Xstream/HTTP service

Question

We run multiple websites which use the same rich functional backend running as a library. The backend is comprised of multiple components with a lot of objects shared between them. Now, we need to separate a stateless rule execution component into a different container for security reasons. It would be great if I could have access to all the backend objects seamlessly in the rules component (rather than defining a new interface and objects/adapters).

I would like to use a RPC mechanism that will seamlessly support passing our java pojos (some of them are hibernate beans) over the wire. Webservices like JAXB, Axis etc. are needing quite a bit of boiler plate and configuration for each object. Whereas those using Java serialization seem straightforward but I am concerned about backward/forward compatibility issues.

We are using Xstream for serializing our objects into persistence store and happy so far. But none of the popular rpc/webservice framework seem use xstream for serialization. Is it ok to use xstream and send my objects over HTTP using my custom implementation? OR will java serialization just work OR are there better alternatives?

Advance thanks for your advise.

Answer 1

The good thing with standard Java serialization is that it produces binary stream which is quite a bit more space- and bandwidth-efficient than any of these XML serialization mechanisms. But as you wrote, XML can be more back/forward compatibility friendly, and it's easier to parse and modify by hand and/or by scripts, if need arises. It's a trade-off; if you need long-time storage, then it's advisable to avoid plain serialization.

I'm a happy XStream user. Zero problems so far.