> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.conanjs.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.conanjs.io/data/flows/flows-as-state.md).
# Serialising Flows
## Introduction
Before introducing flow serialising, is important to remind that Conan Flows are [2 dimensional data structures](/data/general-concepts.md#two-dimensions-conan-flow).
We believe that for most use cases, when you would like to access a flow you would like to serialise it.
Let's illustrate this graphically. Let's use again the authentication example:
| Status | State 1 | State 2 | State 3 | State 4 | State 5 |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **notAuthenticated** | 💡
''
| | 💡
'invalid password'
| | |
| **authenticating** | | 💡
\[username/TACOS]
| | 💡
\[username/password]
| |
| **authenticated** | | | | | 💡
credentials
|
We provide you with two serialisation mechanisms, one to serialise everything, the other one to serialise a single status.
Both of them leverage Conan State to provide you the final serialised result.
### toStateAll() - Serialising everything
```typescript
authentication$F.toStateAll()
```
By serialising all, you will create a [ConanState](/api/main-classes/conan-state.md) of [Status](/api/main-classes/conanflow/status.md)
From the example above, this would be the visual equivalent of the generate ConanState.
| | State 1 | State 2 | State 3 | State 4 | State 5 |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **nextData** | name
notAuthenticated
data
''
| name
authenticating
data
username/
TACOS
| name
notAuthenticated
data
'invalid pass..'
| name
authenticating
data
username/
password
| name
authenticated
data
credentials
|
### �toState(statusName) - Serialising a single status
Similar to toStateAll, toState statusName), will generate a ConanState of the data type associated to the status being serialised.
Let's have a look at a couple of examples
```typescript
authentication$F.toState('notAuhtenticated')
```
Will generate a ConanState which will provide the following states
| | State 1 | State 2 |
| ------------ | ------- | ------------------ |
| **nextData** | **''** | 'invalid password' |
```typescript
authentication$F.toState('authenticating')
```
Will generate a ConanState which will provide the following states
| | State 1 | State 2 |
| ------------ | ----------------- | -------------------- |
| **nextData** | \[username/TACOS] | \[username/password] |
{% hint style="info" %}
To see some example for serialisation, check our [Testing State](/data/conan-state/testing.md), in that example, we leverage the serialisation of flows to show what the underlying [meta flow](/data/conan-state/life-cycle.md#the-meta-flow) is doing
{% endhint %}
## Using Conan Flows
You might be familiar with the [TACOS](/data/general-concepts.md#attributes-tacos) acronym that describe the attributes for Conan Data.
[Conan State](/data/conan-state.md) documents these in detail in its different document sections.
By being able to transform Conan Flows into Conan State, you should be able to leverage these attributes for Conan Flows too.
Note that for convenience we also provide with some shortcuts for [observing flows](/data/flows/testing-flows.md), but we think the best way to leverage flows is to convert them into Conan State.
---
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