Question

I have a custom class (constructor below) that I cannot seem to serialize.

public ObjectNode(String name, int crackLevel,ArrayList<ObjectNode> filesOnComputer)

Every time I try to serialize an object of this class from an ArrayList of object nodes I get a Class cast exception. ArrayList cannot be cast to ObjectNode

Code- Global Vars:

    ArrayList<ObjectNode>a=new ArrayList<ObjectNode>();
File file = new File("/mnt/sdcard/","cheesepuff.txt");

Relevant Code:

        public void serializeFile()
{       
    a.add(new ObjectNode("Level 1 Waterwall","ww1", 1, 5));
    try { 
        Log.i("AAA","before serialize: "+a.toString());
        FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(file); 
        ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(fos); 
        oos.writeObject(a); 
        oos.flush(); 
        oos.close(); 
        Log.i("AAA","finished serialize");
        } 
        catch(Exception e) { 
        Log.i("aaa","Exception during serialization: " + e); 
        System.exit(0); 
        } 
}

public void deserializeFile()
{
    try { 
        FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file); 
        ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(fis); 
        ObjectNode obj=(ObjectNode)ois.readObject();
        Log.i("aaa","obj: "+obj.ts());
        //a.add((ObjectNode) ois.readObject()); 
        ois.close(); 
        Log.i("aaa","after serialize: " + a); 
        } 
        catch(Exception e) { 
        Log.i("aaa","Exception during deserialization: " + 
        e); 
        System.exit(0); 
        } 
        }

Is my best option to make everything a string in order to serialize that, and then convert the string back to what I actually need after deserialization?

Answer 1

You are serializing a which is ArrayList<ObjectNode>.

oos.writeObject(a); 

When deserializing, you get back exactly that, but you try to store it as ObjectNode

ObjectNode obj=(ObjectNode)ois.readObject();

You should do

ArrayList<ObjectNode> obj = (ArrayList<ObjectNode>)ois.readObject();

UPDATE: Or, as PeterLawrey correctly states,

List<ObjectNode> obj = (List<ObjectNode>) ois.readObject;

(probably then you would have to redefine a as List<ObjectNode>, but that is another good thing to do).