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I found out that some classes use the [Serializable] attribute.
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Here are some examples of using serialization: - Storing data in an object-oriented way to files on disk, e.g. storing a list of Student objects. - Saving program's states on disk, e.g. saving state of a game. - Sending data over the network in form objects, e.g. sending messages as objects in chat application.
Well, serialization allows us to convert the state of an object into a byte stream, which then can be saved into a file on the local disk or sent over the network to any other machine. And deserialization allows us to reverse the process, which means reconverting the serialized byte stream to an object again.
Usually used in Hibernate, JMS, JPA, and EJB, serialization in Java helps transport the code from one JVM to another and then de-serialize it there. Deserialization is the exact opposite process of serialization where the byte data type stream is converted back to an object in the memory.
What happens if you try to send non-serialized Object over network? When traversing a graph, an object may be encountered that does not support the Serializable interface. In this case the NotSerializableException will be thrown and will identify the class of the non-serializable object.
When you create an object in a .Net framework application, you don't need to think about how the data is stored in memory. Because the .Net Framework takes care of that for you. However, if you want to store the contents of an object to a file, send an object to another process or transmit it across the network, you do have to think about how the object is represented because you will need to convert to a different format. This conversion is called SERIALIZATION.
Serialization allows the developer to save the state of an object and recreate it as needed, providing storage of objects as well as data exchange. Through serialization, a developer can perform actions like sending the object to a remote application by means of a Web Service, passing an object from one domain to another, passing an object through a firewall as an XML string, or maintaining security or user-specific information across applications.
Apply SerializableAttribute to a type to indicate that instances of this type can be serialized. Apply the SerializableAttribute even if the class also implements the ISerializable interface to control the serialization process.
All the public and private fields in a type that are marked by the SerializableAttribute are serialized by default, unless the type implements the ISerializable interface to override the serialization process. The default serialization process excludes fields that are marked with NonSerializedAttribute. If a field of a serializable type contains a pointer, a handle, or some other data structure that is specific to a particular environment, and cannot be meaningfully reconstituted in a different environment, then you might want to apply NonSerializedAttribute to that field.
See MSDN for more details.
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Any reason to not mark something as serializable
When transferring or saving data, you need to send or save only the required data. So there will be less transfer delays and storage issues. So you can opt out unnecessary chunk of data when serializing.
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