Question

I’m attempting to deserialize an object and when I click ‘step into’ on this first line of code, I get returned to the form as if I clicked continue. The If Else statements never execute.

c = CType(x.Deserialize(mobjClient.GetStream), Cereal)
If c.text.Length > 0 Then
    RaiseEvent LineReceived(Me, c.text)
Else
    RaiseEvent CardReceived(Me, c)
End If

here is the code that precludes that

Dim x As New XmlSerializer(GetType(Cereal))
Dim c As New Cereal

Stepping through the serializing code from the client side seems to work fine. Here is my Cereal class in case you all need it. mobjClient.getStream is a TcpClient Stream.

<Serializable> Public Class Cereal
    Public id As Integer
    Public cardType As Type
    Public attacker As String
    Public defender As String
    Public placedOn As String
    Public attack As Boolean
    Public placed As Boolean
    Public played As Boolean
    Public text As String

    Public Sub New()

    End Sub
End Class

Answer 1

This is how I fixed it….. Finally figured out how to correctly serialize and deserialize data.

    Dim c as New Cereal
    c.text = "Testing...."
    Dim bf As New BinaryFormatter
    Dim ms As New MemoryStream
    Dim b() As Byte

    'serializes the Cereal to the created memory stream
    bf.Serialize(ms, c)
    'converts and moves into the byte array
    b = ms.ToArray()
    ms.Close()

    'send the byte array
    SyncLock mobjClient.GetStream
        mobjClient.GetStream.Write(b, 0, b.Length)
    End SyncLock

and here is the deserialization…

    Dim intCount As Integer

    Try
        SyncLock mobjClient.GetStream
            'returns the number of bytes to know how many to read
            intCount = mobjClient.GetStream.EndRead(ar)
        End SyncLock
        'if no bytes then we are disconnected
        If intCount < 1 Then
            MarkAsDisconnected()
            Exit Sub
        End If

        Dim bf As New BinaryFormatter
        Dim c As New Cereal
        'when data first comes on the stream it is sent to arData, then this puts into memory stream
        Dim ms As New MemoryStream(arData)

        'cut off the memory stream at the end of the data
        ms.SetLength(intCount)
        'deserialize to the created Cereal, giving us a replica of what was sent
        c = bf.Deserialize(ms)
        ms.Close()

        'starts the listener again
        mobjClient.GetStream.BeginRead(arData, 0, 3145728, AddressOf DoRead, Nothing)

        If c.text IsNot Nothing Then
            DisplayText(c.text)
        ElseIf c.OppUserID IsNot Nothing Then
            OnConnected(c.OppUserID, c.OppGender)
        ElseIf c.command IsNot Nothing Then
            OnCommandReceived(c)
        ElseIf c.hasDeck = True Or c.hasBsDeck = True Or c.hasHand = True Then
            OnDeckReceived(c)
        ElseIf c.discard = True Then
            OnDiscard(c)
        Else
            OnCardReceived(c)
        End If

    Catch e As Exception
        MarkAsDisconnected()
    End Try