Re: [Boost-bugs] [Boost C++ Libraries] #4809: deserialization with xml_iarchive fails when attributes of top level element are reordered

Subject: Re: [Boost-bugs] [Boost C++ Libraries] #4809: deserialization with xml_iarchive fails when attributes of top level element are reordered
From: Boost C++ Libraries (noreply_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-11-03 12:14:09

#4809: deserialization with xml_iarchive fails when attributes of top level
element are reordered
-----------------------------------------------+----------------------------
  Reporter:  Kolja Nowak <kolja@…>             |       Owner:  wash                             
      Type:  Bugs                              |      Status:  new                              
 Milestone:  To Be Determined                  |   Component:  serialization                    
   Version:  Boost 1.44.0                      |    Severity:  Problem                          
Resolution:                                    |    Keywords:  serialization xml attribute order
-----------------------------------------------+----------------------------

Comment (by Kolja Nowak <kolja@…>):

 Replying to [comment:2 wash]:
 > I'm having trouble imagining a situation in which this is needed.

 We use boost::serialize to exchange messages between different processes,
 and sadly one of them is not written in C++ but in Adobe Flex. We wrote a
 counterpart to boost::serialize in Flex on top of the XML classes provided
 by the framework. This worked well until the recent update of Adobe Air,
 which changed the behavior of the XML generator, causing attributes to be
 ordered slightly different than before.

 You may argue boost::serialize was never designed to talk to a different
 implementation expect itself. But even then, violating XML in the current
 way may lead to trouble. Imagine I have some storage engine, a database,
 whatever, which is able to store XML documents in a more space efficient
 way than plain text, for example by converting them to a binary
 representation. It would be perfectly fine and XML conformant for such a
 storage engine to reconstruct logically identical documents with changed
 attribute order, but even if it looks like a good idea I couldn't use it
 store boost::serialize XML archives.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/4809#comment:3>
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