Serialisation – Arma Reforger

This page talks about SCR_JsonSaveContext/SCR_JsonLoadContext and SCR_BinSaveContext/SCR_BinLoadContext.

JSON

Serialisation

SCR_JsonSaveContext context = new SCR_JsonSaveContext();

string stringValue = "data";
int integerValue = 123;

context.WriteValue("key1", stringValue);
context.WriteValue("key2", integerValue);

// process saved data (export, send, save...), in this case data are exported as json string
dataString = context.ExportToString();

Deserialisation

SCR_JsonLoadContext context = new SCR_JsonLoadContext();
context.ImportFromString(dataString);

string stringValue;
int integerValue;

// order does not matter for JSON as it uses key names
context.ReadValue("key2", integerValue);
context.ReadValue("key1", stringValue);

Binary

Serialisation

SCR_BinSaveContext context = new SCR_BinSaveContext();

string stringValue = "data";
int integerValue = 123;

context.WriteValue("key1", stringValue);
context.WriteValue("key2", integerValue);

// process saved data (export, send, save...), in this case data are saved to "file.bin"
context.SaveToFile("file.bin");

Deserialisation

SCR_BinLoadContext context = new SCR_BinLoadContext();
context.LoadFromFile("file.bin");

string stringValue;
int integerValue;

// order matters for Binary serialisation, as Binary ignores names
context.ReadValue("key1", stringValue);
context.ReadValue("key2", integerValue);

Object Serialisation

Simple

The following class set to serialise will serialise all its properties.

class MyClass : Managed
{
	protected int m_iVariable = 42;
	protected string m_sVariable;
	protected float m_fVariable = 33.3;
};

NonSerialized

Adding the NonSerialized() decorator to a field will make the serialisation ignore it.

class MyClass : Managed
{
	protected int m_iVariable = 42;
	protected string m_sVariable = "Hello there";

	[NonSerialized()]
	protected float m_fVariable = 33.3;
};

Advanced

The following methods allow to define a custom serialisation per class. This is useful to avoid saving lengthy yet useless information for loading as well as load values in a certain order.

ⓘ

The NonSerialized decorator is only useful with the simple object serialisation - SerializationSave/SerializationLoad will ignore it.

SerializationSave

If an object has the SerializationSave method defined, the SaveContext will use it and not process object's properties automatically at all.

class MyClass : Managed
{
	protected int m_iVariable = 42;
	protected string m_sVariable = "Hello there";
	protected float m_fVariable = 33.3;

	bool SerializationSave(SerializationSaveContext context)
	{
		if (!context.IsValid())
			return false;
		 
		context.WriteValue("theString", m_sVariable);
		context.WriteValue("integer", m_iVariable);
		context.WriteValue("floatingpoint", m_fVariable);

		return true;
	}
};

SerializationLoad

If an object has the SerializationLoad method defined, the SaveContext will use it and not process object's properties automatically at all.

class MyClass : Managed
{
	protected int m_iVariable = 42;
	protected string m_sVariable = "Hello there";
	protected float m_fVariable = 33.3;

	bool SerializationLoad(SerializationLoadContext context)
	{
		if (!context.IsValid())
			return false;

		context.ReadValue("theString", m_sVariable);
		context.ReadValue("integer", m_iVariable);
		context.ReadValue("floatingpoint", m_fVariable);

		return true;
	}
};