Serialization

[Chris Smith]

Experienced members,

I need some advice, or maybe I am missing something
simple.

I have 2 classes.

public class Manager

public property Controls as arraylist

public function CreateObject(byval type as Types) as
IObject

end class

public class myControl
implement IObject
public property Controls as arraylist
public property Parent as IObject
end class

I have a circular reference when I do this;

dim man as new manager
dim c1 as new myControl
dim c2 as new myControl

c1.controls.add(c2)
c2.Parent = c1
man.controls.add(c1)

Ok, now I have a object tree. I would like to serialize
the manager object in a human readable format. I have
used the soapformmater (ugly xml and don't need in soap
fromat) as well as the binaryformatter (works, but not
human readable).

My question is.... Is there a way to serialize this in
much the same way that the xmlserializer would? Or, is
there a design pattern different to hold a reference to
child and parent?

I would be very greatful for any direction on this.

Thanks in advance,

Chris Smith

[Christoph Schittko [MVP]]

Chris,

you can instruct the XmlSerializer to produce Soap 1.1 section 5 compliant
XML much like the SoapFormatter does. This should be sufficient if you're
just after a human readable, XML based format. Take a look at the thread of
[0] for more details on how to get section 5 formatted XML out of the
XmlSerializer.

--
HTH
Christoph Schittko [MVP, XmlInsider]
Software Architect, .NET Mentor

[0]
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...TNGP11.phx.gbl

"Chris Smith" <us**@email.com> wrote in message
news:#N**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

Experienced members,

I need some advice, or maybe I am missing something
simple.

I have 2 classes.

public class Manager

public property Controls as arraylist

public function CreateObject(byval type as Types) as
IObject

end class

public class myControl
implement IObject
public property Controls as arraylist
public property Parent as IObject
end class

I have a circular reference when I do this;

dim man as new manager
dim c1 as new myControl
dim c2 as new myControl

c1.controls.add(c2)
c2.Parent = c1
man.controls.add(c1)

Ok, now I have a object tree. I would like to serialize
the manager object in a human readable format. I have
used the soapformmater (ugly xml and don't need in soap
fromat) as well as the binaryformatter (works, but not
human readable).

My question is.... Is there a way to serialize this in
much the same way that the xmlserializer would? Or, is
there a design pattern different to hold a reference to
child and parent?

I would be very greatful for any direction on this.

Thanks in advance,

Chris Smith

[Sorin Dolha]

Chris,

In addition to the other advice provided by Cristoph Schittko, I may also suggest you that instead of trying to "clear up" the "ugly" XML resulted through XML SOAP formatting, you can try to write a XSLT translator which translates the "ugly" XML to a simpler and more readable XML format or to HTML.

XSLT is very powerful and provides support for X/Path query expressions which could get your job done very quickly, I suppose.

--
Sorin Dolha [MCP, MCAD]
"Chris Smith" <us**@email.com> wrote in message news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
Experienced members,

I need some advice, or maybe I am missing something
simple.

I have 2 classes.

public class Manager

public property Controls as arraylist

public function CreateObject(byval type as Types) as
IObject

end class

public class myControl
implement IObject
public property Controls as arraylist
public property Parent as IObject
end class

I have a circular reference when I do this;

dim man as new manager
dim c1 as new myControl
dim c2 as new myControl

c1.controls.add(c2)
c2.Parent = c1
man.controls.add(c1)

Ok, now I have a object tree. I would like to serialize
the manager object in a human readable format. I have
used the soapformmater (ugly xml and don't need in soap
fromat) as well as the binaryformatter (works, but not
human readable).

My question is.... Is there a way to serialize this in
much the same way that the xmlserializer would? Or, is
there a design pattern different to hold a reference to
child and parent?

I would be very greatful for any direction on this.

Thanks in advance,

Chris Smith