Can't use MFC CObject class in VS 2017 application - c++

Question

I need to use MFC Serialization mechanism to serialize objects of class Product:
class Product : public CObject
{
protected:
string name;
int expiring;
double price;
public:
Product();
~Product();
virtual void input_data();
virtual void print_data();
};
This is simple Windows Console Application. I got an error on CObject: not a class or struct name.
I tried to make MFC Console Application following the instruction in this comment: https://stackoverflow.com/a/50320168/6543699. Now I got a lot of errors (identifier not found or identifier not declared). The text of errors is in Russian, so I don't copy them here. This is how it looks:
I don't know anything about MFC using and can't find guide where it described clearly. My questions are:
1) Is it possible to use CObject in console application (non-MFC) and how?
2) If not, what should I do to be able to use MFC serialazation? Maybe include some headers or some components were just missing while installation?

Answer 1

You can just adjust a console app in a couple of steps to use MFC. First is to include afx.h, like:
#include <iostream>
#include <afx.h>
Then you will want to link with the MFC dynamic libraries.
Project Properties > Configuration Properties > Advanced > Use MFC
Select: Use MFC in a Shared DLL
It should now compile with CObject.
My note, I would not use MFC serialization, at the least use Boost Serialization I gave up using any serialization a long time ago because of the constant need to maintain versioning. I found it a night mare. Unless you see that your object structure will remain fairly static, I would recommend using XML to database your objects. It is a little more work to get going but way more often than not, you don't need to worry about versioning as you make changes.