Adding list property to component gives serialization error

#1

What is the correct way of adding a List property to a component?

In my application I have the following situation

[Serializable]
public class ChunkViewModel
{
    public int Id { get; set; } = 123;
}

[Serializable]
public class ChunksHolder
{
    public List<ChunkViewModel> Chunks { get; set; } = new List<ChunkViewModel>{new ChunkViewModel()};
}

[DataContract("WorldComponent")]
public class WorldComponent : EntityComponent
{
    // Works just fine
    public ChunkViewModel Chunk { get; set; } = new ChunkViewModel();

    // Fails
    // [NonIdentifiableCollectionItems]  doesn't help
    // [MemberCollection] doesnt help
    public List<ChunkViewModel> Chunks { get; set; } = new List<ChunkViewModel>();

    // Weirdly enough, this does work though
    public ChunksHolder ChunksHolder { get; set; } = new ChunksHolder();
}

Adding a List directly to my component gave me a System.InvalidOperationException in CecilSerializerContext.AddSerializableType

System.InvalidOperationException: Could not find serializer for generic dependent type Torens.Presentation.ViewModels.ChunkViewModel when processing System.Collections.Generic.List`1<Torens.Presentation.ViewModels.ChunkViewModel>

Adding a regular object that contains a list, does work though.
Adding any of the xenko member attributes like NonIdentifiableCollectionItems doesn’t make a difference.
Using a different sort of collection like Dictionary or array doesn’t help either.

Any suggestions?

#2

Serializable is not supported. Please use DataContract on the first two types.

1 Like
#3

Ah, I didn’t know Datacontract served serialization purpose.
Is that protobuf like serialization?