C# – Binary serialization of Silverlight XAML object

csilverlightsilverlight-2.0xaml

I'm working on Silverlight application that needs to display complex 2d vector graphics.
It downloads zipped XAML file from the server, parses it (XamlRead) and injects to the layout root on the page.
This works fine for fairly small xaml files. The problems is that I need to make it work with much bigger file (lots more content in it). For example one of my uncompressed xaml files is 20 MB large and XamlRead method takes tool long to parse it. My question is if is there a way to do all the parsing on the server side. It would best to just store serialized binary output of XamlRead method as BLOB in the database. However when I try to serialize it, I'm getting a message that "Canvas object is not marked as serializable". I will really appreciate any advices .

Best Answer

Silverlight doesn't have much binary serialization built in; however, protobuf-net works on Silverlight and may help plug this gap. In the current build you can only really serialize types you control (due to adding attributes) - however, I'm in the middle of a big refactor to (among other things) add support for serializing types without attributes.

I expect it to be about 2 more weeks before this is available as a (hopefully) stable build, but you're welcome to take a look at it then.

Note that you will still need to give it some help (telling it what you want it to serialize), but it may be useful.

In particular, the data format ("protocol buffers") is designed to be both dense and efficient to process, which should increase the parse speed. See here for more (numbers are from main .NET, not Silverlight)

Related Solutions

R – the best way to display a grid of a large number of items in Silverlight

I can think only a simple two level ItemsControl(ListBox) solution for this. And the inner visual element can be a Styled CheckBox to look like 'O' or 'X' here is the sample I just made for you . Of course you do need to a DateHeader collection at the top aligned with the checkboxes.

alt text http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/8695/grid.jpg

XAML

    <UserControl.Resources>
    <DataTemplate x:Key="CellTemplate">
        <Grid Width="25" Height="25">
            <CheckBox IsChecked="{Binding IsPresent}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center"/>
        </Grid>
    </DataTemplate>
    <DataTemplate x:Key="RowTemplate">
        <Grid>
            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <ColumnDefinition Width="80"/>
                <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <TextBlock Margin="4,0,0,0" Text="{Binding Name}" TextWrapping="Wrap"/>
            <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding WorkingDays}" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource CellTemplate}" Grid.Column="1" >
                <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>   
                    <ItemsPanelTemplate>
                        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"/>      
                    </ItemsPanelTemplate>               
                </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
            </ItemsControl>
        </Grid>
    </DataTemplate>
</UserControl.Resources>
<ItemsControl x:Name="lstWorkingDaysMain" ItemsSource="{Binding}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource RowTemplate}" >
    <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
        <ItemsPanelTemplate>
            <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical"/>
        </ItemsPanelTemplate>
    </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
</ItemsControl>

public class Student
{
    public Student()
    {
        WorkingDays = new List<WorkingDay>();
    }

    public string Name { get; set; }
    public List<WorkingDay> WorkingDays { get; set; }
}

public class WorkingDay
{
    public bool IsPresent{get; set;}
    public DateTime Date { get; set; }
}

And the test data population at the code behind xaml.cs

 List<Student> students = new List<Student>();

        Student student = new Student() { Name = "Aaaaaa" };
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date=new DateTime(2009,5,5), IsPresent=true} );
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date=new DateTime(2009,5,6), IsPresent=true} );
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date=new DateTime(2009,5,7), IsPresent=true} );
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date=new DateTime(2009,5,8), IsPresent=true} );
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date=new DateTime(2009,5,9), IsPresent=true} );
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date=new DateTime(2009,5,10), IsPresent=true} );
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date=new DateTime(2009,5,11), IsPresent=true} );
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date=new DateTime(2009,5,12), IsPresent=true} );
        students.Add(student);

        student = new Student() { Name = "Bbbbbb" };
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 5), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 6), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 7), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 8), IsPresent = false });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 9), IsPresent = false });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 10), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 11), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 12), IsPresent = true });
        students.Add(student);


        student = new Student() { Name = "Cccccc" };
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 5), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 6), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 7), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 8), IsPresent = false });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 9), IsPresent = false });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 10), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 11), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 12), IsPresent = false });
        students.Add(student);


        student = new Student() { Name = "Dddddd" };
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 5), IsPresent = false });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 6), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 7), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 8), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 9), IsPresent = false });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 10), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 11), IsPresent = true });
        student.WorkingDays.Add(new WorkingDay() { Date = new DateTime(2009, 5, 12), IsPresent = true });
        students.Add(student);

        this.DataContext = students;

C# – JavaScriptSerializer – JSON serialization of enum as string

I have found that Json.NET provides the exact functionality I'm looking for with a StringEnumConverter attribute:

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Converters;

[JsonConverter(typeof(StringEnumConverter))]
public Gender Gender { get; set; }

More details at available on StringEnumConverter documentation.

There are other places to configure this converter more globally:

enum itself if you want enum always be serialized/deserialized as string:

[JsonConverter(typeof(StringEnumConverter))]  
enum Gender { Male, Female }

In case anyone wants to avoid attribute decoration, you can add the converter to your JsonSerializer (suggested by Bjørn Egil):
```
serializer.Converters.Add(new Newtonsoft.Json.Converters.StringEnumConverter()); 
```
and it will work for every enum it sees during that serialization (suggested by Travis).

or JsonConverter (suggested by banana):

JsonConvert.SerializeObject(MyObject, 
    new Newtonsoft.Json.Converters.StringEnumConverter());

Additionally you can control casing and whether numbers are still accepted by using StringEnumConverter(NamingStrategy, Boolean) constructor.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

R – the best way to display a grid of a large number of items in Silverlight

C# – JavaScriptSerializer – JSON serialization of enum as string

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