public class XMLEncoder
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The XMLEncoder class is a complementary alternative to the ObjectOutputStream and can used to generate a textual representation of a JavaBean in the same way that the ObjectOutputStream can be used to create binary representation of Serializable objects. For example, the following fragment can be used to create a textual representation the supplied JavaBean and all its properties:

       XMLEncoder e = new XMLEncoder(
                          new BufferedOutputStream(
                              new FileOutputStream("Test.xml")));
       e.writeObject(new JButton("Hello, world"));
       e.close();
 
Despite the similarity of their APIs, the XMLEncoder class is exclusively designed for the purpose of archiving graphs of JavaBeans as textual representations of their public properties. Like Java source files, documents written this way have a natural immunity to changes in the implementations of the classes involved. The ObjectOutputStream continues to be recommended for interprocess communication and general purpose serialization.

The XMLEncoder class provides a default denotation for JavaBeans in which they are represented as XML documents complying with version 1.0 of the XML specification and the UTF-8 character encoding of the Unicode/ISO 10646 character set. The XML documents produced by the XMLEncoder class are:

Below is an example of an XML archive containing some user interface components from the swing toolkit:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <java version="1.0" class="java.beans.XMLDecoder">
 <object class="javax.swing.JFrame">
   <void property="name">
     <string>frame1</string>
   </void>
   <void property="bounds">
     <object class="java.awt.Rectangle">
       <int>0</int>
       <int>0</int>
       <int>200</int>
       <int>200</int>
     </object>
   </void>
   <void property="contentPane">
     <void method="add">
       <object class="javax.swing.JButton">
         <void property="label">
           <string>Hello</string>
         </void>
       </object>
     </void>
   </void>
   <void property="visible">
     <boolean>true</boolean>
   </void>
 </object>
 </java>
 
The XML syntax uses the following conventions:

Although all object graphs may be written using just these three tags, the following definitions are included so that common data structures can be expressed more concisely:

For more information you might also want to check out Using XMLEncoder, an article in The Swing Connection.

extends Encoder implements AutoCloseable

See also:
XMLDecoder, java.io.ObjectOutputStream

Since:  1.4