WPF Charting Documentation - SciChart WPF Charts SDK v8.x
SciChart WPF 2D Charts > Advanced 2D Charting Topics > Serialization
Serialization

SciChart supports serialization of the chart settings to XML. This is useful if you wish to persist a chart configuration and restore it.

Serialization of Chart Settings

To serialize a chart, use the following code. This code will serialize a SciChartSurface and its settings to MemoryStream but you can use any other stream e.g. FileStream to save XML to a file.

Serialization of Chart Settings
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var stream = new MemoryStream();
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(SciChartSurface));
serializer.Serialize(stream, SciChartSurface);

Deserialization of Chart Settings

To restore a chart from XML use the following code:

Deserialization of Chart Settings
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String xmlString = … // assuming you have the XML string in memory
var stream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(xmlString));
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(SciChartSurface));
stream.Position = 0;
var chart = (SciChartSurface)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
chart.RenderableSeries.First().DataSeries = DataSeries;

Serialization of Chart Data

Currently SciChart does not support serialization of chart data out of the box, however, if you see Accessing X,Y Values (read-only)  , you can access the DataSeries.XValues and DataSeries.YValues as a list and persist these as you wish.

Example of Serialization Output

An example of serialization output is included below.

Example of Serialization Output
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<SciChartSurface ClipOverlayAnnotations="True" ClipUnderlayAnnotations="True" ClipModifierSurface="True" Theme="">
  <RenderableSeries>
    <FastLineRenderableSeries
             Type="SciChart.Charting.Visuals.RenderableSeries.FastLineRenderableSeries, 
                   SciChart.Charting, Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral,
                    PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823"
             XAxisId="DefaultAxisId"
             YAxisId="DefaultAxisId"
              IsVisible="True"
             StrokeThickness="1" AntiAliasing="True" ResamplingMode="Auto"
             Stroke="FF,C6,E6,FF" DrawNaNAs="Gaps" IsDigitalLine="False" />
  </RenderableSeries>
  <XAxes Type="SciChart.Charting.Model.AxisCollection, SciChart.Charting,
               Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823">
    <DateTimeAxis Type="SciChart.Charting.Visuals.Axes.DateTimeAxis, SciChart.Charting,
                   Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823"
                  AutoRange="Once" AutoTicks="True" AxisAlignment="Bottom"
                  DrawMajorBands="True" DrawMajorTicks="True" DrawLabels="True"
                  DrawMinorTicks="True" DrawMajorGridLines="True" DrawMinorGridLines="True"
                  Id="xAxis1"
                  GrowBy="SciChart.Data.Model.DoubleRange,0,0" MinorsPerMajor="5"
                   MaxAutoTicks="10" FlipCoordinates="False" />
    <DateTimeAxis Type="SciChart.Charting.Visuals.Axes.DateTimeAxis, SciChart.Charting,
                  Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823"
                  AutoRange="Once" AutoTicks="True" AxisAlignment="Bottom"
                  DrawMajorBands="False" DrawMajorTicks="True" DrawLabels="True"
                 DrawMinorTicks="True" DrawMajorGridLines="False"           
                 DrawMinorGridLines="False" Id="xAxis2"
                 GrowBy="SciChart.Data.Model.DoubleRange,0,0" MinorsPerMajor="5"
                 MaxAutoTicks="10" FlipCoordinates="False" />
  </XAxes>
  <YAxes Type="SciChart.Charting.Model.AxisCollection, SciChart.Charting,
                 Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823">
    <NumericAxis Type="SciChart.Charting.Visuals.Axes.NumericAxis, SciChart.Charting,
                 Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823"
                  AutoRange="Once" AutoTicks="True" AxisAlignment="Right"
                  DrawMajorBands="True" DrawMajorTicks="True" DrawLabels="True"
                 DrawMinorTicks="True" DrawMajorGridLines="True" DrawMinorGridLines="True"
                 Id="yAxis1" GrowBy="SciChart.Data.Model.DoubleRange,0,0"
                 MinorsPerMajor="5" MaxAutoTicks="10" FlipCoordinates="False" />
    <NumericAxis Type="SciChart.Charting.Visuals.Axes.NumericAxis, SciChart.Charting,
                 Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823"
                 AutoRange="Once" AutoTicks="True" AxisAlignment="Right"
                  DrawMajorBands="False" DrawMajorTicks="True" DrawLabels="True"
                 DrawMinorTicks="True" DrawMajorGridLines="False"
                 DrawMinorGridLines="False" Id="yAxis2"
                  GrowBy="SciChart.Data.Model.DoubleRange,0,0" MinorsPerMajor="5"
                 MaxAutoTicks="10" FlipCoordinates="False" />
  </YAxes>
  <Annotations Type="SciChart.Charting.Visuals.Annotations.AnnotationCollection,
               SciChart.Charting, Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral,
               PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823">
    <TextAnnotation Type="SciChart.Charting.Visuals.Annotations.TextAnnotation,
               SciChart.Charting, Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral,
                PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823" IsEditable="False" IsHidden="False"
               IsSelected="False" XAxisId="DefaultAxisId" YAxisId="DefaultAxisId"
               CoordinateMode="Absolute" Background="0,FF,FF,FF" BorderThickness="0,0,0,0"
                Foreground="FF,A6,A7,AC" FontSize="12" FontWeight="Normal"
               FontFamily="Segoe UI"
               FontStyle="Normal" Text="" TextAlignment="Left" />
  </Annotations>
  <ChartModifier Type="SciChart.Charting.ChartModifiers.ZoomExtentsModifier,
                 SciChart.Charting, Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral,
                 PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823"
                 ExecuteOn="MouseDoubleClick" ReceiveHandledEvents="True" IsEnabled="True"
                 XyDirection="XYDirection" IsAnimated="True" />
</SciChartSurface>

Serializing and Deserializing Across SciChart Versions

You will notice many types are qualified by their fully-qualified assembly name. This is unfortunately unavoidable as serialization across assemblies requires that the fully-qualified name is included in the serialized output.

What we suggest if you need to serialize and deserialize across version(s) is to pre-process the fully XML string and replace the fully qualified assembly names.

For instance:

Find: SciChart.Charting.Model.AxisCollection, SciChart.Charting,
                 Version=4.0.0.5900, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823

Replace: SciChart.Charting.Model.AxisCollection, SciChart.Charting,
                 Version=4.0.1.6200, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b55dd9efe817e823

 

This will upgrade the XML to be compatible to a newer version of SciChart.