Save Application State to XML: How to have each module create a "Node"?

[John]

Hi,

I have an application which is built from many modules. I re-use the
modules in different applications.

I'd like to have each of my modules implement a "SaveState()" method.
The method should return the state of the module (and any modules it
contains) in some nice, easily parsable and savable format. I think
this format should be XML.

So should each module return an XmlElement, an XmlDocument, or an
XmlDocumentFragment. I've been experimenting and I can't figure out
the best way to do this. I'd like to do it "right" because I'll be
doing this a lot.

The application would collect all the xml "chunks" from each of the
modules and assemble them into a single .xml file on the disk. I
assume this means all the chunks need to be made part of an
XmlDocument.

Advice? Pointers? Thanks!!!

John

[Kevin Yu [MSFT]]

Hi John,

First of all, I would like to confirm my understanding of your issue. From
your description, I understand that you need some advice about how to write
module information to an XML file. If there is any misunderstanding, please
feel free to let me know.

I think you can put the SaveState() method in each module and make it
return an XmlElement. Each module returns his own state information. The
SaveState() method in the parent module gets the return values from child
modules and combine it to a larger XmlElement and return to the upper
level. At the top level, we can put the last XmlElement into an XmlDocument
and writes it to an .xml file.

HTH. If anything is unclear, please feel free to reply to the post.

Kevin Yu
=======
"This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights."

[John]

Kevin,

Thank you. I believe you understand my question.

From within each module how do I create an XmlElement? I see how to
create an element from a document, but when there is no document I
don't understand how to create the element.

Thank you!
John

v-****@online.microsoft.com (Kevin Yu [MSFT]) wrote in message news:<dQ**************@cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl>...

Hi John,

First of all, I would like to confirm my understanding of your issue. From
your description, I understand that you need some advice about how to write
module information to an XML file. If there is any misunderstanding, please
feel free to let me know.

I think you can put the SaveState() method in each module and make it
return an XmlElement. Each module returns his own state information. The
SaveState() method in the parent module gets the return values from child
modules and combine it to a larger XmlElement and return to the upper
level. At the top level, we can put the last XmlElement into an XmlDocument
and writes it to an .xml file.

HTH. If anything is unclear, please feel free to reply to the post.

Kevin Yu
=======
"This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights."

[John]

Kevin,

Thank you for your reply.

One other thought: I'm trying to understand the pros and cons of using
the ISerializable interface so that I can have each module "save" its
state when GetObjectData() is called to serialize the object and then
restore its state on deserialization? Any thoughts or advice?

Thanks,
John

v-****@online.microsoft.com (Kevin Yu [MSFT]) wrote in message news:<dQ**************@cpmsftngxa10.phx.gbl>...

Hi John,

First of all, I would like to confirm my understanding of your issue. From
your description, I understand that you need some advice about how to write
module information to an XML file. If there is any misunderstanding, please
feel free to let me know.

I think you can put the SaveState() method in each module and make it
return an XmlElement. Each module returns his own state information. The
SaveState() method in the parent module gets the return values from child
modules and combine it to a larger XmlElement and return to the upper
level. At the top level, we can put the last XmlElement into an XmlDocument
and writes it to an .xml file.

HTH. If anything is unclear, please feel free to reply to the post.

Kevin Yu
=======
"This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights."

[Kevin Yu [MSFT]]

Hi John,

If you need to create an XmlElement within each module, you can first
create an XmlDocument and create the XmlElement from that document. At
last, just return that XmlElement to the upper level.

When doing serialization, the whole object is saved. If you need to save
all the members in that object using serialization, each of the members
have to be serializable. If they didn't implement the
Iserializabel.GetObjectData(), you have to implement it.

HTH

Kevin Yu
=======
"This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights."

[Kevin Yu [MSFT]]

Hi John,

I'd like to know if this issue has been resolved yet. Is there anything
that I can help. I'm still monitoring on it. If you have any questions,
please feel free to post them in the community.

Kevin Yu
=======
"This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights."