serialization check - compile time and runtime

Question

i am looking for a tool, that can tell me whether a class / object is legal serializeable object (implements serializable, and all its fields are serializable). i know that i can know whether an object is serializable only on run time. i want to get warning on compile time, whether a class can be not serializable (eg - a member is not serializeable, although in runtime it can be null, or of seriazliable sub class type). in addition, on runtime i want to check if a class is really serializable, before trying to send it over the network as a serialized object.

thanks...

Answer 1

Does it have to be compile time? I've done this with unit tests before, which is pretty close to compile time in terms of development lifecycle. This article is a bit dated but outlines a few good approaches. We also caught unserializable state by doing a true failover test for our webapp using two web servers, which is why I needed to verify serializability.

Answer 2

This is usually done using static code analysis.

One tool that's used a lot is Findbugs . It will tell you about many common problems and suspect behaviour. One of its checks is the one you mention (described here) .

There are plugins for most IDEs for this, so it can do its job while you work, and a common pattern is to include this in your automatic build.