But what if you have special needs? Perhaps you have special security issues and you don’t want to serialize Chapter 10: The Java IO System
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portions of your object, or perhaps it just doesn’t make sense for one sub-object to be serialized if that part needs to be created anew when the object is recovered.
You can control the process of serialization by implementing the Externalizable interface instead of the Serializable interface. The Externalizable interface extends the Serializable interface and adds two methods, writeExternal( ) and readExternal( ), that are automatically called for your object during serialization and deserialization so that you can perform your special operations.
The following example shows simple implementations of the Externalizable interface methods. Note that Blip1 and Blip2 are nearly identical except for a subtle difference (see if you can discover it by looking at the code):
//: Blips.java
// Simple use of Externalizable & a pitfall
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
class Blip1 implements Externalizable {
public Blip1() {
System.out.println("Blip1 Constructor");
}
public void writeExternal(ObjectOutput out)
throws IOException {
System.out.println("Blip1.writeExternal");
}
public void readExternal(ObjectInput in)
throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
System.out.println("Blip1.readExternal");
}
}
class Blip2 implements Externalizable {
Blip2() {
System.out.println("Blip2 Constructor");
}
public void writeExternal(ObjectOutput out)
throws IOException {
System.out.println("Blip2.writeExternal");
}
public void readExternal(ObjectInput in)
throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
System.out.println("Blip2.readExternal");
}
}
public class Blips {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Constructing objects:");
Blip1 b1 = new Blip1();
Blip2 b2 = new Blip2();
try {
ObjectOutputStream o =
new ObjectOutputStream(
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new FileOutputStream("Blips.out"));
System.out.println("Saving objects:");
o.writeObject(b1);
o.writeObject(b2);
o.close();
// Now get them back:
ObjectInputStream in =
new ObjectInputStream(
new FileInputStream("Blips.out"));
System.out.println("Recovering b1:");
b1 = (Blip1)in.readObject();
// OOPS! Throws an exception:
//! System.out.println("Recovering b2:");
//! b2 = (Blip2)in.readObject();
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
} ///:~
The output for this program is:
Constructing objects:
Blip1 Constructor
Blip2 Constructor
Saving objects:
Blip1.writeExternal
Blip2.writeExternal
Recovering b1:
Blip1 Constructor
Blip1.readExternal
The reason that the Blip2 object is not recovered is that trying to do so causes an exception.
Can you see the difference between Blip1 and Blip2? The constructor for Blip1 is public, while the constructor for Blip2 is not, and that causes the exception upon recovery. Try making Blip2’s constructor public and removing the //! comments to see the correct results.
When b1 is recovered, the Blip1 default constructor is called. This is different from recovering a Serializable object, in which the object is constructed entirely from its stored bits, with no constructor calls. With an Externalizable object, all the normal default construction behavior occurs (including the initializations at the point of field definition), and then readExternal( ) is called. You need to be aware of this – in particular the fact that all the default construction always takes place – to produce the correct behavior in your Externalizable objects.
Here’s an example that shows what you must do to fully store and retrieve an
Externalizable object:
//: Blip3.java
// Reconstructing an externalizable object
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
class Blip3 implements Externalizable {
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int i;
String s; // No initialization
public Blip3() {
System.out.println("Blip3 Constructor");
// s, i not initialized
}
public Blip3(String x, int a) {
System.out.println("Blip3(String x, int a)");
s = x;
i = a;
// s & i initialized only in non-default
// constructor.
}
public String toString() { return s + i; }
public void writeExternal(ObjectOutput out)
throws IOException {
System.out.println("Blip3.writeExternal");
// You must do this:
out.writeObject(s); out.writeInt(i);
}
public void readExternal(ObjectInput in)
throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
System.out.println("Blip3.readExternal");
// You must do this:
s = (String)in.readObject();
i =in.readInt();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Constructing objects:");
Blip3 b3 = new Blip3("A String ", 47);