Serializing object graphs
Serialization is the process of converting a live object into a sequence of bytes using a specified format. Deserialization is the reverse process.
There are dozens of formats you can choose, but the two most common ones are eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).
Tip
Good Practice
JSON is more compact and is best for web and mobile applications. XML is more verbose, but is better supported in older systems.
Ironically, Microsoft originally chose JSON for the project.json
file format in .NET Core 1.0, but then changed their mind and went back to XML with the C# project .csproj
file format!
.NET Core has multiple classes that will serialize to and from XML and JSON. We will start by looking at XmlSerializer
and JsonSerializer
.
Serializing with XML
Add a new console application project named Ch10_Serialization
.
In Visual Studio 2017, in the Solution Explorer, right-click Dependencies and choose Manage NuGet Packages. Search for...