How to: Make Entities Serializable

You can make entities serializable when you generate your code. Entity classes are decorated with the DataContractAttribute attribute, and columns with the DataMemberAttribute attribute.

Developers using Visual Studio can use the Object Relational Designer for this purpose. Object Relational Designer (O/R Designer)
Object Relational Designer (O/R Designer)

If you are using the SQLMetal command-line tool, use the /serialization option with the unidirectional argument. For more information, see Code Generation Tool (SQLMetal.exe).

Example

sqlmetal /code:nwserializable.vb /language:vb "c:\northwnd.mdf" /sprocs /functions /pluralize /serialization:unidirectional

sqlmetal /code:nwserializable.cs /language:csharp "c:\northwnd.mdf" /sprocs /functions /pluralize /serialization:unidirectional

See Also