= Serialization Tutorial =

== First Steps ==

In this section we introduce a simple example to show how the serialization works in practice. Two
examples are given: First, we show how the inline serialization for small and bit-sensitive works. 
Second, we show how serialization works with virtual classes.

=== Inline serialization ===

Non-virtual inline serialization is reasonable on small or bit-sensitive objects (for example IP-Adresses, Ports etc.).
To add serialization to an object it must be inherited from the Serializable class and a specification of the SERIALIZEABLE macro:
{{{
#!cpp
#include<serialization.h>

USING_SERIALIZATION; /* use serialization namespaces */

class IPv4Address : public Serializeable { SERIALIZEABLE
private:
    uint8_t a,b,c,d;
public:
    IPv4Address() {
        a=1;b=2;c=3;d=4;
    }
};
}}}
In the next step, a serializer can be added to this class:
{{{
#!cpp
SERIALIZER_BEGIN( IPv4Address, DEFAULT_V, X )
   X && a && b && c && d;
SERIALIZER_END()
}}}
for convenience or personal taste, the macros can also be replaced with
{{{
#!cpp
sznBeginDefault( IPv4Address, X )
   X && a && b && c && d;
sznEnd()
}}}
In this case we assume that an IP-Address can be mapped bijectively -- therefore no special treatment of serialization and deserialization is needed. So, what happens here is, that a inline serializer is created for class IPv4Address. DEFAULT_V specifies that this serializer is used as default variant and X specifies the variable of the stream that is used to serialize the object. To serialize this object one can use the data_serialize methods:
{{{
#!cpp
IPv4Address addr;
Data data = data_serialize( addr );
cout << data << endl;
}}}
which outputs 
{{{
Binary=[01020304]
}}}
As you can see the serialization works quite straits forward. The serialized object can now again deserialized with
{{{
#!cpp
IPv4Address addr2;
data_deserialize( addr2, data );
}}}
Be aware that this kind of serialization results in highly-optimized and inlined code. To generate serializers
that are not-inlined and generated once per class, in the next section we discuss virtual serialization.

=== Virtual serialization ===

== Differentiation between serialization and deserialization ==

== Serialization of bits and special types ==

== Message specification, serialization and deserialization ==