XStream Quick Start

XStream Quick StartAlbert Guo

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

© 2006 PTC2

Agenda

Brief Introduction to XStream

What is XStream

XStream Features

Official Site

FAQ

Use Cases

Use Case 1: JavaBean To XML

Use Case 2 : XML To JavaBean

Using Alias

Using Implicit Collection

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What is XStream

XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again.

serialize objects XML

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XStream Features (1/2)

Ease of use

A high level facade is supplied that simplifies common use cases.

No mappings required

Most objects can be serialized without need for specifying mappings.

Performance

Speed and low memory footprint are a crucial part of the design, making it suitable for large object graphs or systems with high message throughput.

Clean XML

No information is duplicated that can be obtained via reflection. This results in XML that is easier to read for humans and more compact than native Java serialization.

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XStream Features (2/2)

Requires no modifications to objects

Serializes internal fields, including private and final. Supports non-public and inner classes. Classes are not required to have default constructor.

Full object graph support

Duplicate references encountered in the object-model will be maintained. Supports circular references.

Integrates with other XML APIs

By implementing an interface, XStream can serialize directly to/from any tree structure (not just XML).

Customizable conversion strategies

Strategies can be registered allowing customization of how particular types are represented as XML.

Error messages

When an exception occurs due to malformed XML, detailed diagnostics are provided to help isolate and fix the problem

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Official Site

http://xstream.codehaus.org/index.html

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Quick Start

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XStream FAQ

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1. Prepared two persons’ contact information, including first name, last name phone call and fax number

2. System should write these contact information into Person.xml correctly


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Four Steps

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Step1. Creating classes to be serialized

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Step2. Preparing data

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Step3. Initializing XStream

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Step4. Serializing an object to XML and writing XML object into file

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Source Code

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1. Read from Person.xml

2. Parse the xml file and put contact info into Person bean

XML To JavaBean


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Four Steps

Using Alias

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Alias

Based on the xml file above we shall create some model classes and configure XStream to write/read from this format.

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Step1. Creating classes to be serialized

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Step2. Preparing data

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Now let's implement what was called an implicit collection: whenever you have a collection which doesn't need to display it's root tag, you can map it as an implicit collection.

In our example, we do not want to display the orderList tag, but simply show the Order tags one after another.

A simple call to the addImplicitCollection method shall configure XStream and let it know that we do not want to write the orderList tag as described above:

XStream Quick Start

Technology

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