SOAPFormatter "version dependency" problem

[Wiktor Zychla]

After signing all my assemblies with strong keys, I've found that the
application refuses to deserialize any SOAP serialized data. The message
says:

Parse error, no assembly associated with the Xml key.

and refers to the Xml key:

<a1:C_XOptions id="ref-1"
xmlns:a1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/clr/nsassem/SU2000Plus/sekretariat_RM
%2C%20Version%3D3.99.1371.18778%2C%20Culture%3Dneutral%2C%20PublicKeyToken%3
D739f0b7b1c47b157">

The problem is caused by the version stamp in the key (3.99.1371.18778) -
after each rebuild the version number is incremented and the deserializer
cannot deserialize the data serialized by the previous version.

Alas, I did not find any simple way to solve the problem. How do I make the
SOAPFormatter version independent? Note that the problem started to occur
after I've signed all assemblies.

I use SOAPFormatter to store the internal settings of my application. I
cannot use XmlSerializer because it cannot handle the complicated structure
of the settings. The SOAPFormatter was the great choice until now. I have to
find a way to make it "version independent" because it would be really
annoying for the user to lost his/her setting with each new version of the
application.

Is there any simple solution? Thanks in advance for any help,
Wiktor Zychla

 

[Wiktor Zychla]

Is there any simple solution? Thanks in advance for any help,

ok, I've finally found the solution: I use a simple SerializationBinder.
thanks, anyway.

 

[Dave]

Use a serialization Binder to control the types the formatter creates. In
the binder code you can take an old type and tell the runtime to use the
current type. Jeff Richter wrote 3 articles on this subject - here's a link
to the 3rd one.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/09/net/