However, after thinking of how ptree compares to boost::serialization, I can't take away from my mind the idea that someone should assess the possibility to create a boost::serialization archive that reads/writes objects to/from an in-memory ptree. It seems feasible since boost::serialization can i/o to XML.
Similarly, we should then be able to use boost::serialization to i/o ptree to an xml file - preferably resulting in the exact same data as if objects had been serialized directly to XML.
I'm really pleased to say I have already done that. It is indeed simple, about 100 lines of code for input and output archives. The implementation of ptree_archive class is not first class at the moment (it's rather a quick hack), so I refrain from posting it at the moment. But please have a look at this sample of how serialization data looks in JSON format. To create that I just used write_json() after writing some simple C++ data structures to ptree by means of ptree_archive: { "d": { "class_id_type": "1", "class_name_type": "class Derived", "tracking_type": "0", "version_type": "0", "Base": { "class_id_optional_type": "0", "tracking_type": "0", "version_type": "0", "b": "78" }, "d": "111" }, "d2": { "class_id_type": "1", "Base": { "b": "11" }, "d": "146" }, "b": { "class_id_type": "0", "b": "52" }, "i": "3", "v": { "class_id_optional_type": "2", "tracking_type": "0", "version_type": "0", "count": "5", "item": { "count": "3", "item": "1", "item": "2", "item": "3" }, "item": { "count": "0" }, "item": { "count": "0" }, "item": { "count": "0" }, "item": { "count": "0" } } } Note how all the housekeeping stuff (class_ids, tracking_ids etc.) makes is unsuitable for hand-editing. Best regards, Marcin