Serialize and send a data structure using Boost?

I have a data structure that looks like this:

typedef struct
{
  unsigned short m_short1;
  unsigned short m_short2;
  unsigned char m_character;
} MyDataType;

I want to use boost::serialization to serialize this data structure, then use boost::asio to transmit it via TCP/IP, then have another application receive the data and de-serialize it using the same boost libraries.

I'm trying to following boost::serialization tutorial, (as some other SO questions have suggested) but the example is specifically for writing/reading to a file, not to a socket using boost::asio.

I'm pretty sure I've got the right tools for the job -- I just need help making them work together. Writing to a socket can't be that different from writing to a file, right?

Any suggestions are very much appreciated. Thanks!

There is a good serialization example in the asio documentation: server.cpp, stock.hpp, connection.hpp.

Here's a snippet:

std::ostringstream archive_stream;
boost::archive::text_oarchive archive(archive_stream);
archive << your_struct;
outbound_data_ = archive_stream.str();
boost::asio::async_write(socket_, 
    boost::asio::buffer(outbound_data_), handler);

I thought I'd share this with anyone who was trying to serialize a C++ struct using Boost. For the example given above, to make the struct serializable you would add a serialize function:

typedef struct
{
  unsigned short m_short1;
  unsigned short m_short2;
  unsigned char m_character;

  template <typename Archive>
  void serialize(Archive& ar, const unsigned int version)
  {
    ar & m_short1;
    ar & m_short2;
    ar & m_character;
  }
} MyDataType;