Extracting property values from a dictionary - vb.net

Question

I am attempting to write a subroutine that will deserialize a dictionary from a .ser file (this bit works fine) and then repopulate several lists from this dictionary (this is the bit I cannot do).
The dictionary contains objects (I think) of a custom class I wrote called "Photo Job" which has properties such as ETA, notes, medium etc. (Declared as such)
Dim photoJobs As New Dictionary(Of String, PhotoJob)
In short, I want to be able to extract every entry of each specific property into an separate arrays (one for each property) and I can go from there.
Any help would be appreciated, I may be going about this completely the wrong way, I'm new to VB. The relevant code is below:
Photo Job Class:
<Serializable()> _Public Class PhotoJob
Private intStage As Integer 'Declare all local private variables
Private ID As String
Private timeLeft As Integer
Private material As String '
Private note As String
Private path As String
Private finished As Boolean = False
'Declare and define properties and methods of the class
Public Property productionStage() As Integer
Get
Return intStage
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As Integer)
intStage = Value
End Set
End Property
Public Property photoID() As String
Get
Return ID
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As String)
ID = Value
End Set
End Property
Public Property ETA() As Integer
Get
Return timeLeft
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As Integer)
timeLeft = Value
End Set
End Property
Public Property medium() As String
Get
Return material
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As String)
material = Value
End Set
End Property
Public Property notes() As String
Get
Return note
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As String)
note = Value
End Set
End Property
Public Property imagePath() As String
Get
Return path
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As String)
path = Value
End Set
End Property
Public Property complete() As Boolean
Get
Return finished
End Get
Set(value As Boolean)
finished = value
End Set
End Property
Public Sub nextStage()
If intStage < 4 Then
intStage += 1
ElseIf intStage = 4 Then
intStage += 1
finished = True
End If
End Sub
End Class
Subroutines involved in de/serialisation:
Private Sub BackupAllToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BackupAllToolStripMenuItem.Click
Dim formatter As New BinaryFormatter
Dim backupFile As New FileStream(Strings.Replace(Strings.Replace(Now, ":", "_"), "/", ".") & ".ser", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None)
formatter.Serialize(backupFile, photoJobs)
backupFile.Close()
MsgBox("Collection saved to file")
End Sub
Private Sub RestoreFromFileToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles RestoreFromFileToolStripMenuItem.Click
With OpenFileDialog 'Executes the following sets/gets/methods of the OpenFileDialog
.FileName = ""
.Title = "Open Image File"
.InitialDirectory = "c:\"
.Filter = "Serial Files(*.ser)|*ser"
.ShowDialog()
End With
Dim backupPathStr As String = OpenFileDialog.FileName
Dim deSerializer As New BinaryFormatter
Dim backupFile As New FileStream(backupPathStr, FileMode.Open)
photoJobs = deSerializer.Deserialize(backupFile)
backupFile.Close()
End Sub
From what I can see using the autos menu, the saving/restoring of the dictionary works just fine.

Answer 1

First, if you are using VS2010+, you can greatly reduce boilerplate code using autoimplemented properties:
<Serializable()>
Public Class PhotoJob
Public Property productionStage() As Integer
Public Property photoID() As String
Public Property ETA() As Integer
etc
End Class
That is all that is needed, all the boilerplate code is handled for you. Second, with this line:
photoJobs = deSerializer.Deserialize(backupFile)
Your deserialized photojobs will be a generic Object, not a Dictionary. You should turn on Option Strict so VS will enforce these kinds of errors. This is how to deserialize to Type:
Using fs As New FileStream(myFileName, FileMode.Open)
Dim bf As New BinaryFormatter
PhotoJobs= CType(bf.Deserialize(fs), Dictionary(Of String, PhotoJob))
End Using
Using closes and disposes of the stream, CType converts the Object returned by BF to an actual dictionary
To work with the Dictionary (this has nothing to do with Serialization) you need to iterate the collection to get at the data:
For Each kvp As KeyValuePair(Of String, PhotoJob) In PhotoJobs
listbox1.items.Add(kvp.value.productionStage)
listbox2.items.Add(kvp.value.ETA)
etc
Next
The collection is a made of (String, PhotoJob) pairs as in your declaration, and when you add them to the collection. They comeback the same way. kvp.Key will be the string key used to identify this job in the Dictionary, kvp.Value will be a reference to a PhotoJobs object.
As long as VS/VB knows it is a Dictionary(of String, PhotoJob), kvp.Value will act like an instance of PhotoJob (which it is).