Cloning/serialization produces wrong class because of different dlls

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I have a dll library TaskLibrary.dll with a class Execution performing some Operation(s) and a class ParallelizeExecution that takes a single Execution, clones it and executes the Run method of the multiple Execution instances.

The Clone method of the Execution class works by converting the Execution in xml and reverting it back to normal as a new instance

public Execution{
    List<AOperation> operations;

    public Run(){
        foreach(var op in operations){
            //...do stuff...
        }
    }

    public Execution Clone(){
        MyXmlSerializer.DeserializeObject<Execution>(
                MyXmlSerializer.SerializeObject(this));
    }
}

public ParallelizeExecution{
    List<Execution> toRun;
    public RunParallel(Execution e,int numExecutions){
        toRun=new List<Execution>();

        for(var i=0;i<numExecutions;i++){
            toRun.Add(e.Clone());
        }
    }
}

The Execution class is serializable as is each of the classes implementing Operation. This is obtained by using an abstract class (AOperation) which all the IOperation implementations extend, using the XmlInclude annotation to make MyXmlSerializer work for each IOperation.

[XmlInclude(typeof(Operation1))]
[XmlInclude(typeof(Operation2))]
public abstract class AOperation:IOperation{
    ...
}

Now I have a new project referencing the TaskLibrary.dll. I need to add a new kind of Operation to a Execution:

public class Operation3: Operation2 {
}

Everything works fine with a single execution, but when I use ParallelizeExecution Operation3 is correctly serialized as Operation2 thus executing an unwanted Run method. How can I add a new type of AOperation to the Execution class and expect it to be correctly serialized and run in the Execution?

OR

How can I avoid the problem without altering the way the Execution class is serialized?

Caveat: I know that it is possible to use Reflection to xmlserialize any tipe extending a given one, but i'd rather learn how to do this using standard OOP (if possible).

EDIT: I could modify TaskLibrary.dll but I'd rather avoid this approach, it would void my efforts in learning new things and aiding the community, moreover it would be quite painful to redistribute the library to those already using it.