Serializing Dictionary

stucko

Hi,

Im currently in the process of finding a way to send data between server-client,

In the past , ive used hashtables to pass data between server-client but I find that it is difficult to manage and after reading about custom datatype serialization, decided to try it since it sems like it will make the codebase easier to read/understand/manage.

so I went ahead to try the
"Photon.SocketServer.Protocol.TryRegisterCustomType" and "Protocol.GpBinaryV162.Serialize" methods.
it works nicely, ive even tried to have custom objects in a custom object. That too works nicely.

However now I face a problem. Im trying to serialize an object which has a property that is a dictionary that contains another custom object as it's value. and the result, I encountered this error :

2013-11-13 12:12:44,489 [9] ERROR Lite.Room [(null)] - System.IO.InvalidDataException: Unexpected - cannot serialize Dictionary with value type: GameTitle.OverlordModule.OverlordSimpleChild
   at Photon.SocketServer.Rpc.Protocols.GpBinaryByte.GpBinaryByteWriter.WriteDictionary(IBinaryWriter writer, Object dict) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\Rpc\Protocols\GpBinaryByte\GpBinaryByteWriter.cs:line 577
   at Photon.SocketServer.Rpc.Protocols.GpBinaryByte.GpBinaryByteWriter.Write(IBinaryWriter writer, Object value, Boolean setType) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\Rpc\Protocols\GpBinaryByte\GpBinaryByteWriter.cs:line 364
   at Photon.SocketServer.Rpc.Protocols.GpBinaryByte.GpBinaryByteProtocolV16.Serialize(Stream stream, Object obj) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\Rpc\Protocols\GpBinaryByte\GpBinaryByteProtocolV16.cs:line 120
   at GameTitle.OverlordModule.OverlordSimple.SerializeOverlordSimple(Object customObject_) in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\00 Company\01 GameTitle\02 Source\01 ServerSide\PhotonServer\src-server\01 GameServer 0.2\GameTitle\OverlordModule\Overlord.cs:line 226
   at Photon.SocketServer.Rpc.Protocols.GpBinaryByte.GpBinaryByteWriter.WriteCustomType(IBinaryWriter writer, CustomTypeInfo customTypeInfo, Object value) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\Rpc\Protocols\GpBinaryByte\GpBinaryByteWriter.cs:line 472
   at Photon.SocketServer.Rpc.Protocols.GpBinaryByte.GpBinaryByteWriter.Write(IBinaryWriter writer, Object value, Boolean setType) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\Rpc\Protocols\GpBinaryByte\GpBinaryByteWriter.cs:line 245
   at Photon.SocketServer.Rpc.Protocols.GpBinaryByte.GpBinaryByteWriter.WriteHashTable(IBinaryWriter writer, Hashtable serObject) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\Rpc\Protocols\GpBinaryByte\GpBinaryByteWriter.cs:line 719
   at Photon.SocketServer.Rpc.Protocols.GpBinaryByte.GpBinaryByteWriter.Write(IBinaryWriter writer, Object value, Boolean setType) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\Rpc\Protocols\GpBinaryByte\GpBinaryByteWriter.cs:line 335
   at Photon.SocketServer.Rpc.Protocols.GpBinaryByte.GpBinaryByteWriter.WriteEventData(IBinaryWriter binaryWriter, IEventData eventData) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\Rpc\Protocols\GpBinaryByte\GpBinaryByteWriter.cs:line 72
   at Photon.SocketServer.Rpc.Protocols.GpBinaryByte.GpBinaryByteProtocolV16.SerializeEventData(EventData eventData) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\Rpc\Protocols\GpBinaryByte\GpBinaryByteProtocolV16.cs:line 144
   at Photon.SocketServer.EventData.Serialize(IRpcProtocol protocol) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\EventData.cs:line 203
   at Photon.SocketServer.PeerBase.SendEvent(IEventData eventData, SendParameters sendParameters) in c:\svncontent\photon-socketserver-sdk_3.2\src\Photon.SocketServer\PeerBase.cs:line 516
   at Lite.Room.PublishEvent(LiteEventBase e, Overlord actor, SendParameters sendParameters) in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\00 Company\01 GameTitle\02 Source\01 ServerSide\PhotonServer\src-server\01 GameServer 0.2\GameTitle\LiteLobby\Room.cs:line 286
   at GameTitle.DungeonLobby.EvaluateDungeonCommand(Byte command, Object commandValue, Overlord overlord) in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\00 Company\01 GameTitle\02 Source\01 ServerSide\PhotonServer\src-server\01 GameServer 0.2\GameTitle\Game\DungeonLobby.cs:line 163
   at GameTitle.DungeonLobby.HandleRaiseEventOperation(LitePeer peer, RaiseEventRequest raiseEventRequest, SendParameters sendParameters) in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\00 Company\01 Vyrium\02 Source\01 ServerSide\PhotonServer\src-server\01 GameServer 0.2\GameTitle\Game\DungeonLobby.cs:line 129
   at Lite.LiteGame.ExecuteOperation(LitePeer peer, OperationRequest operationRequest, SendParameters sendParameters) in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\00 Company\01 GameTitle\02 Source\01 ServerSide\PhotonServer\src-server\01 GameServer 0.2\GameTitle\Lite\LiteGame.cs:line 207

can photon do this out of the box? am I missing a step? or is this not possible out of the box ? if it is not what is the recommended way to do this ?

thank you in advance

mindlube

Sorry to not exactly answer your question- I dont know how to use that particular photon feature. However I highly recommend protobuf-net. There are other lightweight/fast serialization libraries too, but this is my favorite. Just serialize to a byte[] and send/receive that with Photon. Looks like this in my code

[code2=csharp]public static GameStateModel DeserializeGame( byte[] buffer )
{
using( var stream = new MemoryStream( buffer ))
{
return Serializer.Deserialize<GameStateModel>(stream);
}
}
public static byte[] SerializeGame( GameStateModel state)
{
using (var stream = new MemoryStream ())
{
Serializer.Serialize<GameStateModel>( stream, state );
return stream.ToArray();
}
}[/code2]

https://code.google.com/p/protobuf-net/

Kaiserludi

Hi stucko.

This is a bug in the current Photon Server release.

It will get fixed with the next release.

Until then as a workaround it works fine with the current release if you set the value type of the Dictionary to "Object".

stucko

Hi mindlube, thanks for the recommendation, will definitely check that out after our initial code release.

Hi Kasierludi,

Thanks for conforming that its a bug, I used the workaround for now, it worked fine on test objects.

I noticed that list are not in the release notes

4. Extended Data Type Support Photon now supports more data-types than ever: Null values, dictionaries, arrays of objects (each with its own type) and even custom classes can be integrated and used in events.

I tried to serialize a list and during serialization, there was no errors, but during deserialization I got an error. I tried this last week, so dont remember the exact error, let me know if Lists suppose to work.
At the moment im boxing and unboxing lists to array before serializing/deserializing.

Kaiserludi

Hi stucko.

Lists are not supported as a built-in type. You would have to either add them as a custom type yourself or, like you currently do, convert them to arrays.

Supported types are:
byte
short
int
long
float
double
bool
string
Hashtable
Dictionary
arrays of all of the types listed above (max size is SHRT_MAX for all except byte arrays, which are supported up to a size of INT_MAX), including jagged arrays
Object arrays
CustomType