XML Serialization

/// <summary>
/// Converts an object to its serialized XML format.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object we are operating on</typeparam>
/// <param name="value">The object we are operating on</param>
/// <param name="removeDefaultXmlNamespaces">Whether or not to remove the default XML namespaces from the output</param>
/// <param name="omitXmlDeclaration">Whether or not to omit the XML declaration from the output</param>
/// <param name="encoding">The character encoding to use</param>
/// <returns>The XML string representation of the object</returns>
public static string ToXmlString<T>(this T value, bool removeDefaultXmlNamespaces = true, bool omitXmlDeclaration = true, Encoding encoding = null) where T : class
{
    XmlSerializerNamespaces namespaces = removeDefaultXmlNamespaces ? new XmlSerializerNamespaces(new[] { XmlQualifiedName.Empty }) : null;
 
    var settings                = new XmlWriterSettings();
    settings.Indent             = true;
    settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = omitXmlDeclaration;
    settings.CheckCharacters    = false;
 
    using (var stream = new StringWriterWithEncoding(encoding))
    using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(stream, settings))
    {
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(value.GetType());
        serializer.Serialize(writer, value, namespaces);
        return stream.ToString();
    }
}