Hi, i have a little problem implementing some serialization/deserialization logic.

I have several classes that each take a different type of Request object, all implementing a common interface and inheriting from a default implementation:

This is how i think it should be:

Requests

interface IRequest
{
  public String Action {get;set;}
}

class DefaultRequest : IRequest
{
  public String Action {get;set;}
}

class LoginRequest : DefaultRequest
{
  public String User {get;set;}
  public String Pass {get;set;} 
}

Handlers

interface IHandler<T>
{
  public Type GetRequestType();
  public IResponse HandleRequest(IModel model, T request);
}

class DefaultHandler<T> : IHandler<T> // Used as fallback if the handler cannot be determined
{
  public Type GetRequestType()
  {
     return /* ....... how to get the Type of T? ((new T()).GetType()) ? .......... */
  }

  public IResponse HandleRequest(IModel model, T request)
  {
      /* ... */
  }
}

class LoginHandler : DefaultHandler<LoginRequest>
{
  public IResponse HandleRequest(IModel mode, LoginRequest request)
  {
  }
}

Calling

class Controller
{
  public ProcessRequest(String action, String serializedRequest)
  {
    IHandler handler = GetHandlerForAction(action);
    IRequest request = serializer.Deserialize<handler.GetRequestType()>(serializedRequest);
    handler(this.Model, request);
  }
}

Is what i think of even possible?

My current Solution is that each handler gets the serialized String and is itself responsible for deserialization. This is not a good solution as it contains duplicate code, the beginning of each HandleRequest method looks the same (FooRequest request = Deserialize(serializedRequest); + try/catch and other Error Handling on failed deserialization).

Embedding type information into the serialized Data is not possible and not intended.

Thanks for any Hints.