# What file format are the data.bin files for client tags/general properties/designer props/global props?

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/what-file-format-are-the-data-bin-files-for-client-tags-general-properties-designer-props-global-props/105807>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81, vision\
**Created:** [May 2, 2025, 4:35am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/what-file-format-are-the-data-bin-files-for-client-tags-general-properties-designer-props-global-props/105807 "2025-05-02T04:35:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Leor\_Fishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Leor\_Fishman](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Leor_Fishman)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 4:35am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/what-file-format-are-the-data-bin-files-for-client-tags-general-properties-designer-props-global-props/105807/1 "2025-05-02T04:35:05Z")

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Curious, since they don't seem to be gzipped or java serialized

EDIT: oh it's gzipped java objects, ok

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**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2025, 2:42pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/what-file-format-are-the-data-bin-files-for-client-tags-general-properties-designer-props-global-props/105807/2 "2025-05-02T14:42:35Z")

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The entrypoint is an instance of `XMLDeserializer`, obtained from the scope-appropriate context object:

> **[CommonContext](https://files.inductiveautomation.com/sdk/javadoc/ignition81/8.1.48/com/inductiveautomation/ignition/common/model/CommonContext.html#createDeserializer())**
>
> declaration: package: com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common.model, interface: CommonContext

Note that the method/XMLDeseriailizer is in common but you won't actually be able to serialize/deserialize arbitrary objects in arbitrary scopes.