[RESOLVED] Encapsulating Serialization into a class

I have a class, see below, and I want to provide methods to Save/Load the class to disk using XML serialization.

I got the Save portion working, but I am having issues with the Load. I am not quite sure how to have a class deserialize itself.

The main application will create an instance of the CSLInfo class and call the Save/Load methods at various points.

To save data I would do the following:

Code:

---

CSLInfo csl = new CSLInfo();

csl.Sites.Add(new Site("Customer1", "customer1", true));
csl.Sites.Add(new Site("Customer2", "customer2", false));
csl.Save();

---

And to load data I would do the following:

Code:

---

CSLInfo csl = new CSLInfo();

csl.Load();

---

I would like the Load method to read the xml file from disk and populate the csl variable with the data. I'm not sure if this even possible though.

Also, I read up on implementing ISerializable, but I think I'd have to manually load all the data using ISerializable.GetObjectData, but that's more work than I want to put into this small application.

My final option would be to move the serialization/deserialization code to methods in the main application.

Any input on this would be appreciated.

Thanks,
CT

==== MY CLASS

Code:

---

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;

namespace Sandbox
{
    [Serializable]
    public class CSLInfo
    {
        public CSLInfo() { }
       
        List<Site> _sites = new List<Site>();

        public List<Site> Sites
        {
            get { return _sites; }
            set { _sites = value; }
        }

        public void Load()
        {
           
        }

        public void Save()
        {
            Stream s = null;

            try
            {
                s = File.Create(@"csl.xml");
                XmlSerializer serial = new XmlSerializer(typeof(CSLInfo));
                serial.Serialize(s, this);
            }
            finally
            {
                if (s != null)
                    s.Dispose();
            }
        }
    }

    public class Site
    {
        private string _customerName = "";
        private string _dbName = "";
        private bool _hasWebsite = false;

        public Site() { }

        public Site(string customerName, string databaseName, bool hasWebsite)
        {
            _customerName = customerName;
            _dbName = databaseName;
            _hasWebsite = hasWebsite;
        }

        public string CustomerName
        {
            get { return _customerName; }
            set { _customerName = value; }
        }

        public string DatabaseName
        {
            get { return _dbName; }
            set { _dbName = value; }
        }

        public bool HasWebsite
        {
            get { return _hasWebsite; }
            set { _hasWebsite = value; }
        }
    }
}

---

Well, it never fails. After hours Googling and finally posting a question here I found my answer online. /sigh

For any that are interested my Load method ended as follows:

Code:

---

public static CSLInfo Load()
        {
            FileStream s = null;
            CSLInfo t = null;

            try
            {
                s = File.OpenRead(@"csl.xml");
                XmlSerializer serial = new XmlSerializer(typeof(CSLInfo));
                t = (CSLInfo)serial.Deserialize(s);
            }
            finally
            {
                if (s != null)
                    s.Dispose();
            }

            return t;
        }

---

In the main program I do the following:

Code:

---

CSLInfo csl = CSLInfo.Load();
           
            foreach(Site s in csl.Sites)
                MessageBox.Show(s.CustomerName);

---

Sorry for the posts, but maybe it'll help someone else.

CT