Getting java.io.NotSerializableException with a spring service when stopping tomcat

Question

i am using spring 3 with JSF 2 and i replaced JSF managed beans with spring beans, by adding on top of bean:

@Component("mybean")
@Scope("session")

and in my bean i am autowiring a spring service (which was declared with the annotation @service)

well, everything works fine with the service, but when i tried to stop tomcat 6, i am getting this exception with my spring service

java.io.NotSerializableException

any ideas why i am getting this exception, and how to solve it.

UPDATE:

after making my service implements serializable, sometimes i am getting following exception:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot deserialize BeanFactory with id org.springframework.web.context.WebApplicationContext:/spring_faces: no factory registered for this id
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory$SerializedBeanFactoryReference.readResolve(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:972)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.invokeReadResolve(ObjectStreamClass.java:1061)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1762)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1329)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(ObjectInputStream.java:1947)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadObject(ObjectInputStream.java:480)
    at org.springframework.aop.support.AbstractBeanFactoryPointcutAdvisor.readObject(AbstractBeanFactoryPointcutAdvisor.java:98)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.invokeReadObject(ObjectStreamClass.java:974)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1849)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1753)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1329)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readArray(ObjectInputStream.java:1667)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1323)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(ObjectInputStream.java:1947)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadObject(ObjectInputStream.java:480)
    at org.springframework.aop.framework.AdvisedSupport.readObject(AdvisedSupport.java:550)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.invokeReadObject(ObjectStreamClass.java:974)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1849)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1753)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1329)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(ObjectInputStream.java:1947)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1871)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1753)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1329)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(ObjectInputStream.java:1947)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1871)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1753)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1329)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(ObjectInputStream.java:1947)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1871)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1753)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1329)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(ObjectInputStream.java:1947)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1871)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1753)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1329)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(ObjectInputStream.java:1947)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1871)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1753)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1329)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(ObjectInputStream.java:1947)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1871)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1753)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1329)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject(ObjectInputStream.java:351)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardSession.readObject(StandardSession.java:1496)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardSession.readObjectData(StandardSession.java:998)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.doLoad(StandardManager.java:394)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.load(StandardManager.java:321)
    at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.start(StandardManager.java:648)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.setManager(ContainerBase.java:446)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4631)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1057)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:840)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1057)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:463)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:525)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:754)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:595)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:289)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:414)

please advise.

Answer 1

Looking at the error, It looks like tomcat is trying to serialize the entire spring context, I think it might be due to the fact that your are implementing Serializable on Service. I was thinking may be you need to do this, I don't know JSF that well but my understanding of scoped beans makes me think, You might need some thing like this

    @Component
    @Scope(proxyMode=ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS, value="session")
    public class MyBean implements Serializable
    {
       //no need to implement serializable on service
       @Autowired(required=true)
       private MyService service;
    }

Answer 2

You get this exception because the class does not implement Serializable. Tomcat serializes currently running HttpSession objects including all its attributes to disk whenever it is about to restart/redeploy, so that they are revived after the cycle. Session scoped objects are stored as attributes of the HttpSession, hence they need to implement Serializable to survive the restart/redeploy as well.

If you would like to make them Serializable, then implement it accordingly:

public class YourSpringService implements Serializable {}

Otherwise, just ignore the exception or turn off serializing sessions to disk in Tomcat's config.

Note that the same story also applies to JSF view/session scoped beans.

Answer 3

Well, finally i was able to make it work fine as follows:

1- The Service:

@Service
@Scope("singleton")
public class PersonService{

}

2- The Spring Managed Bean:

 @Component("person")
   @Scope("session")
   public class PersonBean implements Serializable{

   @Inject
   private PersonService personService;

   }

waiting for your feedback.

Answer 4

I had to use readObject() + static ApplicationContext hack to solve the issue:

@Component
@Scope(value = SCOPE_SESSION, proxyMode = ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS)
public class FlashMessages implements Serializable {    

    @Autowired
    transient private SomeBean someBean;

    private void readObject(ObjectInputStream ois) throws ClassNotFoundException, IOException {
        ois.defaultReadObject();
        // restore someBean field on deserialization
        SpringUtils.getContext().getAutowireCapableBeanFactory().autowireBean(this);
    }

}

@Component
public class SpringUtils implements ApplicationContextAware {

    static ApplicationContext applicationContext;

    @Override
    public void setApplicationContext(ApplicationContext applicationContext) throws BeansException {
        SpringUtils.applicationContext = applicationContext;
    }

    public static ApplicationContext getContext() {
        return applicationContext;
    }

}