Question

I get an NotSerializableException when shutting down Glassfish (3.1), due to an HtmlSelectOneMenu. I use HtmlSelectOneMenu in other controller beans, but they are not bound to the backing bean as this one. This happens only if there are sessions active on the server of course.

How can I avoid exception when starting/stopping Glassfish for the bounded JSF component ?

Controller Class

@ManagedBean
@SessionScoped
...

public class ActivityController implements Serializable {
    ..
    private DataModel<MyObjcet> items = null;
    private HtmlSelectOneMenu myMenu;
    ...

Exception

INFO: PWC2785: Cannot serialize session attribute activityController for session a4591e053e65effc743dade67eef
java.io.NotSerializableException: javax.faces.component.html.HtmlSelectOneMenu
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1164)
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1518)
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1483)
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1400)
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1158)
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:330)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardSession.writeObject(StandardSession.java:2067)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.invokeWriteObject(ObjectStreamClass.java:945)
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1469)
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1400)
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1158)
    at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:330)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.writeSessions(StandardManager.java:699)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.doUnloadToFile(StandardManager.java:618)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.unload(StandardManager.java:589)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.stop(StandardManager.java:879)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.stop(StandardContext.java:5509)
    at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebModule.stop(WebModule.java:529)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.removeChild(ContainerBase.java:1049)
    at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebContainer.unloadWebModule(WebContainer.java:2191)
    at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebContainer.unloadWebModule(WebContainer.java:2146)
    at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebApplication.stop(WebApplication.java:151)
    at org.glassfish.internal.data.EngineRef.stop(EngineRef.java:169)
    at org.glassfish.internal.data.ModuleInfo.stop(ModuleInfo.java:302)
    at org.glassfish.internal.data.ApplicationInfo.stop(ApplicationInfo.java:314)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.server.ApplicationLifecycle.unload(ApplicationLifecycle.java:997)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.server.ApplicationLifecycle.disable(ApplicationLifecycle.java:1952)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.server.ApplicationLoaderService.stopApplication(ApplicationLoaderService.java:443)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.server.ApplicationLoaderService.preDestroy(ApplicationLoaderService.java:411)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.AbstractCreatorInhabitantImpl.dispose(AbstractCreatorInhabitantImpl.java:83)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.SingletonInhabitant.release(SingletonInhabitant.java:81)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.EventPublishingInhabitant.release(EventPublishingInhabitant.java:108)
    at com.sun.hk2.component.LazyInhabitant.release(LazyInhabitant.java:133)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.server.AppServerStartup.stop(AppServerStartup.java:415)
    at com.sun.enterprise.glassfish.bootstrap.GlassFishImpl.stop(GlassFishImpl.java:88)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.admin.StopServer.doExecute(StopServer.java:70)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.admin.StopDomainCommand.execute(StopDomainCommand.java:95)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.admin.CommandRunnerImpl$1.execute(CommandRunnerImpl.java:355)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.admin.CommandRunnerImpl$2.run(CommandRunnerImpl.java:383)

Answer 1

Make it transient.

private transient HtmlSelectOneMenu myMenu;

This way the field will be skipped on (de)serialization. By the way, the DataModel is also not serializable.

On the other hand, binding components directly to the backing bean is in most cases a smell. You should consider looking (or asking) for an alternative approach which does not require binding components to the bean.