serialization-handles.md

title	description	ms.assetid	ms.topic	ms.date
Serialization Handles	An application uses the serializing procedures or the serializing support routines generated by the MIDL compiler in conjunction with a set of library functions to manipulate a serialization handle.	39859846-5b94-447a-a71b-a08b8eb2c4c1	article	05/31/2018

Serialization Handles

An application uses the serializing procedures or the serializing support routines generated by the MIDL compiler in conjunction with a set of library functions to manipulate a serialization handle. Together, these functions provide a mechanism for customizing the way an application serializes data.

A serializing handle is required for any serializing operation, and all serializing handles must be managed explicitly by you. To do this, you first create a valid handle by calling one of the following routines:

• MesDecodeBufferHandleCreate
• MesDecodeIncrementalHandleCreate
• MesEncodeDynBufferHandleCreate
• MesEncodeFixedBufferHandleCreate
• MesEncodeIncrementalHandleCreate

You release the handle with a call to MesHandleFree. Once the handle has been created or reinitialized, it represents a valid serialization context and can be used to encode or decode, depending on the type of the handle.

This section describes serialization handles, and how to use them, in the following topics:

• Implicit Versus Explicit Handles
• Serialization Styles
• Obtaining an Encoding Identity