Using Apache Digester to serialize the definition of a class

[Java xman]

Is there a way to use Digester to say Serialize and Deserialize into XML the definition of a class.
I need to store formulas in a static class and I thought perhaps somehow Digester will allow me to do this??? Does any have experiences with Digester or its successor for the purpose of
building class from the XML specifically I want to represent classes in XML so when loaded create workable classes? Any idea how to do this.
Already tried the built in java XMLEncoder but that did not work with details presented from a pre-defined class e.g

public class TargetFormulaClass implements serializable  {
	double xyzfunction(double x,double y,double z) {
		return(x*y*FastMath.sin(z));
	}

}

Using:

public class FormulaClassExporter {

	/**
	 * @param args
	 */
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		// Create an object and set properties
		TargetFormulaClass o = new TargetFormulaClass();
		try {
		    // Serialize object into XML
		    XMLEncoder encoder = new XMLEncoder(new BufferedOutputStream(
		        new FileOutputStream("c:\\rstmp\\TargetFormula.xml")));
		    encoder.writeObject(o);
		    encoder.close();
		} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
		}


	}

}

[Ulf Dittmer]

Digester reads XML files and populates existing classes with the values contained in the file, nothing more and nothing less. It can't create classes you don't already have, and it also has no facilities for writing out XML or anything else.