SOAP Serialization

Serialization

When creating the class whose objects would be serialized, mark it with the [Serializable] attribute. Here is an example:

[Serializable]
public ref class CCar
{
public:
    String ^Make;
    String ^Model;
    int Year;
    int Color;
}

To support SOAP serialization, the .NET Framework provides the SoapFormatter class. This class is defined in the System::Runtime::Serialization::Formatters::Soap namespace that is part of the System::Runtime::Serialization::Formatters::Soap.dll assembly. In order to use The SoapFormatter class, you must reference this assembly. You can do this by adding it to your list of references:

After these two steps, you can create an object and initialize it as you see fit. Before saving it, as always, create a Stream-based object that would indicate the name (and location) of the file and the type of action to perform. Then, declare a SoapFormatter variable using its default constructor. To actually save the object, call the Serialize() method of this class. This method uses the same syntax as that of the BinaryFormatter class: it takes two arguments. The first is a Stream-based object. The second is the object that needs to be serialized.

Here is an example:

using namespace System; using namespace System::IO; using namespace System::Runtime::Serialization::Formatters::Soap; [Serializable] public ref class CCar { public: String ^ Make; String ^ Model; int Year; int Color; }; int main() { CCar ^ vehicle = gcnew CCar; vehicle->Make = L"Volvo"; vehicle->Model = L"S40"; vehicle->Year = 2006; vehicle->Color = 3; FileStream ^ stmCar = gcnew FileStream(L"VolvoS40.car", FileMode::Create); SoapFormatter ^ sopCar = gcnew SoapFormatter(); sopCar->Serialize(stmCar, vehicle); return 0; }

De-serialization in soap is performed exactly as done for the binary de-serialization. To support it, the SoapFormatter class is equipped with the Deserialize() method. This method uses the same syntax as its equivalent of the BinaryFormatter class. The approach to use it is also the same.

Here is an example:

using namespace System;
using namespace System::IO;
using namespace System::Runtime::Serialization::Formatters::Soap;

[Serializable]
public ref class CCar
{
public:
    String ^ Make;
    String ^ Model;
    int Year;
    int Color;
};

int main()
{
    FileStream ^ stmCar =
            gcnew FileStream(L"VolvoS40.car",
                           FileMode::Open);
    SoapFormatter ^ sopCar = gcnew SoapFormatter();
    CCar ^ vehicle = dynamic_cast<CCar ^>(sopCar->Deserialize(stmCar));
        
    Console::WriteLine(L"Car Information");
    Console::WriteLine(L"Make:  {0}", vehicle->Make );
    Console::WriteLine(L"Model: {0}", vehicle->Model);
    Console::WriteLine(L"Year:  {0}", vehicle->Year);
    Console::Write(L"Color: ");
    switch(vehicle->Color)
    {
    case 1:
        Console::WriteLine(L"Black");
        break;
    case 2:
        Console::WriteLine(L"Gray");
        break;
    case 3:
        Console::WriteLine(L"White");
        break;
    case 4:
        Console::WriteLine(L"Red");
        break;
    case 5:
        Console::WriteLine(L"Blue");
        break;
    }
    return 0;
}

This would produce:

Car Information
Make:  Volvo
Model: S40
Year:  2006
Color: White
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