John Soer

Back to serialization again this is a beast that just wont die every time I think I know everything about serialization that there is to know about I get whacked over the head with it. One of the big issues with xml serialization is that it will not serialize a dictionary if you try you get an error like this

Cannot serialize member SSD.SourceControl.Modules.Files.Monitors.Business.MonitorSettings.Accesses of type System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[[System.String, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089],[System.String, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]], because it implements IDictionary.

You have four ways to deal with this

• Do not use a dictionary
• Override the dictionary and implement IXmlSerializable (http://weblogs.asp.net/pwelter34/archive/2006/05/03/444961.aspx) 
• Use binary serialization
• Use JSON Serialization

Personally my preference is to either user binary serialization or JSON serialization if that is an option.