Question

Seeing as you can convert any document to a byte array and save it to disk, and then rebuild the file to its original form (as long as you have meta data for its filename etc.).

Why do you have to mark a class with [Serializable] etc? Is that just the same idea, “meta data” type information so when you cast the object to its class things are mapped properly?

Answer 1

First off, you don’t have to.

It is simply a marker interface that tells the serializer that the class is composed of items that it can serialize (which may or may not be true) and that is can use the default serialization.

The XMLSerializer has the additional requirement to have a zero parameter constructor to the class.

There are other serializers that use contracts for serialization (such as the DataContractSerializer) – they give you more control over serialization than simply marking a class as Serializable. You can also get more control by implementing the ISerializable interface.