When using ObjectOutputStream/ObjectInputStream to transfer a custom object the variables are reset

Question

I have created a server-client chat room style application and I'm trying to transfer a custom object which I have created containing the message and the username of the person using client/server application. To do this I have created a separate class called message which contains two static variables, one called username and one called messageText:

public class message implements Serializable{

    static String username = "";
    static String messageText = "";

    public message(String message, String user){
        System.out.println("Setting username and messageText");
        username = user;
        messageText = message;
    }

    public message(Object recievedObject){
        username = ((message) recievedObject).getUsername();
        messageText = ((message) recievedObject).getMessageText();
    }
}

I send an object of this class from my server to a client as follows:

message sendMessage = new message(enteredText, "SERVER");
output.writeObject(sendMessage);

It is accepted by the client as follows:

message recievedMessage = (message) input.readObject();
cw.say(recievedMessage.getMessageText(), recievedMessage.getUsername());

However both methods above getMessageText() and getUsername() will return whatever the variable was initialized with on the receiving end, and return the correct values on the sending side.

A few hours of trying to fix this problem has provided no solution, so any help that you guys can give me is very, very appreciated! Thanks.

Answer 1

static fields are not serialized. If you make them non-static it should work

Answer 2

Static variables are shared by all instances of a class. That means it doesn't make much sense to serialize them.

In a message, the fields "username" and "messageText" are likely not meant to be static, unless there is only one message in existence.