Bean XML deserialization

With this example we are going to demonstrate how to deserialize a java Bean using the XMLDecoder. The XMLDecoder class is used to read XML documents created using the XMLEncoder and is used just like the ObjectInputStream. In short, to deserialize a java Bean using the XMLDecoder you should:

• Create an xml representation of the java bean.
• Create a simple class, like Bean class in the example. It has two String properties and getters and setters for the properties. It has the same properties as the xml doument.
• Create a new XMLDecoder, with a new BufferedInputStream that is created reading a new FileInputStream by opening a connection to the xml file.
• Use the readObject() API method of XMLDecoder to read the next object from the underlying input stream. The result is an object of Bean class.
• Use close() API method to close the input stream associated with this stream.

Let’s take a look at the code snippet that follows:

package com.javacodegeeks.snippets.core;

import java.beans.XMLDecoder;
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.FileInputStream;

public class BeanXMLDeserialization {
	
	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
		
		XMLDecoder decoder = new XMLDecoder(new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream("in.xml")));

		// Deserialize object from XML
		Bean bean = (Bean) decoder.readObject();
		decoder.close();
		
		System.out.println("Propert1 value: " + bean.getProperty1());
		System.out.println("Propert2 value: " + bean.getProperty2());

	}
	
	public static class Bean {
		
		// Property property1
		private String property1;
	    // Property property2
		private int property2;
	    
		public String getProperty1() {
			return property1;
		}
		public void setProperty1(String property1) {
			this.property1 = property1;
		}
		
		public int getProperty2() {
			return property2;
		}
		public void setProperty2(int property2) {
			this.property2 = property2;
		}
	    
	}

}

Output:

Propert1 value: value1
Propert2 value: 2

Input:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<java version="1.6.0_05" class="java.beans.XMLDecoder"> 
 <object class="com.javacodegeeks.snippets.core.BeanXMLDeserialization$Bean"> 
  <void property="property1"> 
   <string>value1</string> 
  </void> 
  <void property="property2"> 
   <int>2</int> 
  </void> 
 </object> 
</java>

 
This was an example of how to deserialize a java Bean using the XMLDecoder in Java.