Let us see some of the classes, attributes and interfaces used in serialization.

·         SerializableAttribute – Any class that can be serialized should be marked as a "Serializable" attribute. Generally, all the business objects or Data Transfer Objects (DTO) are marked as serializable.

·         NonSerializedAttribute – If a class is marked as Serializable then all the properties can be serialized. For example, if we have a User object that has properties like user name, password [not in encrypted format], role of the user, etc. then such kinds of crucial information can be leaked out if serialized. We have the NonSerializable attribute that helps us in marking a property as not serializable.

·         *ISerializable interface – By implementing this interface it allows the object to control its own serialization and deserialization. This feature is new in .NET 3.0. ISerializable interface has a void method called GetObjectData. Method GetObjectData takes two parameters SerializationInfo and StreamingContext. Let us see how can we implement this method while using the serialization.

Listing 1

[SecurityPermissionAttribute(SecurityAction.LinkDemand, 
Flags=SecurityPermissionFlag.SerializationFormatter)] void 
ISerializable.GetObjectData( SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context) 
{ 
// Instead of serializing this object, 
// serialize a SingletonSerializationHelp instead. 
// info.SetType(typeof(MySerializationHelper)); 
// No other values need to be added. 
}

Listing 1 shows the implementation of method GetObjectData. As we can see from the listing, the SerializationInfo object is set to MySerializationHelper. The class MySerializationHelper implements an interface IObjectReference. Listing 2 shows the same.

Listing 2

[Serializable] 
internal sealed class MyClassSerializationHelper : IObjectReference 
{ 
//This object has no fields (although it could). 
//GetRealObject is called after this object is deserialized. 
public Object GetRealObject(StreamingContext context) 
{ 
// When deserialiing this object, return a reference to 
// the Singleton object instead.
return MyClass.GetObject(); 
} 
}

Understanding System.Runtime.Serialization namespace

This is a new namespace that has been added in .NET Framework 3.0. It has rich functionality with classes that are used for serializing and deserializing objects. Let us see some of the new classes that are added in this namespace.