Serializable ObservableCollection alternative

I promised an alternative, so here is a good starting point: http://www.deanchalk.me.uk/post/Thread-Safe-Dispatcher-Safe-Observable-Collection-for-WPF.aspx It is custom implementation of INotifyCollectionChanged. As a bonus, it is thread-safe. :) For serialization support, you have to replace

public event NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler CollectionChanged;

with the following code:

    [field: NonSerializedAttribute, XmlIgnore]
    public event NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler CollectionChanged;

For an option to disable notifications, just add

public bool IsCollectionNotificationDisabled { get; set; }

and replace all

 if (CollectionChanged != null)

with

 if (IsCollectionNotificationDisabled && CollectionChanged != null)

Complete source:

//original code from: http://www.deanchalk.me.uk/post/Thread-Safe-Dispatcher-Safe-Observable-Collection-for-WPF.aspx.
//Added support for serialization and option to disable notifications
public class SafeObservable<T> : IList<T>, INotifyCollectionChanged
{
    private IList<T> collection = new List<T>();
    private Dispatcher dispatcher;
    [field: NonSerializedAttribute, XmlIgnore]    
    public event NotifyCollectionChangedEventHandler CollectionChanged;
    private ReaderWriterLock sync = new ReaderWriterLock();
    public bool IsCollectionNotificationDisabled { get; set; }
 
    public SafeObservable()
    {
        dispatcher = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;
    }
 
    public void Add(T item)
    {
        if (Thread.CurrentThread == dispatcher.Thread)
            DoAdd(item);
        else
            dispatcher.BeginInvoke((Action)(() => { DoAdd(item); }));
    }
 
    private void DoAdd(T item)
    {
        sync.AcquireWriterLock(Timeout.Infinite);
        collection.Add(item);
        if (IsCollectionNotificationDisabled && CollectionChanged != null)
            CollectionChanged(this,
                new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add, item));
        sync.ReleaseWriterLock();
    }
 
    public void Clear()
    {
        if (Thread.CurrentThread == dispatcher.Thread)
            DoClear();
        else
            dispatcher.BeginInvoke((Action)(() => { DoClear(); }));
    }
 
    private void DoClear()
    {
        sync.AcquireWriterLock(Timeout.Infinite);
        collection.Clear();
        if (IsCollectionNotificationDisabled && CollectionChanged != null)
            CollectionChanged(this,
                new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Reset));
        sync.ReleaseWriterLock();
    }
 
    public bool Contains(T item)
    {
        sync.AcquireReaderLock(Timeout.Infinite);
        var result = collection.Contains(item);
        sync.ReleaseReaderLock();
        return result;
    }
 
    public void CopyTo(T[] array, int arrayIndex)
    {
        sync.AcquireWriterLock(Timeout.Infinite);
        collection.CopyTo(array, arrayIndex);
        sync.ReleaseWriterLock();
    }
 
    public int Count
    {
        get
        {
            sync.AcquireReaderLock(Timeout.Infinite);
            var result = collection.Count;
            sync.ReleaseReaderLock();
            return result;
        }
    }
 
    public bool IsReadOnly
    {
        get { return collection.IsReadOnly; }
    }
 
    public bool Remove(T item)
    {
        if (Thread.CurrentThread == dispatcher.Thread)
            return DoRemove(item);
        else
        {
            var op = dispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Func<t,bool>(DoRemove), item);
            if (op == null || op.Result == null)
                return false;
            return (bool)op.Result;
        }
    }
 
    private bool DoRemove(T item)
    {
        sync.AcquireWriterLock(Timeout.Infinite);
        var index = collection.IndexOf(item);
        if (index == -1)
        {
            sync.ReleaseWriterLock();
            return false;
        }
        var result = collection.Remove(item);
        if (result && CollectionChanged != null)
            CollectionChanged(this, new
                NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Reset));
        sync.ReleaseWriterLock();
        return result;
    }
 
    public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
    {
        return collection.GetEnumerator();
    }
 
    System.Collections.IEnumerator System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return collection.GetEnumerator();
    }
 
    public int IndexOf(T item)
    {
        sync.AcquireReaderLock(Timeout.Infinite);
        var result = collection.IndexOf(item);
        sync.ReleaseReaderLock();
        return result;
    }
 
    public void Insert(int index, T item)
    {
        if (Thread.CurrentThread == dispatcher.Thread)
            DoInsert(index, item);
        else
            dispatcher.BeginInvoke((Action)(() => { DoInsert(index, item); }));
    }
 
    private void DoInsert(int index, T item)
    {
        sync.AcquireWriterLock(Timeout.Infinite);
        collection.Insert(index, item);
        if (IsCollectionNotificationDisabled && CollectionChanged != null)
            CollectionChanged(this,
                new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add, item, index));
        sync.ReleaseWriterLock();
    }
 
    public void RemoveAt(int index)
    {
        if (Thread.CurrentThread == dispatcher.Thread)
            DoRemoveAt(index);
        else
            dispatcher.BeginInvoke((Action)(() => { DoRemoveAt(index); }));
    }
 
    private void DoRemoveAt(int index)
    {
        sync.AcquireWriterLock(Timeout.Infinite);
        if (collection.Count == 0 || collection.Count <= index)
        {
            sync.ReleaseWriterLock();
            return;
        }
        collection.RemoveAt(index);
        if (IsCollectionNotificationDisabled && CollectionChanged != null)
            CollectionChanged(this,
                new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Reset));
        sync.ReleaseWriterLock(); 
    }
 
    public T this[int index]
    {
        get
        {
            sync.AcquireReaderLock(Timeout.Infinite);
            var result = collection[index];
            sync.ReleaseReaderLock();
            return result;
        }
        set
        {
            sync.AcquireWriterLock(Timeout.Infinite);
            if (collection.Count == 0 || collection.Count <= index)
            {
                sync.ReleaseWriterLock();
                return;
            }
            collection[index] = value;
            sync.ReleaseWriterLock();
        } 
    }
}