Java: Transferable Objects & Serialization

Question

I need to serialize a Transferable object to I can send it over an object data stream but during runtime I get the error java.io.NotSerializableException & I have no idea whats wrong. How do I fix this?

Here's the part of the code that is causing the error

Clipboard clipboard = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
    Transferable contents = clipboard.getContents(null);
    System.out.println(contents);

    //Initialiaze ObjectStreams
    FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("t.tmp");
    ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(fos);

    //write objects
    oos.writeObject(contents);
    oos.close();

Answer 1

The vest way around this is to parse each data flavor into a serializable object of it's kind i.e. put string clipboard content into a string object

Answer 2

Your concrete class must implement the Serializable interface to be able to do so.

Answer 3

 * Thrown when an instance is required to have a Serializable interface.
 * The serialization runtime or the class of the instance can throw
 * this exception. The argument should be the name of the class.

Hmm. Have you added to your object implements Serializable ?

UPD. Also check that all fields are also serializable. If not - mark them as transient.

Answer 4

It seems that your object have to implements both Transferable and Serializable.

Hope this code helps you

Clipboard clipboard = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
//Initialiaze ObjectStreams
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("t.tmp");
ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(fos);

clipboard.setContents(new Plop(), null);
final Transferable contents = clipboard.getContents(null);
final Plop transferData = (Plop) contents.getTransferData(new DataFlavor(Plop.class, null));
oos.writeObject(transferData);
oos.close();

with a plop like:

static class Plop implements Transferable, Serializable{

    @Override
    public DataFlavor[] getTransferDataFlavors() {
        return new DataFlavor[0];  //To change body of implemented methods use File | Settings | File Templates.
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isDataFlavorSupported(final DataFlavor flavor) {
        return false;  //To change body of implemented methods use File | Settings | File Templates.
    }

    @Override
    public Object getTransferData(final DataFlavor flavor) throws UnsupportedFlavorException, IOException {
        return this;
    }
}