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Getting Started

You can read some basics about AqlaSerializer in README.

To be able to use AqlaSerializer features you need to import its main namespace:

using AqlaSerializer;

Hello World

The simplest way to get started is simply to write your data; for an example you have (I'll use C# for most examples):

class Person 
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Address Address { get; set; }
}

class Address
{
    public string Line1 { get; set; }
    public string Line2 { get; set; }
}

It is necessary to show that we intend this type to be serialized (i.e. that it is a data contract):

[SerializableType]
class Person
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Address Address { get; set; }
}

[SerializableType]
class Address
{
    public string Line1 { get; set; }
    public string Line2 { get; set; }
}

Serializing Data

Since AqlaSerializer uses binary format, it is based heavily around the Stream class; this makes it possible to use with a wide variety of implementations simply. For an example, to write to a file:

var person = new Person {
    Id = 12345, Name = "Fred",
    Address = new Address {
        Line1 = "Flat 1",
        Line2 = "The Meadows"
    }
};
using (var file = File.Create("person.bin")) {
    Serializer.Serialize(file, person);
}

Deserializing Data

We also need to get our data back!

Person newPerson;
using (var file = File.OpenRead("person.bin")) {
    newPerson = Serializer.Deserialize<Person>(file);
}

This reads the data back from "person.bin". Note we need to tell it the type this time (the <Person>), but otherwise the code is very similar.

Ignoring properties

By default all public properties are considered to be serializable. But you can exclude any:

[SerializableType]
class Address
{
    public string Line1 { get; set; }
    public string Line2 { get; set; }
    
    [NonSerializableMember]
    public string Temp { get; set; }
}

Initialization

AqlaSerializer automatically adds types to its "registry" at a time of the first occurrence. But some features (like automatic inheritance handling) require you to add all the involved types before they are going to be used in the serialization process. If something does not work, the first thing you should do is ensuring that you have a proper initialization in your code. You can setup automatic registration for types marked as serializable in your current assembly:

Serializer.AddContracts(/* nonPublic: */ true);

This should be called only once. Just put it into your startup code.

You can specify an assembly as a first argument:

Serializer.AddContracts(Assembly.Load("MyDataAssembly"), true);

If you register types for more than one assembly, ensure that you do this in the same order each time.

Don't Like Attributes?

Everything that can be done with attributes can also be configured at runtime via RuntimeTypeModel. The Serializer.X methods are basically just shortcuts to RuntimeTypeModel.Default.X, so to manipulate the behavior of Serializer.X, you must configure RuntimeTypeModel.Default.

Support

Please submit your questions or issues in the corresponding section but first check whether your question can be answered by adding "protobuf-net" to your google query.

There are tons of information in xmldoc comments which are shown within IntelliSense tips.

You can analyze generated serializers with RuntimeTypeModel.GetDebugSchema method.

Also see examples and test projects in the source code.

Some examples are taken from the protobuf-net wiki

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