Heirarchical serialization

[Pete Davis]

I haven't used Serialization support in .NET before and I have a few
questions about it.

let's assume the following:

class A : ISerializable
{
....
}

class B : A, ISerializable
{
private C cField;
....
}
class C: ISerializable
{
....
}
First of all, yeah, I'm missing the Serializable attributes here, and a lot
of other stuff, but this should be sufficient for my question..

In class B, how do I define GetObjectData()? I need to define it as new or
override? If it's "new" then from B.GetObjectData() do I simply call
base.GetObjectData() to deserialize the base class A? Does that work in a
"new" method?

What about the class C which is contained within B? In the
B(SerializationInfo, StreamingContext) constructor, do I simply do a cField
= new C(serInfo, context)? In B.GetObjectData() do I just call
cField.GetObjectData(serInfo, context)

Just not really sure how this all goes together. The above seems to make
sense to me except for whether or not B.GetObjectData should be new or
override. Of course, I could be completely off on all of it.

The other question is in regards to classes that aren't serializable. For
example, if I have a member that is a Font class, and I want to serialize
it, do I just take all of the pertinent data from the font object and
serialize those pieces that I need to re-create the font in the serializable
constructor?

Thanks

Pete

[Joe Mayo]

"Pete Davis" <pd******@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:a1******************************@news.meganet news.com...

I haven't used Serialization support in .NET before and I have a few
questions about it.

let's assume the following:

class A : ISerializable
{
...
}

class B : A, ISerializable
{
private C cField;
...
}
class C: ISerializable
{
...
}

In class B, how do I define GetObjectData()? I need to define it as new or
override? If it's "new" then from B.GetObjectData() do I simply call
base.GetObjectData() to deserialize the base class A? Does that work in a
"new" method?
A should be virtual and B and other derived types should be override. Be
sure to call the base method after serializing members.

public override void GetObjectData(
SerializationInfo info,
StreamingContext context )
{
info.AddValue("cField", cField, typeof(C));

base.GetObjectData(info,context);
}

What about the class C which is contained within B? In the
B(SerializationInfo, StreamingContext) constructor, do I simply do a cField = new C(serInfo, context)? In B.GetObjectData() do I just call
cField.GetObjectData(serInfo, context)
By calling it in B.GetObjectData, as in the example above, the serializer
will call C.GetObjectData for you.
The other question is in regards to classes that aren't serializable. For
example, if I have a member that is a Font class, and I want to serialize
it, do I just take all of the pertinent data from the font object and
serialize those pieces that I need to re-create the font in the serializable constructor?

You have the right idea.

Joe
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