WCF and XML serialization helper classes Helper classes to serialize and deserialize in a single line of code using XML/WCF serialization. I use these classes primarily in the following scenarios: (1) for unit testing serializable types to ensure that the classes are marked up correctly. I recently worked on a client site where a whole day had previously been lost due to a software defect caused by incorrectly marked up WCF DataContract classes. My solution was to add additional unit tests to "round trip serialize" all serializable types. This then uncovered some other similar errors in the code base (2) for reading and writing application configuration at runtime. On occasions I find the limitations of the .NET framework configuration classes too restricting especially if I need to update configuration at runtime (e.g. saving user settings) and/or re-reading the config at runtime (3) when capturing serializable information for logging purposes