Serialization

Serialization of a class hierarchy can be done as follows. The class hierarchy is:

• AB inherits from A
• ABC inherits from AB (which inherits from A), thus there cannot be at the same time ABC and DBC.

In the header file,

• Use one of the HPP_SERIALIZABLE macros.
• Except for the base class of the hierarchy (that is A), call BOOST_CLASS_EXPORT_KEY(AB)

In the definition file,

• implement a function like

      template<class Archive>
      void AB::serialize(Archive & ar, const unsigned int version)
      {
        using namespace boost::serialization;
        (void) version;
        ar & make_nvp("base", base_object<A>(*this)); // declare inheritance.
        // ...
      }
  
      HPP_SERIALIZATION_IMPLEMENT(AB); // Or the implement macro corresponding
  the called declaration macro. 

• Except for the base class of the hierarchy (that is A), call BOOST_CLASS_EXPORT_IMPLEMENT(AB)

If you know a class will not have any serializable child (i.e. AB exists but there is no no ABC), then you can remove BOOST_CLASS_EXPORT_KEY(AB) and replace BOOST_CLASS_EXPORT_IMPLEMENT(AB) by BOOST_CLASS_EXPORT(AB)