Java Web Services in a Nutshell

Name

Serializer

Synopsis

public interface Serializer extends java.io.Serializable {
// Public Instance Methods
    public abstract String getMechanismType(  ); 
}

A Serializer is a class that can convert from a Java object or primitive into a corresponding XML representation. The serialization process might result in a stream of characters that form an XML tag with associated attributes and text, or a fragment of a DOM model. The JAX-RPC specification does not give a list of supported output types (which it refers to as mechanism types), but the reference implementation supports the creation of an XML output stream. The getMechanismType( ) method returns an identifier for the mechanism that the serializer supports.

The Serializer interface does not actually contain a method that causes serialization to occur. The JAX-RPC 1.0 specification does not attempt to create a standard or portable serialization mechanism and therefore does not specify the means by which serialization is actually performed. The reference implementation uses private serialization classes that implement the Serializer interface, and uses methods that are not part of the public API to invoke them.

Returned By

SerializerFactory.getSerializerAs( )