Save and load List<Form> in C#

Question

I'm wondering is it somehow possible to save Form state in C# after application closing? I tried with List, and whenever I create an instance of Form that instance is added to List, and it's there until it's deleted. It works fine, and I can view, edit and delete saved forms, until Application is closed. So, considering that Form isn't serializable is there any chance to save List somehow, and load it later?

Answer 1

The Control and Form classes are not serializable. There's a very good reason for that, many of their property values are heavily dependent on the execution state of the program. Like Handle, very important but always different. UICues, depends on whether the user pressed the Alt key. Even simple things like Location and Size, dependent on video adapter settings and user preferences.

You would not want to serialize these properties. What you want to preserve is the data that was used to initialize the controls. Which of course entirely depends on your program, there is no commonality at all. It is therefore up to you to create a class that stores the state of your UI. You can make it serializable as needed and select your preferred way to implement serialization, there are many ways to do so. Strictly separating the view from the model in your code is normally very important to have a decent shot at making this work.