C / C++ / MFC

• Every object you want to serialize should have a signature and a version #. The signature lets you deserialize it from a persistent collection of heterogenous objects. The version helps you maintain backward compatibility of .dat files.
  
  
• Every object you want to serialize should have a serialize method, viz: long serialize (CArchive* pArchive);
  
  
• When you serialize an object, first serialize its signature, followed by its version #. Next, serialize all simple members (longs, bools, chars) and standard MFC objects (eg: CString). Finally, serialize each contained custom object.
  
  
• If your custom object is a collection (eg: MyEmployeeList), be sure to (de)serialize its size before (de)serializing each member. MyEmployeeList will typically be derived from CPtrArray and can be reconstructed at read time. Ideally, deserializing should use a factory class that serves up the appropriate specialization of Employee, based on the signature read in during deserialization.
  
  
• You probably already know this, but serialization can (and imho should) be implemented without those ugly DECLARE_SERIAL and IMPLEMENT_SERIAL macros.
  

1. In your collection class, add a method like long serialize (CArchive* pArchive);
   
   
2. When you want to serialize to/from a file, open the file (for read/write as the case may be), create a CArchive object and attach it to the file, and finally pass it to your collection's serialize() method.
   
   
3. Serialization will "magically" occur (see my previous note) since the top level collection class will delegate the work to its contents, as necessary.
   
   
4. When you deserialize from an older version of an object, be sure to adjust your "latest version" object as necessary. When you serialize, always save the latest version of the object. For example:
   

   long nVersion << *pArchive;
   if (nVersion < CURRENT_VERSION) {
      m_someMember = 0;
   } else {
      m_someMember << *pArchive; // member only present in this version!
   }
   

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