Object Serialization Question.

Question

Hello, I'm working on a MUD client and I have a DataHolder class to store settings. I'm having problems getting the serialization process to work properly, could someone please give me an example of how to serialize this class and then restore it again? I would like to save the class as "prefs.ser" Here is an example class to use:
import java.awt.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;
public class DataHolder
     public Color foreground = Color.black;
     public Color background = Color.yellow;
// i dont want to save the socket info since it will change many times during actual operation
// also i know you have to catch the exception from the socket creation : )
     public transient Socket socket = new Socket("lordsoftherealm.org", 1234);
     public DataHolder()
     public setColors(Color foreground, Color background)
          // set background and foreground colors
          // the actual class include methods to retrieve colors, sockets, and other relevent data
          this.foreground = foreground;
          this.background = background;
     public Socket getSocket()
          return socket;
}Thank you for your time in helping me,
Joeyford1

Answer 1

Try this,
I am using this method to serializeand deserialize my objects ..
import java.util.Date;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.io.*;
* This object compliments MyObjectTranslator and provides a method to translate
* any object into a type the database engine can process.
public class MyObjectTranslator {
public static Object translate(Object ob) {
if (ob == null ||
ob instanceof NullObject ||
ob instanceof String ||
ob instanceof BigDecimal ||
ob instanceof Date ||
ob instanceof ByteLongObject ||
ob instanceof Boolean) {
return ob;
else if (ob instanceof Serializable) {
return serialize(ob);
else {
// System.out.println("Ob is: (" + ob.getClass() + ") " + ob);
System.out.println("Unable to translate object. " +
"It is not a primitive type or serializable.");
* Serializes the Java object to a ByteLongObject.
public static ByteLongObject serialize(Object ob) {
try {
ByteArrayOutputStream bout = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream ob_out = new ObjectOutputStream(bout);
ob_out.writeObject(ob);
ob_out.close();
return new ByteLongObject(bout.toByteArray());
catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Serialization error: " + e.getMessage());
* Deserializes a ByteLongObject to a Java object.
public static Object deserialize(ByteLongObject blob) {
if (blob == null) {
return null;
else {
try {
ByteArrayInputStream bin =
new ByteArrayInputStream(blob.getByteArray());
ObjectInputStream ob_in = new ObjectInputStream(bin);
Object ob = ob_in.readObject();
ob_in.close();
return ob;
catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
System.out.println("Class not found: " + e.getMessage());
catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("De-serialization error: " + e.getMessage());
so if you want it to translate it use it something like :
private Object translateObjectType(Object ob) {
return MyObjectTranslator.translate(ob);
and when you wana retrive it use it like :
Object ds = MyObjectTranslator .deserialize((ByteLongObject) ob);