Nevermind...my bad...needed to set the stream's position before reading...

No that part was clear... initially what I was trying to do was use the LoadFromString and SaveToString methods, not XML.

Now that I'm using the XML serialization, I'm still having quite a few problems.

I cannot deserialize.  After quite a few trial and error issues, I now have  an exception when I deserialize - "The Brushes element was invalid or missing"

Any ideas?

           MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
           StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(ms);
                     
           sw.Write(contents);
           ms.Position = 0;
           System.Xml.XmlReader xr =   System.Xml.XmlReader.Create(ms);
           reader.Read(xr);

Doesn't seem to work here...that's essentially what I've been doing.

Couple things of note:
I'm using the build for .Net 2.0
I'm using the demo
I calling this from within a method of a derived extension of the control.

I need to pass the method a string, containing the contents previously serialized by the control.  It needs to redraw the diagram based on the passed in string.

       public void LoadFromXml(string contents)
       {

           MindFusion.FlowChartX.Xml.XmlReader reader = new MindFusion.FlowChartX.Xml.XmlReader(this);
           ClearAll();
           reader.DeserializeTag += new MindFusion.FlowChartX.Xml.SerializeTagEvent(DeserializeTag);
           MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
           StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(ms)
                       
           sw.Write(contents);
           ms.Position = 0;
           ClearAll();
           System.Xml.XmlReader xr = System.Xml.XmlReader.Create(ms);
           reader.Read(xr);

       }

which results in:

MindFusion.FlowChartX.Xml.InvalidFormatException: Brushes element missing or invalid
   at MindFusion.FlowChartX.Xml.XmlReader.Read(XmlReader reader)
   at Acsis.DataLink.UI.WorkflowPrototypePlugin.Controls.AcsisWorkflowChart.LoadFromXm
l(String contents) in C:\Code\RND\DataLink\Development\5.0\Acsis.DataLink.UI.WorkflowPrototypePlugin2\
Controls\AcsisWorkflowChart.cs:line 437
   at Acsis.DataLink.UI.WorkflowPrototypePlugin.Views.WorkSpace.flowChart1_BoxDblClick
ed(Object sender, BoxMouseArgs e) in C:\Code\RND\DataLink\Development\5.0\Acsis.DataLink.UI.WorkflowPrototypePlugin2\
Views\WorkSpace.cs:line 1078
   at MindFusion.FlowChartX.FlowChart.x33a6385620deccdc(ChartObject xa59bff7708de3a18, PointF x0b433f30d6157b49, MouseButtons x64c848779a37b985)
   at MindFusion.FlowChartX.FlowChart.OnMouseDown(MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseDown(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

yep, I believe the Write method override from our example calls Flush internally so that's why it worked.

We are happy you love the control 8)

You cannot exclude the tags when using binary serialization and they are serializable. A quick way to send the chart without tags is to clone the primary chart:

FlowChart tempChart = new FlowChart();
tempChart.LoadFromString(chart.SaveToString());

then set Tag to null for all items in tempChart, and finally send tempChart.SaveToString() to the service.

I hope that helps,
Stoyan