Serializing to Binary on WP7 - Part 1

Serialising data out to a file on WP7 is a very easy task thanks to the DataContractSerializer which allows you to tag properties in your class with '[DataMember]' and then use a few simple line of code to save/load that class to file:

   1:  // Save

   2:  MyClass theData = new MyClass();

   3:  using (IsolatedStorageFileStream fs = isoStore.OpenFile("MyClass.xml", FileMode.Create))

   4:  {

   5:      DataContractSerializer ser = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(MyClass));

   6:      ser.WriteObject(fs, theData);

   7:  }

   8:   

   9:  // Load

  10:  using (IsolatedStorageFileStream fs = isoStore.OpenFile("MyClass.xml", FileMode.Open))

  11:  {

  12:      DataContractSerializer ser = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(MyClass));

  13:      MyClass result = (MyClass)ser.ReadObject(fs);

  14:  }

This is all well and good for getting something up and running quickly, but once you start having more complex classes and/or more data, performance starts to become an issue. A quick test of how long AppTracker currently takes to deserialize the cache file when following just 3 apps (Polyglot, Gifts and AppTracker - consisting of a total of about 544 reviews) resulted in the following timings: 

Click to read more ...

AppTracker in the WP7Comp

While we (VerySoftware) released AppTracker in mid-December, we have been continuing to work on it, even after having released the V1.1 update at the end of January. The V1.2 update isn't quite ready yet, but we have just entered AppTracker into the WP7Comp run by Red Gate.

This competition looks very exciting and aims to find "which app will developers love most?", in this category we believe that AppTracker is ideal and hope you'll agree. If you do then why not pop along to AppTracker's Entry Page and give us a thumbs up and/or leave a comment?

As part of the entry into the competition we needed to create a 'screencast' to demo the app, so we came up with this (awesome music created by nvwoods):




and here is a direct link to download AppTracker from the Marketplace.