Xml Element Position in C# XML Serialization

Question

I'm trying to serialize a class like this to an xml with the XmlSerializer class:

public class Car {
  public InsuranceData Insurance { get; set; } // InsuranceData is a class with many properties
  public int Person Owner { get; set; }
  public int Age { get; set; }
  public string Model { get; set; }

  // lots of other properties...
}

I'd like to have the Insurance property at the very end of the xml document:

<Car>
  ...
  <Insurance>
     ...
  </Insurance>
</Car>

I need to do this because the server that processes the xml only works properly in this layout (and I cannot change the server code). I tried moving the property to the end of the class, but it makes no difference and I haven't found any attributes related to the serialization that would help. I could solve this by manipulating the xml as string, but I would prefer a more elegant solution. The objects has plenty of properties, so I don't want to create the xml string manually.

Answer 1

Here is what I did to test your scenario:

        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Insurance i = new Insurance();
            i.company = "State Farm";

            Car c = new Car();
            c.model = "Mustang";
            c.year = "2014";
            c.ins = i;

            XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Car));
            StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("Car.xml");
            xs.Serialize(sw, c);
            sw.Close();
        }

        public class Car
        {
            public string model { get; set; }
            public string year { get; set; }
            public Insurance ins {get; set;}
        }

        public class Insurance
        {
            public string company { get; set; }
        }

...and this is my results:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Car xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <model>Mustang</model>
  <year>2014</year>
  <ins>
    <company>State Farm</company>
  </ins>
</Car>

Hope this helps.