Possible to serialize a non-serializable object? - vb.net

Question

For testing purposes, I'd like to see all of the properties and their corresponding values of an HttpApplication object (I'm testing some functionality of an HTTPModule). My first thought was to serialize it to XML, then view that or write it to a file.
The problem is, HttpApplication is not a serializable class, so an exception is thrown when I try to serialize. Are there any other techniques, or is it even possible to get a string representation of a non-serializable object? I'd just like to see all of the same properties I get with Intellisense and their values.
I've seen some articles which mention Reflection, but I haven't found anything that suggests it would work for my scenario.
UPDATE:
After getting a couple responses, it looks like I'll need to use Reflection. Here is the code I'm using:
Dim sProps As New StringBuilder
For Each p As System.Reflection.PropertyInfo In oHttpApp.GetType().GetProperties()
If p.CanRead Then
sProps.AppendLine(p.Name & ": " & p.GetValue(oHttpApp, Nothing))
End If
Next
On my AppendLine statement, an exception is thrown right away:
System.InvalidCastException: Operator '&' is not defined for string
"Context: " and type 'HttpContext'. at
Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.Operators.InvokeObjectUserDefinedOperator(UserDefinedOperator
Op, Object[] Arguments) at
Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.Operators.InvokeUserDefinedOperator(UserDefinedOperator
Op, Object[] Arguments) at
Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.Operators.ConcatenateObject(Object
Left, Object Right)
#granadaCoder, you mentioned that I'll need to know how "deep" to go, I'm wondering if this is the problem. In the error above, Context is an complex object so I would need to drill into that and get its individual properties, correct? Do you know how I might be able to do that - or would it be as simple as calling GetProperties again on p inside my loop?

Answer 1

Sounds like a good use case for reflection--
How to iterate through each property of a custom vb.net object?
You could iterate over all the object's properties and create your own XML/JSON view of them.
Update--
Here is c# code of how i turn any object to a dictionary (which would work for your use case)
public static Dictionary<string,string> ToDictionary<T>(this T me, string prefix=null) where T:class
{
Dictionary<string, string> res = new Dictionary<string, string>();
if (me == null) return res;
var bindingFlags = BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.GetProperty | BindingFlags.GetField;
var properties = me.GetType().GetProperties(bindingFlags)
.Where(i => i.CanRead
);
foreach (var i in properties)
{
var val = i.GetValue(me, null);
var str = "";
if (val != null)
str = val.ToString();
res[string.Format("{0}{1}", prefix, i.Name)] = str;
}
return res;
}

Answer 2

Some objects are not meant to be serializable. Take an IDataReader for an example.
You're gonna have to go with reflection. And "pluck off" the properties that are readable.
Here's some get-started code.
private void ReadSomeProperties( SomeNonSerializableObject myObject )
{
foreach( PropertyInfo pi in myObject.GetType( ).GetProperties( BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.GetProperty) )
{
//pi.Name
//pi.GetValue( myObject, null )
//don't forget , some properties may only have "setters", look at PropertyInfo.CanRead
}
}
Of course, when the property is a complex object (not a scalar), then you have to figure out how "deep" you want to go digging.