Running into a problem with MFC serialization

Question

I am running into an issue regarding serialization with MFC CArchive in a small project I am working on.

I got storing into the archive and then to a file working fine (I hope so) but reading from the file returns the object's properties as NULL.

Basically what I am trying to achieve is storing last up to 10 sales into an archive and loading back in when desired into a CTypedPtrArray

This is the Serialize function:

void MainStore::Serialize(CArchive& ar)
{
    
    CObject::Serialize(ar);
    
    
    if (ar.IsStoring())
    {   
        int x = sales1.GetSize(), count = 1,k=0;
        if (x <= 10)
        {
            ar << x;
            for (int i = x - 1; i >=0; i--)
            {
                ar << sales1[i];
            }
        }
        else
        {
            ar << 10;
            for (int i = x - 1; count != 10; i--)
            {
                ar << sales1[i];
                count++;
            }           
        }
    }
    else
    {   
        ar >> sizeOf10Records;
        lastUpTo10Sales.RemoveAll();
        for (int i = 0; i < sizeOf10Records; i++)
        {
            Sale* pNewSale;
            ar >> pNewSale;
            lastUpTo10Sales.Add(pNewSale);
        }
    }
}

And here is the MainStore and Sale classes properties :

class Sale :public CObject
{
    DECLARE_SERIAL(Sale)
private:

    Customer* customer;
    Computer* computer;
    char* dateAndTime;

class MainStore:public CObject
{
    DECLARE_SERIAL(MainStore)
private:
    Computer** computers;
    //list sales;
    CTypedPtrArray sales1;
    CTypedPtrArray lastUpTo10Sales;
    int sizeOf10Records;

Both Sale and Mainstore are declared as serializable (Not sure about the latter if it is required) including the appropriate IMPLEMENT_SERIAL in the respective classes and there is an empty constructor for Sale (as well as MainStore) that I tried to leave empty or tried to initialize the properties as NULL but still no luck.

I have been trying for days to get serializing working and it seems I am missing just a little detail but cannot figure what that is.

Any help with regards to why I am receiving NULL will be much appreciated and if there is any missing info in my post I will edit it accordingly.

Edit:

So my Sale::Serialize function was indeed empty but when reading back from the archive I get an error that says that no operator ">>" matches these operands

void Sale::Serialize(CArchive& ar)
{
    CObject::Serialize(ar);
    if (ar.IsStoring())
    {
        ar << computer;
        ar << customer;
        ar << dateAndTime;
    }
    else
    {
        ar >> computer;
        ar >> customer;
        ar >> dateAndTime;
    }
    
}

Edit 2:

Added Serialization to the Customer and Computer as well and edited ar>>dateAndTime to ar>> *dateAndTime. Both the char* and and Customer classes no longer give me syntax error. However Computer still does. Computer is an abstract class that inherits (as I read online on how to serialize abstract class) from CObject and has void Serialize function while the childs DECLARE/IMPLEMENT_SERIAL like so IMPLEMENT_SERIAL(ChildClass,Computer,1) .

Running into a problem with MFC serialization

0 Answers