Serializing immutable java classes to actionscript with LCDS

Question

I've got a complex object which is being managed by the LCDS DataServices data management and being created/updated etc using custom assemblers. The vast majority of the object hierarchy is being serialized/deserialized correctly but I've hit a stumbling block when it comes to serializing immutable java classes.

In a java only world I would use the java writeReplace and readResolve methods as this excellent blog describes: http://lingpipe-blog.com/2009/08/10/serializing-immutable-singletons-serialization-proxy/

This is how I originally wrote my java class, expecting livecycle to call the writeReplace method and duly replace the immutable class with a mutable one for serialization. However it would appear that lcds knows nothing of the writeReplace method and will only call readExternal/writeExternal ignoring readResolve and writeReplace.

Firstly, have other people found this to be the case, or am I missing something?

Secondly, has anyone come up with an appropriate method to deserialize actionscript classes into either immutable objects or singletons?

Many thanks

Answer 1

Yes, it's a common problem. Adobe recommend that the Java type that has immutable properties implements Externalizable and the equivalent ActionScript type implements IExternalizable.