GWT: How to serialize objects

Question

I'd like to know if it is possible to use the serializer of GWT. When using the rpc-mechnism of GWT, GWT serializes the objects on the client and deserializes the objects on the server. For this mechanism you have to use special servlets (RemoteServiceServlet) of GWT. But i want to use the normal HttpServlets and therefore i have to serialize and deserialize the objects by myself.

Answer 1

All the code you need to look at is in the RemoteServiceServlet.java. Focus on the processCall method.

The RPC.decodeRequest(payload, ...) will give you a RPCRequest object which includes the method to be called and the deserialized parameters.

To encode the response focus on RPC.invokeAndEncodeResponse() and RPC.encodeResponseForSuccess() methods.

[EDITED]

In client-side it's worth to take a look to the proxy classes generated by the RPC generator, concretely the YourService_Proxy.java file. Generated files are left somewhere in your project's folder structure after compiling a project (you can indicate this folder with the -gen though).

The interesting code is in in the RemoteServiceProxy, looking at the createStreamWritter method, you can see how to serialize your objects. In the createStreamReader you can see how to deserialize a message from the server.

Answer 2

See gwt-byte-serializer

SerializerInt ser = new Serializer();
ser.writeValue("test");
ser.writeValue(new int[]{5,1,6});

String buffer = ser.getBuffer();

SerializerInt des = new Serializer(buffer);

des.readString()
des.readIntegerArr()