[Boost-users] Serialization of a universal data type

Subject: [Boost-users] Serialization of a universal data type
From: Gokulakannan Somasundaram (gokul007_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-06-30 02:43:18

Hi,
   I have started using Boost Serialization in one of my project and thanks
for the library. I may be asking a question that might have got repeated,
but i did my search on the forums but couldn't get the relevant answer.
   I have a data-type which is more like a universal datatype(unsigned
long). Consider a 64 bit system and if the value to be stored in this
datatype is greater than 8 bytes, then it is stored as value. If the value
to be stored is greater than 8 bytes, then it is stored elsewhere and the
pointer is stored here. By using other meta-data information, the data is
extracted from this data-type.
   To be exact, i am referring to the datum implementation in open-source
database postgresql. If i have to serialize this data-type, i need more info
from other variables which store the metadata. The functions, i am trying to
implement in Boost serialization are readDatum and _outDatum(similar to
load/save). I don't see, how i can do that in Boost serialization,
especially because of the signature of the load/save function. It only takes
the version and the object to be serialized. How can i pass the other
meta-data?
  I could always create a new data-type(say SerializableDatum) with all the
required info, but then this data-type is being created only for the purpose
of serialization.
  Is there any better way to achieve the same result?

Thanks,
Gokul.