Serialization

Detailed Description

Data structures and types can be serialized to text or binary formats using Pt's serialization. This is used within the framework to load and store data or to implement remote procedure calls. It is extensible to work with all kinds of types, including STL containers, PODs (plain old data types), builtin language types or custom data types. The framework separates the process of composing and decomposing types from the formatting stage, resulting in a two-phase serialization process. This also allows to resolve and fixup shared pointers or references.

A type is serializable, if two operators are implemented to compose and decompose it to a SerializationInfo. The SerializationContext provides improved memory management, a mechanism to generate IDs for shared pointers and a way to further customize or override serialization for a type. Alternatively, performance can be increased by implementing a Composer or Decomposer for the type, however it is more complicated to do so.

Various formats are supported by implementing Formatters. Other modules of the framework also implement Formatters, for example to support serialization to XML. The Serializer and Deserializer combine a Formatter and a SerializationContext, manage composition and decomposition and thus form the high-level interface for the serialization of a set of types.

Classes
class	BasicComposer< T >
	Manages the composition of types during serialization. More...
class	BasicDecomposer< T >
	Manages the decomposition of types during serialization. More...
class	Composer
	Composes types during serialization. More...
class	Decomposer
	Manages the decomposition of types during serialization. More...
class	Deserializer
	Deserializes a set of types. More...
class	FixupInfo
	Fixup of references during serialization. More...
class	Formatter
	Support for serialization to different formats. More...
class	LoadInfo
	Loads referencable types. More...
class	SaveInfo
	Saves referencable types. More...
class	SerializationContext
	Context for the serialization of types. More...
class	SerializationError
	Error during serialization of a type. More...
class	SerializationInfo
	Represents arbitrary types during serialization. More...
class	Serializer
	Serializes a set of types. More...

Functions
template<typename T >
void	fixup (const FixupInfo &fixup, T *&fixme)
	Fixup references during serialization.
template<typename T >
void	fixup (const FixupInfo &fixup, T &fixme)
	Fixup references during serialization.
template<typename T >
void	load (const LoadInfo &li, T &type)
	Loads referencable types.
template<typename T >
void	save (SaveInfo &si, const T &type)
	Saves referencable types.