Unit Test Adapter threw exception: ... is not marked as serializable..

Question

this error is driving me nuts:

Unit Test Adapter threw exception: Type 'com.imagehawk.ZDRCreator.Config.ZDRCreatorConfigException' in assembly 'ZDRCreator, Version=1.0.5.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' is not marked as serializable..

it's an exception, the only places it's used is like this throw new ZDRCreatorConfigException(bla); and then in catch blocks of course.

just started happening ... can't figure out what i changed. please help

here's the code for the exception, though I doubt it helps.

public class ZDRCreatorConfigException : Exception
    {
        public ZDRCreatorConfigException(string msg) : base(msg)
        {
        }

        public ZDRCreatorConfigException() : base()
        {
        }
    }

UPDATE: I figured it out, and it wasn't Microsofts fault after all; although the swearing I gave them I'm sure there's plenty of other things they deserve it for. I had made a code change that was causing that exception to be thrown and never handled. Not sure why it mentioned serializable unless it's because not all the constructors are implemented here. Btw, I was finally able to figure out where to put the break point to find the problem. Thanks!

Answer 1

You probably just removed the Serializable attribute:

    [Serializable]
    public class ZDRCreatorConfigException : Exception 
    { 
        public ZDRCreatorConfigException(string msg) : base(msg) 
        { 
        } 

        public ZDRCreatorConfigException() : base() 
        { 
        } 
    } 

Answer 2

I'm not sure if you have access to the source code, but have you tried adding a Serializable attribute as it suggests?

[Serializable]
public class ZDRCreatorConfigException : Exception
{
    ...
}

If you make this change it will help you because you will get the stacktrace of where the original error occurred instead of the stacktrace of where serializing the exception failed. You should make this change if possible and then update your question with the new error message and stacktrace.

Also, you should try to work out why that exception is being thrown, as I guess that it is not meant to happen. If you test in debug mode you can set up Visual Studio to break automatically when that exception is thrown so that you can see what happens.