"org.json.JSONArray implements Serializable": What's the best option to achieve this?

Question

I am using Grails Webflow, what ever object I pass to a view, it must be Serialized. My domain models "implement Serializable", so they work.

The problem is when I get a response from a WebService. It is of the org.json.JSONArray class.

I just want to pass the whole Array over to the view yet it doesn't implement Serializable, so it fails,

Any thoughts on how I can pass this, or my best option?

Can I just edit the source of the org.json library and make every class "imp Serializable"?

Or process the result into Domain objects that do "imp Serializable"

Answer 1

Can't remember the behavior of that actual class but you could just pass it as String representation (which obviously is Serializable) of the JSON and then re-parse it to JSONArray on the other side - at least JSONObject can be constructed directly from JSON String and from the top of my head I can't think of why JSONArray wouldn't be too.

Answer 2

Wrap it as a transient property in a class which implements Serializable and has the readObject() and writeObject() overridden.

public class SerializableJSONArray implements Serializable {
    private transient JSONArray jsonArray;

    public SerializableJSONArray(JSONArray jsonArray) {
        this.jsonArray = jsonArray;
    }

    public JSONArray getJSONArray() {
        return jsonArray;
    }

    private void writeObject(ObjectOutputStream oos) throws IOException {
        oos.defaultWriteObject();
        oos.writeObject(jsonArray.toString());
    }

    private void readObject(ObjectInputStream ois) throws ClassNotFoundException, IOException, JSONException {
        ois.defaultReadObject();
        jsonArray = new JSONArray((String) ois.readObject());
    }
}

You see that there's a getter which returns the wrapped JSONArray. Use it in your domain objects instead. Optionally you can also let this class extends JSONArray and delegate all of its methods to the wrapped JSONArray. A decent IDE can autogenerate them for you in a second.