Introduction to TypeSerializers TypeSerializers are the classes that do the actual work of serializing and deserializing the values in a class as well as providing a ToString method so that the contents of a class can be displayed for debugging purposes. All TypeSerializers inherit from TypeSerializerBase<T>. T is the ElementType of the MessageSerializedPropertyInfo. The TypeSerializers that are used for a class are selected using the TypeSelectors All TypeSerializers must implement the following two functions: byte[] Serialize(T value); T Deserialize(byte[] bytes, ref int currentArrayIndex, int length, ref DeserializeStatus status); Notes on the TypeSerializer classes: They must have a constructor that takes a single MessageSerializedPropertyInfo parameter. The default for a TypeSerializer when ToString() is called on it is to essentially just return whatever the default call to ToString() on that type produces. If a different value should be used, the string GetToSTringValue(T value, int indentLevel, ToStringFormatProperties formatProperties, bool isPartOfList) should be overridden. For the most part, the parameters can be ignored (except for the value) unless some special formatting needs to be done for the particular type (like a byte array being displayed on multiple lines). See the documentation for ToString. The Serialize method is pretty straightforward. The value for that particular property in the class is passed in and the TypeSerializer should return an array of bytes that represents that value. Generally the various attributes that are part of the MessageSerializedPropertyInfo will help provide information on how the class should actually be serialized (e.g. Endianness, BCD or not, output length, etc.). The Deserialize method gets passed the entire array of bytes that make up the message in the bytes parameter and the currentArrayIndex parameter points to the start of the value that the Deserialize method should be converting into the value. The length parameter is how many bytes the MessageSerializer expects the value to take up from the array. For many types that are fixed length this value won’t be needed but for variable length types the MessageSerializer passing in the length lets you know how many bytes should be processed. After processing the bytes that the TypeSerializer needs to it should increment the currentArrayIndex by how many bytes were processed. The status parameter is for indicating any problems that occurred, especially if they weren’t bad enough to require throwing an exception. TBD: Further methods that can be overridden The following are the built-in TypeSerializers. TypeSerializerBcd TypeSerializerByteArray TypeSerializerDateTime TypeSerializerEnum TypeSerializerNumeric TypeSerializerSerializableClass TypeSerializerString See TypeSerializerUserDefined for information on how to make your own TypeSelectors.