[SOLVED] XML Deserialization of a single XML file into multiple objects

Greetings. I am new to XML serialization/deserialization and need some help. I have a huge XML file (let's call it ItemDatabase.xml), and inside of it I want to get all the individual items out of it and assign them to instances of a class I have made in my scripts. Like so:

 public List<Item> lootPileContents = new List<Item>();
 
 public void CreateLootPile(TextAsset itemDatabase) {
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Item));
    for(int i = 0; i < LOOT_PILE_ITEM_LIMIT; i++){
       using(StringReader reader = new StringReader(itemDatabase.text) {
          lootPileContents[i] = serializer.Deserialize(reader) as Item;
       }
    }
 }

The issue I have with the above code is that I don't know if the whole XML file will just be treated as one whole Item. The XML file is setup like this:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <items>
    <category>
       <name>A precious stone</name>
       <group>
          <item>
            <word>Pearl</word>
            <proportion>0.22</proportion>
          </item>
          <item>
            <word>Gem</word>
            <proportion>0.17</proportion>
          </item>
          <item>
            <word>Amethyst</word>
            <proportion>0.18</proportion>
          </item>
          <item>
            <word>Opal</word>
            <proportion>0.18</proportion>
          </item>
       </group>
       <group>
          <item>
            <word>Silver</word>
            <proportion>0.08</proportion>
          </item>
          <item>
            <word>Jade</word>
            <proportion>0.06</proportion>
          </item>
          <item>
            <word>Quartz</word>
            <proportion>0.06</proportion>
          </item>
          <item>
            <word>Turquoise</word>
            <proportion>0.05</proportion>
          </item>
       </group>
    </category>
 ...
 </items>

I have public members in the Item class to handle category, group, category name, and proportion (All named appropriately: category, group, categoryName, proportion). So to reiterate: I need to grab individual items out of the XML file and assign them to instances of the Item class that is in a generic collection.

Eventually I would want to pick an item out at random with some additional constraints (no duplicates or other items from that group/category, etc.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit - Update #1: Here is the Item.cs class

 using System.IO;
 using System.Xml;
 using System.Xml.Serialization;
 
 [XmlArrayItem("item")]
 public class Item {
    [XmlNode("name")]
    public string categoryName;
    [XmlNode("word")]
    public string word;
    [XmlNode("proportion")]
    public float proportion;
 
    public Item() {
       categoryName = "";
       word = "";
      proportion = 0.0f;
 
    }
 }

Edit - Update #2: I have created container classes for each of the different groupings in the Xml. I also rewrote the Item class to make it more simple.

Revised Item.cs:

 using System.Xml;
 using System.Xml.Serialization;
 
 public class Item {
    [XmlElement("word")]
    public string word;
 
    public ItemTest() {
    }
 }

New ItemGroup.cs class:

 using System.Xml.Serialization;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 
 public class ItemGroup {
    [XmlArray("group"), XmlArrayItem("item")]
    public List<ItemGroup> items = new List<ItemGroup>();
 
    public ItemGroup() {
    }
 }

New ItemCategory.cs class

 using System.Xml.Serialization;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 
 public class ItemCategory {
    [XmlElement("name")]
    public string name;
 
    [XmlArray("category"), XmlArrayItem("group")]
    public List<ItemGroup> groups = new List<ItemGroup>();
 
    public ItemCategory() {
    }
 }

I have been testing using the smallest unit (item in this case) and adding layers of complexity to test. Currently I am able to correctly deserialize everything at and below the "ItemGroup" level. I can deserialize the following just fine:

 <items>
    <group>
       <item>
          <word>Pancake</word>
       </item>
       <item>
          <word>Waffle</word>
       </item>
    </group>
 </items>

Using this code:

 ItemGroup DeserializeGroup(string p) {
    XmlRootAttribute root = new XmlRootAttribute ("items");
    root.IsNullable = true;
 
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer (typeof(ItemGroup), root);
    using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(p, FileMode.Open)) {
       return serializer.Deserialize(stream) as ItemGroup;
    }
 }

But as soon as I add another layer of complexity I only get the first layer of information. So something like this:

 <items>
    <category>
    <name>Breakfast Food</name>
       <group>
          <item>
             <word>Pancake</word>
          </item>
          <item>
             <word>Waffle</word>
          </item>
       </group>
       <group>
          <item>
             <word>Bacon</word>
          </item>
          <item>
             <word>Eggs</word>
          </item>
       </group>
    </category>
 </items>

With deserialization code:

 ItemCategory DeserializeCategory(string p) {
    XmlRootAttribute root = new XmlRootAttribute ("items");
    root.IsNullable = true;
     
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer (typeof(ItemCategory), root);
    using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(p, FileMode.Open)) {
       return serializer.Deserialize(stream) as ItemCategory;
    }
 }

Will only yield having the groups list in category being populated with empty groups. So how can I enable deep serialization of the rest of the XML file?