        public static T Deserialize<T, TS>(TS stream) where TS: Stream
        {
            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
            return (T)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
        }
    }

    public class XmlClass
    {
        [XmlAttribute]
        public string Attribute { set; get; }
        [XmlArray("Elements"), XmlArrayItem("Element")]
        public List<string> Elements { set; get; }
        public override string ToString()
        {
            return string.Format("XmlClass: Attribute = {0}, Elements = {1}", Attribute, string.Join(", ", Elements));
        }
    }

    [TestClass]
    public class MyTestClass
    {
        [TestMethod]
        public void MyTestMethod()
        {
            var obj = new XmlClass
            {
                Attribute = "AttributeValue1",
                Elements = new List<string> {"Element1", "Element2"}
            };
            var xmlString = XmlSerializeHelper.Serialize(obj);
            Debug.Print(xmlString);
            var obj2 = XmlSerializeHelper.Deserialize<XmlClass>(xmlString);
            Debug.Print(obj2.ToString());

        }
    }
}