Serialization and Deserialization

vigneshgets · #1 (**permalink**) 08-01-2007, 06:19 AM

Hui Guys can anyone tell me What do you mean by Serialization and Deserialization and it's use.

kingmaker · #2 (**permalink**) 08-01-2007, 06:27 AM

A more elegant solution is to use the serialization and deserialization features of XML. A serialization is a series of data values, usually text, which represents an object. It contains the object's public and private variables, and any other information needed to completely describe the object. For example, suppose a Student object contains LastName and FirstName variables, and an array of test scores. The XML serialization of a Student object might look like this:

<Student>
<LastName>Stephens</LastName>
<FirstName>Rod</FirstName>
<TestScore TestNumber="1" Score="80" />
<TestScore TestNumber="2" Score="92" />
<TestScore TestNumber="3" Score="87" />
<TestScore TestNumber="4" Score="94" />
</Student>

Building a serialization for a class is simple enough following roughly the same steps you would take to save the object in a database, as described in the previous section. The class just concatenates the object's variable values into a string. Later, it could parse the serialization string to restore the object. To make an XML serialization, the class includes the proper tags.

This method works, but has some of the same drawbacks as the previous method. In particular, if you modify the class, you need to modify the code that reads and writes the serialization.

xml_serializer As New XmlSerializer(GetType(Person)

xml_serializer.Serialize(string_writer, customer)

Here's what an actual serialization produced by the XmlSerializer might look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<Person xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<LastName>Stephens</LastName>
<FirstName>Rod</FirstName>
<EmailAddress>RodStephens@vb-helper.com</EmailAddress>
</Person>

Class SOAP Deserialization

Object Serialization

S.Vinothkumar · #3 (**permalink**) 08-21-2007, 12:41 AM

Serialization is a process through which an object's state is transformed into some serial data format, such as XML or binary format.

The reverse process of Serialization is De Serialization.

For the process of serialization we need two things. One is a Formatter and another is a Stream Object.
The class written below is the class whose object is going to be serialized. For that purpose, the <Serializable()> attribute are added.

Code:

<Serializable()> Public Class DataDescription

  Public Data As Integer
  Public Description As String
 
  Public Sub New(ByVal NewData As Integer, ByVal NewDescription As String)

    Data = NewData
    Description = NewDescription

  End Sub
 
  Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
  	Return Description
  End Function
 
End Class

Serialization function is…

Code:

Public Function SerializeData( _
  ByVal oDataToBeSerialized As Object) As System.IO.MemoryStream

  Dim oFormatter As New _
    System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter()

  Dim oStream As New System.IO.MemoryStream()
  oFormatter.Serialize(oStream, oDataToBeSerialized)

  Return oStream

End Function

De-Serialization

Deserialization is the process of using the serialized state information to regain the object from the serialized shape to its original shape.
So, it is basically the reverse process of the Serialization. (The name also suggests De-Serialization)

Code:

Public Function DeSerializeData(ByVal oStream As 
	System.IO.MemoryStream) As Object

  Dim oFormatter As New _
    System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter()

  Dim oReturnObject As Object
  oStream.Position = 0
  oReturnObject = oFormatter.Deserialize(oStream)
  Return oReturnObject

End Function

Hence the serialization and De serialization using in VB.Net.

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