C++ general question

[Christian C. Berclaz]

I have a hierarchy of objects, which some are
plug-ins, and all are contained in a list.

They all share a virtual method to write their content
to a file as well as an equivalent read method. When
written, data are heterogeneously stored in a single
file in no particular order.

Now the question is: what is the most elegant way to
read back that file selecting the proper object
(without using a trivial switch/case as some are
unknown at compile time) and using only virtual
methods from the root object to rebuild the list in
memory.

Thanks for your help

Christian C. Berclaz