Cranked these out last night, hope you find it useful too 
1: public static class SerializationExtensions
2: {
3: private static readonly ConcurrentDictionary<Type, XmlSerializer> XmlSerializers =
4: new ConcurrentDictionary<Type, XmlSerializer>();
5:
6: private static readonly ConcurrentDictionary<Type, DataContractJsonSerializer> JsonSerializers =
7: new ConcurrentDictionary<Type, DataContractJsonSerializer>();
8:
9: private static readonly JavaScriptSerializer JavaScriptSerializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
10:
11: public enum JsonSerializerType
12: {
13: Undefined = 0,
14:
15: DataContractJsonSerializer = 1,
16:
17: JavaScriptSerializer = 2
18: }
19:
20: /// <summary>
21: /// Serializes the object using XML format.
22: /// </summary>
23: public static string SerializeAsXml(this object obj)
24: {
25: var type = obj.GetType();
26: var xmlSerializer = GetXmlSerializer(type);
27:
28: using (var memStream = new MemoryStream())
29: {
30: xmlSerializer.Serialize(memStream, obj);
31: return Encoding.Default.GetString(memStream.ToArray());
32: }
33: }
34:
35: /// <summary>
36: /// Serializes the object using JSON format, either using the default
37: /// DataContractJsonSerializer or the JavaScriptSerializer, the results
38: /// differ slightly.
39: /// </summary>
40: public static string SerializeAsJson(
41: this object obj,
42: JsonSerializerType serializerType = JsonSerializerType.DataContractJsonSerializer)
43: {
44: switch (serializerType)
45: {
46: case JsonSerializerType.JavaScriptSerializer:
47: return JavaScriptSerializer.Serialize(obj);
48: case JsonSerializerType.DataContractJsonSerializer:
49: default:
50: var type = obj.GetType();
51: var serializer = GetJsonSerializer(type);
52:
53: using (var memStream = new MemoryStream())
54: {
55: serializer.WriteObject(memStream, obj);
56: return Encoding.Default.GetString(memStream.ToArray());
57: }
58: }
59: }
60:
61: /// <summary>
62: /// Deserializes the specified XML string to an object of the specified type T.
63: /// </summary>
64: public static T DeserializeAsXml<T>(this string xmlString)
65: {
66: var xmlSerializer = GetXmlSerializer(typeof(T));
67: using (var memStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(xmlString)))
68: {
69: return (T)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(memStream);
70: }
71: }
72:
73: /// <summary>
74: /// Deserializes the specified JSON string to an object of the specified type T.
75: /// </summary>
76: public static T DeserializeAsJson<T>(
77: this string jsonString,
78: JsonSerializerType serializerType = JsonSerializerType.DataContractJsonSerializer)
79: {
80: switch (serializerType)
81: {
82: case JsonSerializerType.JavaScriptSerializer:
83: return JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize<T>(jsonString);
84: case JsonSerializerType.DataContractJsonSerializer:
85: default:
86: var serializer = GetJsonSerializer(typeof(T));
87:
88: using (var memStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(jsonString)))
89: {
90: return (T)serializer.ReadObject(memStream);
91: }
92: }
93: }
94:
95: private static XmlSerializer GetXmlSerializer(Type type)
96: {
97: // gets the xml serializer from the concurrent dictionary, if it doesn't exist
98: // then add one for the specified type
99: return XmlSerializers.GetOrAdd(type, t => new XmlSerializer(t));
100: }
101:
102: private static DataContractJsonSerializer GetJsonSerializer(Type type)
103: {
104: // gets the json serializer from the concurrent dictionary, if it doesn't exist
105: // then add one for the specified type
106: return JsonSerializers.GetOrAdd(type, t => new DataContractJsonSerializer(t));
107: }
108: }