DataNode DateTime

[devomage]

I have a typical character being saved as datanode.  How to store DateTime correctly?

1. player.SetChild("created", character.created);//created is DateTime
2. player.SetChild("deletedate", character.deletedate);//deletedate is DateTime
3.  

1. characters
2.         Focus
3.                 active = true
4.                 avatar = "Ethan"
5.                 charid = 70
6.                 created = System.DateTime
7.                 deletedate = System.DateTime
8.                 experience = 0
9.                 lastactive = System.DateTime
10.                 level = 1
11.  
12.  

[cmifwdll]

Are you sure it's not being parsed properly? Strange that you'd see System.DateTime if it weren't being parsed. Maybe it's sending the typename as a string.

Anyway, you could store / send it as a long instead: DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks. To reconstruct, use DateTime dt = new DateTime(value, DateTimeKind.Utc).
You could add this to TNSerializer.cs to automate the process. Might also need to add it to the DataNode class, not sure.

[devomage]

In the past I forced my enum's to int and datetime's to long's...   this time around I'd really like to avoid this.

In my example shown - "Ethan" is an enum (avatar)...  so, the DateTime seemed odd.

[ArenMook]

DateTime class is not serializable via reflection as there are no public fields, and the properties are not serialized as the class isn't marked with [SerializeProperties]. You can add support for it yourself in TNet.Serializer if you like, but the easiest thing to do is what cmifwdll suggested.

Edit: I've gone ahead and added support for it in TNSerializer. It will automatically get converted to a long and saved as such.

[devomage]

Felt awkward having to convert it back and forth and not work like this natively...  thanks!