PostSharp includes a basic facility to describe CLR objects using XML. This facility is used to implement the Multicast and logging profiles sections of the configuration file, and can be used to define custom sections.
The facility is deliberately limited. It was designed only to provide the same features as custom attributes in programming languages.
Basic rules
The following basic rules apply to XML-serialized objects:
The local name of the XML element must exactly match the type name of the CLR type. An exception to this rule is that the
Attributesuffix can be omitted.The XML namespace of the element must be in the form
clr-namespace:namespace;assembly:assemblywhere namespace is the namespace of the CLR type and assembly is the name of the assembly declaring the type.The type must have a public parameterless constructor.
Names of XML attributes must exactly match the name of a public field or property of the CLR type.
Formatting of attributes
Values of XML attributes, mapping to CLR fields and properties, must be formatted according to the rule relevant for each type:
| Type | Formatting |
|---|---|
| Intrinsics | An intrinsic is any of the following types: bool, char, sbyte, byte, short, ushort, int, uint, long, ulong, float, double or string. Conversion is done using the Convert class. |
| Arrays | A semicolon-separated list of elements. |
| Enumerations | A list of enumeration member names separated by the character \|. The values of the members are combined as flags. In the Multicast section, you can also use + as a separator. |
| Types | An assembly-qualified type name. |
| Object | Fields and properties of type object are not supported. |
Specific rules for the Multicast section
The following additional rules apply to the Multicast section of the configuration file:
The class must derive from MulticastAttribute.
By default, the AttributePriority property is set to the 1-based position of the XML element in the section. You can set this property explicitly to override this default.