Serializing and deserializing objects - json

Question

I am trying to serialize and deserialize my objects to save and load data.
I thought I was smart and introduced Attributes:
[ExposedProperty]
public float Width { get; set; }
[ExposedProperty]
public Color HoverColor { get; set; }
I have a PropertyData class:
[System.Serializable]
public class PropertyData
{
public string Name;
public string Type;
public object Value;
public override string ToString()
{
return "PropertyData ( Name = " + Name + ", Type = " + Type + ", Value = " + Value + ")";
}
}
So instead of writing an ObjectData class for every Object class I have that gets serialized into JSON, I though I'd write a Serializable class that does:
public List<PropertyData> SerializeProperties()
{
var list = new List<PropertyData>();
var type = this.GetType();
var properties = type.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.GetProperty)
.Where(p => p.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ExposedPropertyAttribute), false).Length > 0)
.ToArray();//
for (int i = 0; i < properties.Length; i++)
{
var property = properties[i];
var data = new PropertyData();
data.Name = property.Name;
data.Type = property.PropertyType.Name;
data.Value = property.GetValue(this);
list.Add(data);
}
return list;
}
and also to deserialize:
protected void DeserializePropertyData(PropertyData data)
{
var p = this.GetType().GetProperty(data.Name);
if (p == null)
{
Debug.LogError("Item " + this + " does not have a property with name '" + data.Name + "'");
return;
}
var type = p.PropertyType;
try
{
//TODO do some magic here to deserialize any of the values.
TypeConverter typeConverter = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(type);
object propValue = typeConverter.ConvertFromString(data.Value);
p.SetValue(this, propValue);
}
catch(FormatException fe)
{
Debug.Log($"Serializable, there was a format exception on property {data.Name} and value {data.Value} for type {type}");
}
catch(NotSupportedException nse)
{
Debug.Log($"Serializable, there was a not supported exception on property {data.Name} and value {data.Value} for type {type}");
}
finally
{
}
}
But as it turns out, I can't serialize or deserialize Color, or Vector3, or Quaternion, or whatever. It only works for bool, float, string, int...
Any ideas how to serialize/deserialize other objects properly?

Answer 1

Thanks for all the answers. I looked into the ISerializationSurrogate Interface and noticed that it can't be used for UnityEngine.Vector3 or UnityEngine.Color classes.
Then I looked into TypeConverter and also saw that you can't directly use it because you have to add the attribute [TypeConverter(typeof(CustomTypeConverter))] on top of the very class or struct you want to convert.
And at the end of the day, both TypeConverter and ISerializationSurrogate are simply pushing and parsing chars around to get the result. For a Vector3, you have to trim the "(", ")", split the string with a "," and perform float.Parse on every element of the split string array. For a Color, you have to trim "RGBA(" and ")", and do the exact same thing.
Deadline is tight, so I took the same principle and created a static class that does my converting:
public static class MyCustomTypeConverter
{
public static object ConvertFromString(string value, Type destinationType)
{
if (destinationType == typeof(string))
{
return value;
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(int))
{
return int.Parse(value);
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(float))
{
return float.Parse(value);
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(double))
{
return double.Parse(value);
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(long))
{
return long.Parse(value);
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(bool))
{
return bool.Parse(value);
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(Vector3))
{
var mid = value.Substring(1, value.Length - 2);
var values = mid.Split(",");
return new Vector3(
float.Parse(values[0], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
float.Parse(values[1], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
float.Parse(values[2], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
);
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(Vector4))
{
var mid = value.Substring(1, value.Length - 2);
var values = mid.Split(",");
return new Vector4(
float.Parse(values[0], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
float.Parse(values[1], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
float.Parse(values[2], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
float.Parse(values[3], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
);
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(Color))
{
var mid = value.Substring(5, value.Length - 6);
var values = mid.Split(",");
return new Color(
float.Parse(values[0], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
float.Parse(values[1], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
float.Parse(values[2], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
float.Parse(values[3], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
);
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(PrimitiveType))
{
var e = Enum.Parse<PrimitiveType>(value);
return e;
}
else if (destinationType == typeof(SupportedLightType))
{
var e = Enum.Parse<SupportedLightType>(value);
return e;
}
return null;
}
public static string ConvertToString(object value)
{
return value.ToString();
}
}
It works, does what I want, and I can extend it for further classes or structs. Quaternion or Bounds perhaps, but I don't need much more than that.
My Serialization class now does this:
public List<PropertyData> SerializeProperties()
{
var list = new List<PropertyData>();
var type = this.GetType();
var properties = type.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.GetProperty)
.Where(p => p.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ExposedPropertyAttribute), false).Length > 0)
.ToArray();//
for (int i = 0; i < properties.Length; i++)
{
var property = properties[i];
var data = new PropertyData();
data.Name = property.Name;
data.Value = MyCustomTypeConverter.ConvertToString(property.GetValue(this));
list.Add(data);
}
return list;
}
and that:
protected void DeserializePropertyData(PropertyData data)
{
var p = this.GetType().GetProperty(data.Name);
if (p == null)
{
return;
}
var type = p.PropertyType;
object propValue = MyCustomTypeConverter.ConvertFromString(data.Value, type);
p.SetValue(this, propValue);
}