[Boost-users] [serialization] Making my library dll serializable

From: a.gray_at_[hidden]
Date: 2008-04-26 21:14:39

Hello everyone,

 

I'm new to boost in general, as well as to the serialization library, so
I expect that I'm probably overlooking a few things.

I have searched the archives, and I've seen threads that are clearly
related to what I'm doing, but their approaches were a bit different
than mine (ie. some had the option of including concrete classes
directly).

 

 

General Info:

 

I'm using boost 1.35.0.

My target platform is Windows XP.

I'm building with MSVC8 SP1.

 

 

What I Need:

 

I'm building an interface-driven library (all the exposed classes are
pure abstract interfaces).

This library resides in its own DLL, but we can assume that it is always
loaded when we're serializing data.

The concrete classes in this library (not exposed) implement boost
serialization support.

 

External applications should be able to link against boost, create
archives, and use them to serialize my library's objects through my
library's interface pointers.

 

 

What I Tried:

 

I've attached an MSVC8 solution with a sample executable and dll.

The library exposes an interface, hides a concrete implementation of the
interface, and exposes a factory function for retrieving an instance.

The application retrieves an instance of the class, instantiates a
polymorphic binary archiver, and serializes the object through the
interface pointer using the archiver.

 

 

What Goes Wrong:

 

In the release configuration, the test program appears to work.

In the debug configuration, the app fails an assert
(extended_type_info.cpp:74 lookup(eti) == m_self->m_map.end()).  This
seems to be the multiple-registration issue which has been discussed in
earlier threads.

 

Why doesn't the assertion fail in release?

 

 

My Workaround:

 

I've seen it mentioned in earlier threads that I should move the actual
serialization calls into the DLL.  

To that end, I created a MyLibrarySerializer class which simply forwards
the serialization call.

This seems to work, but since I just started using this library, I can't
tell if I've overlooked a better solution or if I'm introducing some
obscure bugs using this method.

 

 

Questions:

 

Will my solution work the way I expect it to (Am I overlooking any major
pitfalls)?

Am I overlooking a better solution (Is there a way to accomplish this
without introducing the MyLibrarySerializer class)?

Why does my original solution appear to work in the release
configuration?

 

 

Threads I'm using for reference:

 

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.user/8281

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.user/13440

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.user/28735

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.user/30837

 

 

Thanks for your time and patience,

 

Andrew Gray