Visual Basic® 2010 Unleashed

XML Serialization

Note

Code examples shown in this section require Imports System.IO and Imports System.Xml.Serialization directives.

One of the main goals of serialization is to provide a way for exchanging data with other applications so that such applications can re-create objects’ state. If you want to share your objects with non-.NET applications or with applications running on different platforms, a convenient way for serializing objects is provided by the Xml serialization. As you know, Xml is a standard international file format for data exchange. Xml files are basically text files organized according to a hierarchical structure and therefore can be manipulated in whatever platforms and applications. Xml serialization thus provides ...