How to Serialize FileInfo

How do you serialize a FileInfo object in WinForms or WPF? The basic issue is FileInfo doesn't have a parameterless constructor, which is required by XmlSerializer. While there are other ways to accomplish this task, the simplest way is to create a basic wrapper around FileInfo.

Create a Serializable FileInfo class

 FileInfoSerializable.cs

using System;
using System.IO;

namespace Utilities
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Serializable wrapper for FileInfo.
    /// </summary>
    public class FileInfoSerializable
    {
      #region ~~~ Fields ~~~
        
        private readonly FileInfo _fileInfo;

      #endregion

      #region ~~~ Constructors ~~~

        // A parameterless constructor is required for serialization
        public FileInfoSerializable()
        {
            _fileInfo = new FileInfo("export.xml");
        }

        public FileInfoSerializable(string FileName)
        {
            _fileInfo = new FileInfo(FileName);
        }

        public FileInfoSerializable(FileInfo FileInfo)
        {
            _fileInfo = FileInfo;
        }

      #endregion

      #region ~~~ Properties ~~~

        public string Name { 
            get { return _fileInfo.Name; } set {} }

        public string FullName { 
            get { return _fileInfo.FullName; } set {} }

        public long Length { 
            get { return _fileInfo.Length; } set {} }

        public string Extension { 
            get { return _fileInfo.Extension; } set {} }

        public DateTime CreationTime { 
            get { return _fileInfo.CreationTime; } set {} }

        public DateTime LastWriteTime { 
            get { return _fileInfo.LastWriteTime; } set {} }

        public string DirectoryName { 
            get { return _fileInfo.DirectoryName; } set {} }

      #endregion
    }
}