XStream - Quick Guide

XStream - Overview

XStream is a simple Java-based library to serialize Java objects to XML and vice versa.

Features

• Easy to use - XStream API provides a high-level facade to simplify common use cases.
• No need to create mapping - XStream API provides default mapping for most of the objects to be serialized.
  
• Performance - XStream is fast and is of low memory footprint, which is suitable for large object graphs or systems.
• Clean XML - XStream produces clean and compact XML output that is easy to read.
• Object modification not required - XStream serializes internal fields like private and final fields, and supports non-public and inner classes. Default constructor is not a mandatory requirement.
• Full object graph support - XStream allows to maintain duplicate references encountered in the object-model and also supports circular references.
• Customizable conversion strategies - Custom strategies can be registered in order to allow customization of a particular type to be represented as XML.
• Security framework - XStream provides a fair control over unmarshalled types to prevent security issues with manipulated input.
• Error messages - When an exception occurs due to malformed XML, it provides detailed diagnostics to fix the problem.
• Alternative output format - XStream supports other output formats like JSON and morphing.

Common Uses

• Transport
• Persistence
• Configuration
• Unit Tests