I hope you don't mind, but I've a bit more information on this:

Reading the documentation closer, I see that Boost acknowledges that any serialized pointer is deserialized with a new keyword: "Serialization of pointers is implemented in the library with code similar to the following:"

// load data required for construction and invoke constructor in place
template<class Archive, class T>

inline void load_construct_data(
Archive & ar, T * t, const unsigned int file_version

){
// default just uses the default constructor to initialize
// previously allocated memory. 

::new(t)T();
}

The documentation recommends overloading this function if necessary:

template<class Archive>

inline void load_construct_data(
Archive & ar, my_class * t, const unsigned int file_version

){
// retrieve data from archive required to construct new instance
int attribute;

ar >> attribute;
// invoke inplace constructor to initialize instance of my_class

::new(t)my_class(attribute);

}

But this would again result in needed to implement a CMyDoc copy constructor.

Any help very much appreciated - thank you.

Colin

On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 1:31 AM, Colin Caprani <cc.caprani@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi All,

I'm porting an existing MFC C++ application to use Boost::Serialization for XML files. My CDocument object contains all the data for the app. I've implemented the serialize function as:

    template<class Archive>
    void CMyDoc::serialize(Archive& ar, const unsigned int version)
    {
    ar    & BOOST_SERIALIZATION_NVP(m_Param1)
        & BOOST_SERIALIZATION_NVP(m_Param2);
    }

To capture the save and load events, in the CMyDoc.cpp file I have:

    BOOL CMyDoc::OnOpenDocument(LPCTSTR lpszPathName)
    {
    clear();    // clear current params

    //if (!CDocument::OnOpenDocument(lpszPathName)) // Old MFC serialize code
    //    return FALSE;

    CEvolveTrafficDoc* pDoc = this; // pointers the same here
    std::ifstream ifs(lpszPathName);
    boost::archive::xml_iarchive ia(ifs);
    ia >> boost::serialization::make_nvp("MyDoc",pDoc); // pointer changes here

    return TRUE;
    }
   
    BOOL CMyDoc::OnSaveDocument(LPCTSTR lpszPathName)
    {
    //if (!CDocument::OnSaveDocument(lpszPathName)) // Old MFC serialize code
    //    return FALSE;

    std::ofstream ofs(lpszPathName);
    boost::archive::xml_oarchive oa(ofs);
    oa << boost::serialization::make_nvp("MyDoc",this);
   
    return TRUE;
    }

Saving a document works fine. The problem is that loading a document doesn't work. The boost library seems to copy the CMyDoc object because the pointer comes back a different address. This means that the loaded file isn't loaded into the current document. Can a CDoc overwrite itself with boost? It can with MFC CArchive.

If I overload the CMyView to capture the file open and save events, the MRU list management offered by the Doc/View architecture won't happen.

I'm sure this has been done a million times, but I can't find any information online. Weird! Any help much appreciated.

Thanks,

Colin