Response to: Serialization and Deserialization

Latest Revision
EDIT - SS4L84: I have removed this text to avoid confusion.

EDIT - Adam Harris:
What you need to do is this, and what i think he is trying to say is:

- Create 1 project (Class Library / DLL) that contains your Objects to be Serialized/Deserialized
   - Let's call this CommonObjects
- Create 1 project to serialize your objects that references the CommonObjects library
- Create 1 project to deserialize your objects that references the CommonObjects library

All the objects that you want to serialize/deserialize should live inside of CommonObjects.

EDIT - SS4L84:

Yes that is correct! (Sorry I misread your edit the first time).

All your objects to be serialized/deserialized will live inside your DLL.

Here is some code that should clear up any confusion:

The test object:

using System;
using System.Collections;

namespace CommonObjects
{
    [Serializable]
    public class TestObject
    {
        public Hashtable addresses = new Hashtable();

        public TestObject()
        {
            addresses.Add("Jeff", "123 Main Street, Redmond, WA 98052");
            addresses.Add("Fred", "987 Pine Road, Phila., PA 19116");
            addresses.Add("Mary", "PO Box 112233, Palo Alto, CA 94301");
        }
    }
}

*This test object will live inside the CommonObjects DLL.

WindowsForms Project 1 (Serialization):

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using CommonObjects;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.IO;

namespace Serializer
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            TestObject testObj = new TestObject();

            Serialize(testObj, "testfile.txt");
        }

        public void Serialize(Object obj, string savePath)
        {
            FileStream fs = new FileStream(savePath, FileMode.Create);

            BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();

            try
            {
                formatter.Serialize(fs, obj);
            }
            catch (SerializationException e)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Failed to serialize. Reason: " + e.Message);
                throw;
            }
            finally
            {
                fs.Close();
            }
        }
    }
}

WindowsForms Project 2 (Deserialization):

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using CommonObjects;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;

namespace Deserializer
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            TestObject testObj =
                (TestObject)Deserialize("testfile.txt");
        }

        public Object Deserialize(string dataFilePath)
        {
            Object obj = null;

            FileStream fs = new FileStream(dataFilePath, FileMode.Open);

            try
            {
                BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();

                obj = formatter.Deserialize(fs);
            }
            catch (SerializationException e)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Failed to deserialize. Reason: " + e.Message);
                throw;
            }
            finally
            {
                fs.Close();
            }

            return obj;
        }
    }
}

Hope this helps clear up all confusion.