Serialization

[jeff rusty]

can anyone say why do we need to go for serialization for persistent storage when we have database

[Paul Sturrock]

I assume by serialization you are refering to serializing objects to the file system. Databases are a better persistent store because:

they are transactional

they support multiple users

they are accessable to other applications, not just Java

they can ensure data integrity via constraints

they are accessable from environments that can't access the file system, such as an EJB container

your data is not going to become invalid when you update the class you serialized from (unless you are specifying a serialVersionId)

and there are probably other reasons.

[jeff rusty]

ya i got that .. but i want to know why sould we use Serialized objects (Implements serializable)when we have database

thanks in advance
Prem

[Paul Sturrock]

If we are still only talking about serialization as it pertains to persisting an object on the file system (and not serialization in the context of distributed programming, i.e. when we need it to send objects between JVMs), I suppose when the overhead of a database is too much for the requirements of a particular application. If, for example, the application is a simple, single user desktop application why would we need the overhead of a database?

[Cameron Wallace McKenzie]

Serializable - the breakfast interface. Making sure we can pour milk over our JavaBeans and have them for breakfast.

Serialization is used not only to store object state to a filesystem, but also to send object state across a network. That's one of the reasons networking in Java is just as easy as interacting with a file system.

So, in a clustered environment, you may read a user object in from a database, but the clustered JVM might have to do workload management on the user object - maybe make it available to sessions running on different JVMs. If the object is serializable, then the JVM will be able to pass that Java object around like yesterdays newspaper. If it's not serializable, there will be problems.

That's just one, sorta hidden reason, on why it's important to make sure all JavaBeans are serializable.

[jeff rusty]

I am not clear. please explain in detail

[Purushoth Thambu]

This link will help on why serialize?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialization