Issues Serializing an ArrayList object containing other ArrayList objects

Question

So I'm Serializing an ArrayList of ArrayLists essentially but I'm running into an issue. To be honest I'm still pretty new to Java, I've tried so many different methods to fix this as well as searched relentlessly on this site and have not been successful. I know that the way I word things may be hard to follow along or is confusing so I'll post my code here to see. Sorry in advance for all the code. SuperUsers has an arraylist of LoginInfo, PasswordKeeper has an Arraylist of SuperUsers, and the SuperUser arraylist gets serialized in PasswordKeeper. but any changes made to the LoginInfo arraylist do not save and i cannot figure out why. If anyone can help I would really Appreciate it. Thanks

public class PasswordKeeper{

    private ArrayList<SuperUser> users;
    private static Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);

    public PasswordKeeper() {
        users = new ArrayList();
    }

    public void login() {
        try {
            // reads in SuperUser arraylist
            get();
        } catch (EOFException a) {
            System.out.println("You are the First User!");
        } catch (IOException b) {
            System.out.println(b);
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException c) {
            System.out.println(c);
        }
        boolean loopDisplay = true;
        while (loopDisplay) {
                existingUser = keyboard.next();
                existingPass = keyboard.next();
                SuperUser temp = new SuperUser(existingUser, existingPass);
                System.out.println();
                if (users.contains(temp)) {

                    // viewing superUser method
                    temp.display();
                    //saves after method call is over
                    try {
                        System.out.println("Saving.");
                        save(users);
                    } catch (IOException e) {
                        System.out.println(e);
                    }
                }
            }
            //This happens if there is a new user
            if(answer == 2){
            SuperUser tempNew = null;
            boolean cont = true;
            String newUser;
            String pass;
            while(cont){
                newUser = keyboard.nextLine();
                System.out.println();
                //System.out.println(users.size());

                tempNew = new SuperUser(newUser, pass);
                if(passValid(pass) == true){
                    if(makeSure(tempNew) == true){
                        System.out.println("Login Created!");
                        tempNew = new SuperUser(newUser, pass);
                        //actually being added to the arraylist
                        users.add(tempNew);
                        cont = false;
                    }
                }
            }
            //SuperUser.display method
            tempNew.display();
            try{
                System.out.println("Saving.");
                save(users);    
            }catch(IOException e){
                System.out.println(e);
            }
        }
        }
    }
    //makeSure and passValid methods
    public boolean makeSure(SuperUser user){
    if(users.contains(user)){
        return false;
    }
    return true;    
}

public boolean passValid(String pass){
        boolean passes = false;
        String upper = "(.*[A-Z].*)";
        String lower = "(.*[a-z].*)";
        String numbers = "(.*[0-9].*)";
        String special = "(.*[,~,!,@,#,$,%,^,&,*,(,),-,_,=,+,[,{,],},|,;,:,<,>,/,?].*$)";

        if((pass.length()>15) || (pass.length() < 8)){
            System.out.println("Entry must contain over 8 characters\n" +
            "and less than 15.");
            passes = false;
        }if(!pass.matches(upper) || !pass.matches(lower)){
            System.out.println("Entry must contain at least one uppercase and lowercase");
            passes = false;
        }if(!pass.matches(numbers)){
                    System.out.println("Password should contain atleast one number.");
                    passes = false;
        }if(!pass.matches(special)){
                    System.out.println("Password should contain atleast one special character");
                    passes = false;
        }else{
            passes = true;
        }
        return passes;
    //serializable methods
    public void save(ArrayList<SuperUser> obj) throws IOException {

        File file = new File("userInformation.dat");
        FileOutputStream fileOut = new FileOutputStream(file, false);
        BufferedOutputStream buffedOutput = new BufferedOutputStream(fileOut);
        ObjectOutputStream out = new ObjectOutputStream(buffedOutput);
        out.writeObject(obj);
        out.close();
        fileOut.close();
    }

    public ArrayList<SuperUser> get() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
        FileInputStream fileIn = new FileInputStream("userInformation.dat");
        BufferedInputStream buffedInput = new BufferedInputStream(fileIn);
        ObjectInputStream in = new ObjectInputStream(buffedInput);
        users = (ArrayList<SuperUser>) in.readObject();
        in.close();
        fileIn.close();
        return users;
    }

    public class SuperUser implements Serializable {
        private String userName;
        private String password;
        private static Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
        private ArrayList<LoginInfo> info = new ArrayList();

        public SuperUser(String name, String pass) {
            userName = name;
            password = pass;
        }

        public String getUser() {
            return userName;
        }

        public void display() {

            String next = keyboard.next();
            //want to add data to LoginInfo arraylist
            if (next.equalsIgnoreCase("add")) {
                add();
            } else if (next.equalsIgnoreCase("delete")) {
                delete();
            } else if (numberCheck(next)) {
                int choice = (int) Integer.parseInt(next) - 1;
                edit(choice);
            //!!!! this: after doing this i lose whatever data i added
            //to the LoginInfo arraylist, right after this the
            //SuperUser arraylist gets saved. but the added data to 
            //loginInfo does not
            } else if (next.equalsIgnoreCase("logout")) {
                System.out.println(info.size());
            }
        }

        public boolean numberCheck(String in) {
            try {
                Integer.parseInt(in);
            } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
                return false;
            }
            return true;
        }
        //method to add to the Arraylist
        public void add() {
            System.out.println("What is the website name?:");
            String trash = keyboard.nextLine();
            String webName = keyboard.nextLine();
            System.out.println("The Username?:");
            String webUsername = keyboard.nextLine();
            System.out.println("The Password?:");
            String webPass = keyboard.nextLine();
            info.add(new LoginInfo(webUsername, webPass, webName));
            System.out.println(info.size());
            //method goes back to display
            display();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

You have a list named users . Once you created new SuperUser instance ( temp ), you are checking that it belongs to this list ( users.contains(temp) , which is false of course - from where it will occur there?). If it have belonged, the method display would be called, which in turn would add LoginInfo to that SuperUser ( add() call), but I bet in reality it doesn't happened.

Also, I see where you read from users (check whether new SuperUser instances belong there), I see where you overwrite it (during desealization) but I don't see adding any instance to there, which makes me think that it is always empty.

Are you sure that SuperUser contains any LoginInfo in its array list?

Answer 2

Your problem is here

SuperUser temp = new  SuperUser(existingUser, existingPass);
    System.out.println();
    if (users.contains(temp)) {
        // viewing superUser method
        temp.display();

You create a temporary object which with the username and password.

Your 'users.contains()' method returns true because '.equals()' is based on the username, however the 'temp' object is a different instance to that in the list.

So when you call 'temp.display()' it is not calling on an object in the list, so no data changes will save.

You need to find the existing object from the list for that user. I would suggest that you swap your list for a map keyed on username.