XmlSerialization of IXmlSerializable array

Question

I have a scenario where the Request objects are XML Serailized and sent back to a TCP server for getting processed. The serialization is done by a legacy framework. Needless to say, I can't make changes in the legacy framework. The legacy framework, however is smart enough to realize if a request object is implementing IXmlSerializable, in that case it takes the WriteXml method of the interface to do the serialization. I wanted to keep maximum control of the serailzation process in my hand, therefore I wrote my RequestBase class like this:

  public abstract class RequestBase : IXmlSerializable
  {
    [XmlElement("Environment")]
    public string BaseEnvironment { get; set; }

    protected RequestBase()
    {
    }

    protected RequestBase(string environment, string image):this()
    {
      HaloEnvironment = environment;       
    }


    XmlSchema IXmlSerializable.GetSchema()
    {
      return null;
    }

    void IXmlSerializable.ReadXml(XmlReader reader)
    {
      throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

    void IXmlSerializable.WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
    {
      WriteXml(writer);
    }   

    protected virtual void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
    {

    }

  }

The class is as simple as one can imagine it to be. Any request object has to implement it. An example request class is like this:

  [XmlRoot("MyCuteRoot")]
  public class CuteRequest : RequestBase
  {

    public string CuteName { get; set; }

    public CuteRequest ()
    {
    }


    protected override void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
    {
      writer.WriteStartElement("Parameters");
      writer.WriteStartElement("header");

      if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(BaseEnvironment ))
        writer.WriteElementString("Environment", BaseEnvironment );


      if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(CuteName ))
        writer.WriteElementString("CuteNode", CuteName );

      writer.WriteEndElement();//header
      writer.WriteEndElement();//Parameters
    }
 }

The above class gave me the following Xml:

<MyCuteRoot>
        <Parameters>
          <header>
            <Environment>Developer</Environment>
            <CuteNode>a2</CuteNode>
          </header>
        </Parameters>
      </MyCuteRoot>

The sun was bright till now and I was happy as this worked. Then came a scenario where the backend server started expecting something it called BulkRequest. The requests now would be integrated as collection.

I tried handling this situation with the following BulkRequest class:

  public class BulkRequest:RequestBase
  {

    public IEnumerable<RequestBase> Requests { get; private set; }

    public BulkRequest(IEnumerable<RequestBase> requests)
    {
      if (requests == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException("requests");
      Requests = requests;
    }

    public BulkRequest()
    {
    }

    protected override void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
    {
      foreach (RequestBase requestBase in Requests)
      {
        (requestBase as IXmlSerializable).WriteXml(writer);
      }
    }
  }

Now this is not working. I want an xml like following:

<STPRequest>
      <MyCuteRequest>
       <Parameters>
          <header>
            <Environment>Developer</Environment>
            <CuteName>a2</CuteName>
          </header>
        </Parameters>
      </MyCuteRequest>
      <MyCuteRequest>
        <Parameters>
          <header>
            <Environment>Developer</Environment>
            <CuteName>a2</CuteName>
          </header>
        </Parameters>
      </MyCuteRequest>
</STPRequest>

this is for two CuteRequest objects present in a Bulk request. But I am getting the following xml:

<STPRequest>
  <BulkRequest>
    <Parameters>
      <header>
        <Environment>Developer</Environment>
        <CuteName>a2</CuteName>
      </header>
    </Parameters>
    <Parameters>
      <header>
        <Environment>Developer</Environment>
        <CuteName>a2</CuteName>
      </header>
    </Parameters>
  </BulkRequest>
</STPRequest>

The problems are two:

• How to rid off the "BulkRequest" tag that is forcing itself in.

• How to make the XmlRoot values of the items (i.e. MyCuteRequest) appear in the Xml (enclosing each Parameters tag.)

I thank you for your patience for having read this far. Any help will be appreciated as a couple hours of googling proved futile.

regards,