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I have an application that uses a database of about 15,000 Java objects, which I have to read every time the application starts. Originally I've been using JSON to store the data, but that has a few issues, mostly that it's slow (it can take 8-10 seconds to read all the objects on my lower-end machine) and also, it's very common for the objects in my database to have fields that point to the same object. Java serialization handles this by using references to the same object, whereas with JSON, I just have to write the state of each object and then intern them during reading. This also bloats the file size.

The contents of this database will be updated fairly infrequently (maybe about once a month or so). I've heard from pretty much every source that Java serialization is always a poor choice for long-term storage, and I understand why. Given these conditions, however, is there a good reason not to use Java serialization here?

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    Do the classes (not objects) change at all? I.e. do you add, remove, or modify field definitions?
    – user22815
    CommentedSep 29, 2014 at 17:49
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    Good point, I expect changing the fields to be quite rare, but I couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't change at all. JSON would definitely have an advantage there.
    – codebreaker
    CommentedSep 29, 2014 at 17:58
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    Java serialization has extra hoops to jump through. I don't have time to write up a proper answer right now, but I will mention you can write custom methods on your class to support reading old class versions among other things.
    – user22815
    CommentedSep 29, 2014 at 18:06
  • have you seen MessagePack? There is even a Jackson Binding Provider for it!
    – user7519
    CommentedSep 30, 2014 at 3:14

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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While you do not anticipate changing the nature of your objects now very much - needs change over time.

I would highly suggest you consider using protobuf or Apache Thrift or a similar design instead of relying on default Java serialization.

Their advantages include strong support for avoiding impact during minor version changes, significantly better serialization and deserialization speed and smaller footprint of objects.

When I do this, typically I include the message version as a field on the object. This allows me to implement version-to-version changes during the serialization by wrapping that method, if that need should arise in the future.

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  • One of the things that I like about default serialization that I haven't really found anywhere else is the handling of identical references and objects that reference each other. Is there anything that would help me there?
    – codebreaker
    CommentedSep 30, 2014 at 15:16
  • No. The way that default serialization works (essentially pushing the entire thing into memory) is what enables references to work. But I don't tend to care about it from that perspective, I care about speed, headaches and size...and both the solutions above beat Java serialization there.
    – dcgregorya
    CommentedSep 30, 2014 at 19:30
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I wouldn't store the serialized objects for long term. As the others already stated: When you change a litte bit on your classes, (maybe you don't even notice it) maybe you can't load your data. It will be hell to fix it.

I'm not sure, why you need all the data in the memory. Is it, because it is used everytime and everywhere in your software (master data)? Looks like a "Yes"

What I would do: I would store the data in a inmemory-database (hsqldb,...) dump the file and provide the file on the machine After the startup I would load the file (quite fast) and then use it like a "normal" database.

You can do this also with your serialized objects. But I wouldn't see a sense any more. The "normal" database can be cached and will be extremly fast. So query the object.

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    I agree with the comments to the effect that Java serialization is unstable and difficult to maintain as your classes change. I recommend writing your own read/write routine to a format that is understandable by humans and manually editable (if need be). You can probably package this as static data that will be digested into your runtime data structure mostly by the compiler.

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