Serializing a class that implements the Singleton pattern

Question

Hello,
I am relatively new to Java and especially to serialization so the answer to this question might be obvious, but I could not make it work event though I have read the documentation and the article "Using XML Encoder" that was linked from the documentation.
I have a class that implements the singleton pattern. It's definition is as follows:
public class JCOption implements Serializable {
  private int x = 1;
  private static JCOption option = new JCOption();
  private JCOption() {}
  public static JCOption getOption() { return option; }
  public int getX() { return x; }
  public void setX(int x) { this.x = x; }
  public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException {
    JCOption opt = JCOption.getOption();
    opt.setX(10);
    XMLEncoder encoder = new XMLEncoder(new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream("Test.xml")));
    encoder.setPersistenceDelegate(opt.getClass(),  new JCOptionPersistenceDelegate());
    encoder.writeObject(opt);
    encoder.close();
}Since this class does not fully comply to the JavaBeans conventions by not having a public no-argument constructor, I have create a class JCOptionPersistenceDelegate that extends the PersistenceDelegate. The implementation of the instantiate method is as follows:
  protected Expression instantiate(Object oldInstance, Encoder out) {
       Expression expression = new Expression(oldInstance, oldInstance.getClass(), "getOption", new Object[]{});
        return expression;
  }The problem is that the resulting XML file only contains the following lines:
    <java version="1.5.0_06" class="java.beans.XMLDecoder">
        <object class="JCOption" property="option"/>
    </java> so there is no trace of the property x.
Thank you in advance for your answers.

Answer 1

How about this:
import java.beans.DefaultPersistenceDelegate;
import java.beans.Encoder;
import java.beans.Expression;
import java.beans.Statement;
import java.beans.XMLEncoder;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
public class JCOption {
    private int x = 1;
    private static JCOption option = new JCOption();
    private JCOption() {}
    public static JCOption getOption() { return option; }
    public int getX() { return x; }
    public void setX(int x) { this.x = x; }
    public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException {
      JCOption opt = JCOption.getOption();
      opt.setX(10);
      ByteArrayOutputStream os = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
      XMLEncoder encoder = new XMLEncoder( os );
      encoder.setPersistenceDelegate( opt.getClass(), new JCOptionPersistenceDelegate() );
      encoder.writeObject(opt);
      encoder.close();
      System.out.println( os.toString() );
class JCOptionPersistenceDelegate extends DefaultPersistenceDelegate {
    protected Expression instantiate(Object oldInstance, Encoder out) {
        return new Expression(
                oldInstance,
                oldInstance.getClass(),
                "getOption",
                new Object[]{} );
    protected void initialize( Class<?> type, Object oldInstance, Object newInstance, Encoder out ) {
        super.initialize( type, oldInstance, newInstance, out );
        JCOption q = (JCOption)oldInstance;
        out.writeStatement( new Statement( oldInstance, "setX", new Object[] { q.getX() } ) );
}   Output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<java version="1.5.0_06" class="java.beans.XMLDecoder">
<object class="JCOption" property="option">
  <void property="x">
   <int>10</int>
  </void>
</object>
</java>