Frequently Asked Questions

Click on the question to open its answer.

Where are the libraries (DLL) ?

In the source code archive, they are in this directory \Source\DLL\.
Every platform has its own project.
For example:
Source\DLL\NET 4.5\UniversalSerializer for .NET 4.5\UniversalSerializer 3 for NET 4_5.csproj

Alternatively, You can compile all libraries at once:

  1. Install Visual Studio 2017 or later, Xamarin, Xamarin Forms, the Android SDK, and the UWP framework.
    You may consider installing the Android Studio first, and the API 27.
  2. Extract the source code archive of UniversalSerializer.
  3. Open this solution:
    Source\DLL\All DLLs as Release\All DLLs as Release.sln
  4. Run the solution (the default project is "Copy DLL files").
  5. All the libraries will be built and copied to this directory:
    Source\DLL\All DLLs as Release\DLLs
Is UniversalSerializer thread-safe ? Can it run on parallel threads ?

UniversalSerializer is thread-safe, but it is not concurrent.
You can serialize from different threads, but the serialization will not operate simultaneously.

Is there a PCL (Portable Class Library) serializer ?

No. It seems Microsoft abandoned the PCL in favor to the UWP (Universal Windows) and to the .NET Standard.
Anyway, programming a PCL was painful, so I removed it.

Can I serialize to json on UWP ?

No, the json format is not available on UWP.
I may implement it someday. But it is not a trivial job.

Who wrote UniversalSerializer ?

My name is Christophe Bertrand. You will find more information here.