Serialization is the process of converting an object into a sequence of bits so that it can be persisted on a storage medium (such as a file, or a memory buffer) or transmitted across a network connection link.
Wikipedia
.NET framework provides (if I’m not wrong) three different types of serialization: binary serialization, XML serialization and SOAP serialization (converting XML serialized document into SOAP format).
In my XNA game project I had a problem: I must submit a data types which were not supported by PacketWriter.Write() method. I used Dictionary() and List() object, but I can’t send (write to PacketWriter.Write()) those data types over the network. So, how did I solve the problem?
Well, I looked a data types which are supported by PacketWriter.Write() and found out, that I can write byte array (byte[]) into this method. I remembered a bout the binary serialization and wrote:
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.IO;
// Code ….
public byte[] GetByteArrayFromObject(Object o)
{
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter();
bf1.Serialize(ms, o);
return ms.ToArray();
}
public object GetObjectFromByteArray(byte[] theByteArray)
{
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(theByteArray);
BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter();
ms.Position = 0;
return bf1.Deserialize(ms);
}
// Code in server side
DataObjectWorld dataObjectWorld = new DataObjectWorld();
byte[] data = GetByteArrayFromObject(dataObjectWorld);
packetWriter.Write(data.Length);
packetWriter.Write(data);
// Code in client side
int length = packetReader.ReadInt32();
byte[] obj = packetReader.ReadBytes(length);
DataObjectWorld dataObjectWorld = (DataObjectWorld)GetObjectFromByteArray(obj);
My DataObjectWorld looks like that:
[Serializable]
class DataObjectWorld : ISerializable
{
#region Variables
///
/// List of active power fields
///
private Dictionary activePowerFields;
///
/// List of empty faces
///
private List emptyFaces;
private StatDefinition activeStat;
#endregion
#region Fields
///
/// List of empty faces
///
public List EmptyFaces
{
get { return emptyFaces; }
set { emptyFaces = value; }
}
///
/// List of active power fields
///
public Dictionary ActivePowerFields
{
get { return activePowerFields; }
set { activePowerFields = value; }
}
public StatDefinition ActiveStat
{
get { return activeStat; }
set { activeStat = value; }
}
#endregion
#region Methods
///
/// Constructor
///
public DataObjectWorld()
{
}
public DataObjectWorld(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext ctxt)
{
this.activePowerFields = (Dictionary)info.GetValue(”activePowerFields”, typeof(Dictionary));
this.emptyFaces = (List)info.GetValue(”emptyFaces”, typeof(List));
this.activeStat = (StatDefinition)info.GetValue(”statDefinition”, typeof(StatDefinition));
}
public void GetObjectData(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext ctxt)
{
info.AddValue(”activePowerFields”, this.activePowerFields);
info.AddValue(”emptyFaces”, this.emptyFaces);
info.AddValue(”statDefinition”, this.activeStat);
}
#endregion
}
Take a look at this class: ant the beginning it has a [Serializable] attribute. Every class which uses serialization – must have this attribute. And another thing to note: I have StatDefinition activeStat;. StatDefinition is other class in my project, so because I use serialization I must add [Serializable] before class StatDefinition:
[Serializable]
class StatDefinition : PropertyCollection {
And the same for PropertyCollection:
[Serializable]
class PropertyCollection {
Good luck 
See ya ;]
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