Refactor controllers for better readability

**Feature request**
It would be great to have serialization for data.

**Use case**
Many users need this functionality for production deployments.

**Implementation idea**
Add a new config option `enable_serialization` with default `false`.

No files or tests are named. Start by locating the configuration handling and existing data or serialization entry points, then clarify which data must be serialized and how the new option should affect it; done means the option defaults to false and the expected serialization behavior is covered.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.