Serialize 3 levels of nested collections.

3 Jul 2006 11:32 AM

Rick Luckwell

I have 3 collections(reports, services, charts) of objects(report,
service, chart) that are nested with each other. When I serialize the
object the output only contains reports and services but not the
charts. Am I missing something? can you serialize to this depth without
extra code? or do I need to call the serialize method of the child
objects?

clsReports.SerializeObject("c:\report.xml", m_AllReports)
'"m_AllReports" contains the collections of object instances I am
trying to serialize

Each collection class is based on the following
<Serializable()> Public Class clsReports
    Inherits System.Collections.CollectionBase

    Default Public Property Item(ByVal index As Integer) As clsReport
        Get
            Return CType(Me.List(index), clsReport)
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As clsReport)
            Me.List(index) = value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public Sub Add(ByVal value As clsReport)
        Me.List.Add(value)
    End Sub

    Public Shared Sub SerializeObject(ByVal filename As String, ByVal
Report As clsReports)
          Dim s As New XmlSerializer(GetType(clsReports))
           Dim writer As TextWriter = New StreamWriter(filename)
           s.Serialize(writer, Report)
           writer.Close()
    End Sub

    Public Shared Function DeserializeObject(ByVal filename As String)
As clsReports
            Dim fs As New IO.FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open)
            Dim w As New
Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(GetType(clsReports))
            Dim g As clsReports = CType(w.Deserialize(fs), clsReports)

            fs.Close()

            Return g
    End Function

End Class

And each object is based on the following

<Serializable()> Public Class clsReport
    Private m_ReportName As String = ""
    Private m_ServList As New clsServices

    Public Property Name() As String
        Get
            Return Me.m_ReportName
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            Me.m_ReportName = value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public ReadOnly Property ServiceList() As clsServices
        Get
            Return Me.m_ServList
        End Get
    End Property

    Public Sub AddService(ByVal NewSvc As clsService)
        Me.m_ServList.Add(NewSvc)
    End Sub
End Class

4 Jul 2006 6:32 AM

R. MacDonald

Hello, Rick,

Your question indicates that your "service" object contains a "chart"
object, but you haven't shown the code for clsService, so it's difficult
to guess why "chart" might not be being serialized. Perhaps if you can
post more code someone will be able to help.

Try to reduce the problem to the smallest possible executable example
and post the code for that. (Actually, in reducing the problem to the
smallest possible executable example the answer often makes itself clear.)

Cheers,
Randy

Rick Luckwell wrote:

Show quoteHide quote

> I have 3 collections(reports, services, charts) of objects(report,
> service, chart) that are nested with each other. When I serialize the
> object the output only contains reports and services but not the
> charts. Am I missing something? can you serialize to this depth without
> extra code? or do I need to call the serialize method of the child
> objects?
>
> clsReports.SerializeObject("c:\report.xml", m_AllReports)
> '"m_AllReports" contains the collections of object instances I am
> trying to serialize
>
> Each collection class is based on the following
> <Serializable()> Public Class clsReports
>     Inherits System.Collections.CollectionBase
>
>     Default Public Property Item(ByVal index As Integer) As clsReport
>         Get
>             Return CType(Me.List(index), clsReport)
>         End Get
>         Set(ByVal value As clsReport)
>             Me.List(index) = value
>         End Set
>     End Property
>
>     Public Sub Add(ByVal value As clsReport)
>         Me.List.Add(value)
>     End Sub
>
>
>     Public Shared Sub SerializeObject(ByVal filename As String, ByVal
> Report As clsReports)
>           Dim s As New XmlSerializer(GetType(clsReports))
>            Dim writer As TextWriter = New StreamWriter(filename)
>            s.Serialize(writer, Report)
>            writer.Close()
>     End Sub
>
>     Public Shared Function DeserializeObject(ByVal filename As String)
> As clsReports
>             Dim fs As New IO.FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open)
>             Dim w As New
> Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(GetType(clsReports))
>             Dim g As clsReports = CType(w.Deserialize(fs), clsReports)
>
>             fs.Close()
>
>             Return g
>     End Function
>
> End Class
>
> And each object is based on the following
>
> <Serializable()> Public Class clsReport
>     Private m_ReportName As String = ""
>     Private m_ServList As New clsServices
>
>     Public Property Name() As String
>         Get
>             Return Me.m_ReportName
>         End Get
>         Set(ByVal value As String)
>             Me.m_ReportName = value
>         End Set
>     End Property
>
>     Public ReadOnly Property ServiceList() As clsServices
>         Get
>             Return Me.m_ServList
>         End Get
>     End Property
>
>     Public Sub AddService(ByVal NewSvc As clsService)
>         Me.m_ServList.Add(NewSvc)
>     End Sub
> End Class
>