// or something like this (also crashes)

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Polygon));

//while(stream.Read()
XmlReader reader = new XmlTextReader(stream);
while (serializer.CanDeserialize(reader))
{

ret.Add((Polygon)serializer.Deserialize(reader));
//serializer.d
}

This should be throwing an exception - what does it say? Also, what does the inner exception say? Finally, can you post your file contents? I suspect you're using the serializer incorrectly. The serializer probably thinks your entire file is one big polygon, when you have it setup as a list of polygons. Maybe not, but serializers usually work on entire files.

It doesnt have to be serialized , xml. This is just the first sample code i found on the internet. What i want to do is save a List of polygons and be able to load them back into the List from the saved file.


/// polygon class/////////////////////////
public class Polygon : SaveGameStorage
{
public Color BoxColor;
public Vector2 Min, Max;
public float Height, Width;
public bool isActive;
public bool Moving;
///////////////////////////////////////////

sorry i dont know the tags to post code
// save and load function/////////////////
////////////////////////////////////////////

public class SaveGameStorage
{

public void Save(List sg)
{
StorageDevice device = StorageDevice.ShowStorageDeviceGuide();
// Open a storage container
StorageContainer container = device.OpenContainer("AISavedMaps");
// Get the path of the save game
string filename = Path.Combine(container.Path, "saving.xml");

// Open the file, creating it if necessary
FileStream stream = File.Open(filename, FileMode.OpenOrCreate);

// Convert the object to XML data and put it in the stream
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Polygon));
for(int i = 0; i
if(sg[i].isActive)
serializer.Serialize(stream, sg[i]);
// stream.BeginWrite(
// Close the file

stream.Close();

// Dispose the container, to commit changes
container.Dispose();
}


public bool Load(List ret)
{

Polygon tmp = new Polygon();
StorageDevice device = StorageDevice.ShowStorageDeviceGuide();


// Open a storage container
StorageContainer container = device.OpenContainer("AISavedMaps");

// Get the path of the save game
string filename = Path.Combine(container.Path, "saving.xml");

// Check to see if the save exists
if (!File.Exists(filename))
// Notify the user there is no save
return false;

ret.Clear();
// Open the file
FileStream stream = File.Open(filename, FileMode.OpenOrCreate,
FileAccess.Read);
// Read the data from the file

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Polygon));

//while(stream.Read()
XmlReader reader = new XmlTextReader(stream);
while (serializer.CanDeserialize(reader))
{

ret.Add((Polygon)serializer.Deserialize(reader));
//serializer.d
}
// Close the file
stream.Close();

// Dispose the container
container.Dispose();

return true;
}

The serializer converts a single object into a file or creates a single object from a file. So, you just need to serialize the List<> and deserialize the file into a List<>.

eg.

thank you that worked :-)


[source]
// posting this for refrence
// List == List(polygon) list class anyways

public void Save(string name, List sg)
{
StorageDevice device = StorageDevice.ShowStorageDeviceGuide();
// Open a storage container
StorageContainer container = device.OpenContainer("AISavedMaps");
// Get the path of the save game
string filename = Path.Combine(container.Path, name);

// Open the file, creating it if necessary
FileStream stream = File.Open(filename, FileMode.Create);

// Convert the object to XML data and put it in the stream
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List));

serializer.Serialize(stream, sg);

// Close the file

stream.Close();

// Dispose the container, to commit changes
container.Dispose();
}


public List Load(string name)
{


StorageDevice device = StorageDevice.ShowStorageDeviceGuide();

List ret = new List();
// Open a storage container
StorageContainer container = device.OpenContainer("AISavedMaps");

// Get the path of the save game
string filename = Path.Combine(container.Path, name);

// Check to see if the save exists
if (!File.Exists(filename))
// Notify the user there is no save
return ret;

ret.Clear();
// Open the file
FileStream stream = File.Open(filename, FileMode.OpenOrCreate,
FileAccess.Read);
// Read the data from the file

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List));


ret = (List)serializer.Deserialize(stream);


// Close the file
stream.Close();

// Dispose the container
container.Dispose();

return ret;
}
[/source]