Autodesk Mudbox 2013 SDK Documentation > Writing Plug-ins >

# Serializing Plug-in Data

In a Mudbox plug-in you can load or save plug-in data with the scene by overloading the Node::Serialize() method. Mudbox will call Node::Serialize() method with an initialized Stream object. You can then query Stream::IsStoring() to implement the saving or loading application logic, depending on whether the return value is true or false respectively.

Any attributes you create in a plug-in that you wish serialized with the scene will have to be manually serialized. For example:

    MyPlugin : Node {
        Attribute A;
        Attribute B;

        public:
            MyPlugin::Serialize(Stream& s) {
                if ( s.IsStoring() ) {
                    s << A << B;
                } else {
                    s >> A >> B;
                }
            }
    };

The Mudbox SDK also provides an overload of the operator== to mean Node::Serialize(). So alternatively you can write:

    MyPlugin : Node {
        Attribute A;
        Attribute B;

        public:
            MyPlugin::Serialize(Stream& s) {
                s == A == B;
            }
    };