Reading this page you'd be left with the impression that a class's `serialize` and `unserialize` methods are unrelated to the `serialize` and `unserialize` core functions; that only `__sleep` and `__unsleep` allow you to customize an object's serialization interface. But look at http://php.net/manual/en/class.serializable.php and you'll see that there is a more straightforward way to control how a user-defined object is serialized and unserialized.