Response to: Serialization and Deserialization

Revision 9
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:

[Serializable]
public class TestObject
{
    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):

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)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Failed to serialize. Reason: " + e.Message);
            throw;
        }
        finally
        {
            fs.Close();
        }
    }
}

WindowsForms Project 2 (Deserialization):

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)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Failed to deserialize. Reason: " + e.Message);
            throw;
        }
        finally
        {
            fs.Close();
        }

        return obj;
    }
}

Hope this helps clear up all confusion.