C#•2y ago

❔ BinaryFormatter does not serialize/deserialize the Tags of listview items

so i have a listview that i want to serialize and then desirialize. I store some values in the tags of each listview item. Problem is that after i clear the listview and deserialize the file, the tags of each listview item is gone. I don't know if this is a problem of the writer or the reader, but i guess its because of the writer skipping the tag property. How can i overcome this issue?

  public bool WriteToBinaryFile(string filePath, ListView listview)
        {
            bool result = false;
            FileStream fsWrite = File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite, FileShare.ReadWrite);
            try
            {
                BinaryFormatter binfmt = new BinaryFormatter();
                InvokeIfRequired(listview, () => { binfmt.Serialize(fsWrite, new ArrayList(listview.Items)); });
                result = true;
            }
            catch (Exception a) { pushError(a.ToString()); result = false; }
            try { fsWrite.Close(); }
            catch (Exception) { }
            return result;
        }

        public bool ReadFromBinaryFile(string filePath, ListView listview)
        {
            bool result = false;
            FileStream fsRead = File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
            try
            {
                // deserialize
                binfmt = new BinaryFormatter();
                ArrayList deserialized_array_list = (ArrayList)binfmt.Deserialize(fsRead);
                Array listviewitem_array = (deserialized_array_list).ToArray(typeof(ListViewItem));
                listview.Items.AddRange((ListViewItem[])listviewitem_array);
                result = true;
            }
            catch (SerializationException) { } //exclude this exception
            catch (Exception a) { pushError(a.ToString()); result = false; }
            try { fsRead.Close(); }
            catch (Exception) { }
            return result;
        }

  public bool WriteToBinaryFile(string filePath, ListView listview)
        {
            bool result = false;
            FileStream fsWrite = File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite, FileShare.ReadWrite);
            try
            {
                BinaryFormatter binfmt = new BinaryFormatter();
                InvokeIfRequired(listview, () => { binfmt.Serialize(fsWrite, new ArrayList(listview.Items)); });
                result = true;
            }
            catch (Exception a) { pushError(a.ToString()); result = false; }
            try { fsWrite.Close(); }
            catch (Exception) { }
            return result;
        }

        public bool ReadFromBinaryFile(string filePath, ListView listview)
        {
            bool result = false;
            FileStream fsRead = File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
            try
            {
                // deserialize
                binfmt = new BinaryFormatter();
                ArrayList deserialized_array_list = (ArrayList)binfmt.Deserialize(fsRead);
                Array listviewitem_array = (deserialized_array_list).ToArray(typeof(ListViewItem));
                listview.Items.AddRange((ListViewItem[])listviewitem_array);
                result = true;
            }
            catch (SerializationException) { } //exclude this exception
            catch (Exception a) { pushError(a.ToString()); result = false; }
            try { fsRead.Close(); }
            catch (Exception) { }
            return result;
        }

5 Replies

Klarth•2y ago

You shouldn't use BinaryFormatter anymore because of security reasons https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/serialization/binaryformatter-security-guide You also shouldn't use GUI controls as your data store. ListView supports binding through DataSource, although it's not as capable as modern frameworks. Normally, I create persistence/serialization models. That is a class that contains all relevant properties that get serialized. Then you map the data between the Model and ListViewItem. And you serialize/deserialize with System.Text.Json / NewtonSoft / System.Xml. You may be able to skip the mapping step if you use data binding via DataSource. You can in XAML-based languages, but WinForms is not very good, especially in that area.

Diesel Geezer•2y ago

thanks for the other solutions, but what about the BinaryFormatter? Do you know how i can achieve what i asked?

Klarth•2y ago

I don't help users write obviously bad code.

Diesel Geezer•2y ago

alright...

Accord•2y ago

Looks like nothing has happened here. I will mark this as stale and this post will be archived until there is new activity.

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❔ BinaryFormatter does not serialize/deserialize the Tags of listview items