Generic and Custom Serializable Types

All built-in generics are automatically registered at initialization. You have a couple of options for complex key types.

If your application uses more complex key types that you want to make more accessible or easier to handle, you can derive a new class from IGeodeSerializable. Another option is for the application to do its own object serialization using Byte[] or a custom type.

Blobs

If you have data that is best handled as a blob, such as structs that do not contain pointers, use a Byte[] or, if you need something more complex than Byte[], implement a custom type using either IPdxSerializable or IGeodeSerializable.

Object Graphs

If you have a graph of objects in which each node can be serializable, the parent node calls DataOutput.WriteObject to delegate the serialization responsibility to its child nodes. Similarly, your application calls DataInput.ReadObject to deserialize the object graph.

Note: The GemFire IGeodeSerializable interface does not support object graphs with multiple references to the same object. If your application uses these types of circular graphs, you must address this design concern explicitly.