title: Basic Serialization sidebar_position: 1 id: basic_serialization license: | Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

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This page covers typed serialization APIs in Apache Fory™ C#.

Object Graph Serialization

Use [ForyStruct] on your classes/structs and register them before use.

using Apache.Fory;

[ForyStruct]
public sealed class Address
{
    public string Street { get; set; } = string.Empty;
    public int Zip { get; set; }
}

[ForyStruct]
public sealed class Person
{
    public long Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; } = string.Empty;
    public string? Nickname { get; set; }
    public List<int> Scores { get; set; } = [];
    public List<Address> Addresses { get; set; } = [];
}

Fory fory = Fory.Builder().Build();
fory.Register<Address>(100);
fory.Register<Person>(101);

Person person = new()
{
    Id = 42,
    Name = "Alice",
    Nickname = null,
    Scores = [10, 20, 30],
    Addresses = [new Address { Street = "Main", Zip = 94107 }],
};

byte[] payload = fory.Serialize(person);
Person decoded = fory.Deserialize<Person>(payload);

Class Inheritance

An annotated class includes the supported members declared by its annotated base classes in one flattened schema. Annotate every class in the hierarchy directly; [ForyStruct] is not inherited.

[ForyStruct]
public abstract class Entity
{
    [ForyField(1)]
    private long _id;

    public long Id => _id;
}

[ForyStruct]
public sealed class User : Entity
{
    [ForyField(2)]
    public string Name { get; set; } = string.Empty;
}

Public and assembly-accessible mutable members are included automatically. Private, protected-only, and otherwise inaccessible fields or properties must carry [ForyField] on the class that declares them. Abstract annotated bases publish schema information for concrete descendants but are not registered or serialized as roots.

The concrete derived type is still registered once:

fory.Register<User>(102);

For a base class from an unmodifiable package, declare its fields explicitly as described in External Types.

Typed API

Serialize / Deserialize with byte arrays

byte[] payload = fory.Serialize(value);
MyType decoded = fory.Deserialize<MyType>(payload);

Deserialize from ReadOnlySpan<byte>

ReadOnlySpan<byte> span = payload;
MyType decoded = fory.Deserialize<MyType>(span);

Stream-style frame consumption

using System.Buffers;

ReadOnlySequence<byte> sequence = GetFramedSequence();
MyType first = fory.Deserialize<MyType>(ref sequence);
MyType second = fory.Deserialize<MyType>(ref sequence);

Dynamic Payloads via Generic Object API

When the compile-time type is unknown or heterogeneous, use the generic API with object?.

Dictionary<object, object?> value = new()
{
    ["k1"] = 7,
    [2] = "v2",
    [true] = null,
};

byte[] payload = fory.Serialize<object?>(value);
object? decoded = fory.Deserialize<object?>(payload);

Dynamic maps normally decode as Dictionary<object, object?> when they have no null key. If the payload uses reference tracking for the dynamic map itself, C# returns NullableKeyDictionary<object, object?> so nested references and null keys point to the decoded map owner.

Buffer Writer API

Serialize directly into IBufferWriter<byte> targets.

using System.Buffers;

ArrayBufferWriter<byte> writer = new();
fory.Serialize(writer, value);

ArrayBufferWriter<byte> dynamicWriter = new();
fory.Serialize<object?>(dynamicWriter, value);

Notes

  • Reuse the same Fory or ThreadSafeFory instance for better performance.
  • Primitive types and collections do not require user registration.
  • Register user types handled by [ForyStruct], [ForyEnum], [ForyUnion], external structural serializers, or custom serializers explicitly.

Related Topics