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XMLSerializer Usage

This tools let you serialize an Java object in XML.

Requierments

Installation / Download

Download the last version of XMLSerializer.jar from sourceforge.net.
If you don't have xerces parser, download also JavaXML.jar.

Usage

Your saving/loading code must import fr.inpg.XMLSerializer.XMLSerializer.

Example of saving :

import fr.inpg.XMLSerializer.XMLSerializer ;

public void saveXML(Object object, String theFile) {
  XMLSerializer xmlSerializer = null;

  try {
    xmlSerializer = new XMLSerializer("xmlModel"); // A new XMLSerializer using the file `xmlModel' as model file
  }
  catch(Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace(); // probably the file has not been found
  }

  try{
    xmlSerializer.xmlSerialize(object, theFile) ; // saving the xml dump of `object' to the file `theFile'
  }
  catch(Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
  }
}

Example of loading :

import fr.inpg.XMLSerializer.XMLSerializer ;

public Object loadXML(String theFile) {
  XMLSerializer xmlSerializer = null;

  try {
    xmlSerializer = new XMLSerializer("xmlModel"); // A new XMLSerializer using the file `xmlModel' as model file
  }
  catch(Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace(); // probably the file has not been found
  }

  try{
    return xmlSerializer.xmlDeserialize(theFile) ; // loading the xml dump from the file `theFile'
  }
  catch(Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
    return null ;   }
}

More details

Default behaviour

By default XMLSerializer serializes all fields (public, protected, private, final, satic...) and all parents of the object. Be careful, never serialize big components like Swing components or your XML dump will certainly be larger than 3Megs just for one object !

Customization

You can custum the way an object is saved by a model file. This file contains the directive to save an object. The syntax is the following :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<model>
  <class name="SpecificFieldsSaved" saveParent="false" which="followings" >
    <field>assignNum</field>
    <field>disabled</field>
    <field>id</field>
    <field>name</field>
    <field>selected</field>
  </class>
  <class name="SpecefiecFieldsSavedAndParent" saveParent="yes">
    <field>disabled</field>
  </class>
  <class name="NoFieldSaveButParentSaved" saveParent="true" />
  <class name="NothingSaved" />
  <class name="AllFieldsSaved" which="all" />
  <class name="NothingSavedToo" which="none" />
  <class name="AllFieldsSavedButTheSpecified" which="all-but" >
    <field>badField</field>
  </class>
</model>

If a attribute is not present for a class tag, the default behaviour is saveParent="true" et which="followings".

The class tag requiers the name attribute which specify the name of the class you want have a special save behaviour. It should always be full determined like fr.inpg.XMLSerializer.XMLSerializer and not XMLSerializer only. which and saveParent are optional attributes.
field tags can be inserted between class tags. It represents a field in the class which has to be saved or not depending of the which attribute. No attribute for field tag is needed.

Exemple of customization

We have the following Java class to save :

package myPackage ;

import javax.swing.* ;

public class MyClass extends MyFatherClass {
  private String name ;
  private static int ID = 0 ;
  protected static int id ;
  public int type ;
  public JDialog configureDialog ;
  private Vector bigVector ;
  private static final Hashtable hashtable = new Hashtable() ;
  // and a lot of methods...
}

In such an object, we want to save all fields but configureDialog because it is a Swing component that is huge.
Even if hashtable is static and final, we must save it because it contains elements that could not be re-build during the load process.
It is the same note for ID property which is static but must be saved not to begining with 0 the next time this object is loaded.
It is not a problem if this class does not have a no-args constructor, it will be create "on-the-fly" during the load process. But if this class has a no-args constructor, it will be used and no constrctor will be added.
The xml model file will be :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<model>
...
  <class name="myPackage.MyClass" saveParent="true" which="all-but" >
    <field>configureDialog</field>
  </class>
...
</model>

Limitations

It is impossible to serialize some java elements like :
It is uncertain to serialize Swing components.

Known bugs

See limitations.
sylvain tedoldi