Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

Johnny Hall — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 11:10:00 GMT

I believe it is because the XmlSerializer has no way to know what format to serialize a dictionary as, because there is no equivalent type in XML Schema.

The only way to do it would have been to "hard-code" an XML format into IDictionary, or into the XmlSerializer code itself.

And you have to remember that XmlSerializer was (I believe) added to the framework late on, and that it started out as someone's personal project. Though don't quote me on that, I could be wrong.

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

Johnny Hall — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 02:27:00 GMT

Here, try this...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/03/06/XMLFiles/default.aspx

(2/3 of the way down)

You can serialize IDictionary but you need to tell the serializer what the format of the XML should be by implementing IXmlSerializable.

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

Ferris Beuller — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 02:06:00 GMT

Whats this newfangled BinaryFormatter Serializer thang, never seen it before.
hmm..

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

Ferris Beuller — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 02:06:00 GMT

Yes I was referring to XmlSerializer.

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

JosephCooney — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 01:56:00 GMT

Yes - I think he is talking about XML serialization too. IIRR I've been able to serialize plenty of things under framework 1.0 and 1.1.

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

Ferris Beuller — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 01:03:00 GMT

But why do they disable serialization on IDictionary based collections?

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

Julien Ellie — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 00:40:00 GMT

I think he's talking about XML Serialization, not binary.

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

Ferris Beuller — Tue, 24 Feb 2004 23:11:00 GMT

Visual Studio .NET 2003 which I would imagine is 1.1, right?

Once I have a repro scenario on that IDE I will try it on my home 2002 edition.

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

Ferris Beuller — Tue, 24 Feb 2004 23:09:00 GMT

Visual Studio .NET 2003 which I would imagine is 1.1, right?

Once I have a repro scenario on that IDE I will try it on my home 2002 edition.

re: Error: The type is not supported because it implements IDictionary.

Ferris Beuller — Tue, 24 Feb 2004 23:09:00 GMT

Until then I would isolate where you are throwing those exceptions in the actual serializer to see what conditions would causé that because I am obviously hitting them.

I would also check for comments like

// This should not happen
:D first place it jumps :D