Get Ready to Unleash the Power of UCanCode .NET

Introduction

This article will show you how you can serialize data to disk and retrieve it again in non doc/view architecture projects. Just follow the steps outlined.

Steps to follow

• Create a normal project as you usually do.
• Add the class which you would use to serialize the data. It might contain just normal variables or collection classes or any kind of data that you want to store.
  • Be sure to derive that class from CObject. Only then you can serialize the data.
  • Be sure to use the DECLARE_SERIAL macro inside.
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  //CInfo.h
  
  class CInfo : public CObject
  {
  DECLARE_SERIAL(CInfo)
  
  public:
  
      virtual void Serialize(CArchive& ar);
      int m_nIndex;
      CString m_strName;
  };

• Add the serialization function in this class's .cpp file. Be sure to use the IMPLEMENT_SERIAL macro as shown.
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  //CInfo.cpp
  
  #include "stdafx.h"
  #include "CInfo.h"
  
  IMPLEMENT_SERIAL(CInfo,CObject,1)
  
  void CInfo::Serialize(CArchive& ar)
  {
      if (ar.IsLoading()) // If you are loading data from the disk
      {
          ar >> m_strName;
          ar >> m_nIndex;
      }
      else // If you are storing data to the disk
      {
          ar << m_strName;
          ar << m_nIndex;
      }
  }

• As this example is concerned with just 2 variables, assume that 2 edit controls have been created to accommodate the Index and the Name. Add 2 variables to those edit controls using the Class Wizard. Now the File to which the data has to be written or read from has to be defined. I do that simply by :-
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  // The Accounts.dat file is the 
  // file that we are going to use 
  // to save and read data
  
  #define DATA_FILE _T("Accounts.dat") 
  

• Now, we write the code for storing the data to the disk. Here, m_bCanSave is declared in the header file as BOOL m_bCanSave; and in the constructor it has been initialized as m_bCanSave = FALSE;
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  void SaveRecords()                  
  //  Code to serialize and save the data
  {
      UINT nFlags = CFile::typeBinary | CFile::modeWrite;
  
      if (_access(DATA_FILE, 0))
      {
          nFlags |= CFile::modeCreate;            
          // The file doesn't exist, so create it
          
          m_bCanSave = TRUE;
      }
      else
      {
          int nTemp = _access(DATA_FILE, 6);  
          // Check Read Write Permissions
  
          if(nTemp==0)
              m_bCanSave = TRUE;
      }
  
      if (m_bCanSave)
      {
          CFile file;
          CFileException fe;
  
          // The file exists with read & write permissions
          if (file.Open(DATA_FILE, nFlags, &fe))
          {
              CArchive ar(&file, CArchive::store);
              UpdateData(TRUE);
              Info.m_nIndex = m_nIndex;
              Info.m_strName = m_strName;
              Info.Serialize(ar); // Serialize the data
          }
      }   
  }
  

• Now , we write the code for reading the data from the disk.
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  void LoadRecords()
  {
      if (_access(DATA_FILE, 6)==0) // If File Exists
      {
          CFile file;
          CFileException fe; 
  
          if (file.Open(DATA_FILE,CFile::typeBinary | 
              CFile::modeRead, &fe))
          {
              CArchive ar(&file, CArchive::load);
              Info.Serialize(ar);
          }
  
      }
  
      m_nIndex = Info.m_nIndex;
      m_strName = Info.m_strName;
      UpdateData(FALSE);
  }

Conclusioning

That's it. A Simple tutorial for serialization is complete. You have a program that can serialize data to the disk and retrieve it later. You didn't know that serialization was so easy. Did you? All Luck and have a nice time.