Problem in JSF2 with client-side state saving and serialization

Question

I have a problem in JSF2 with client side state saving and serialization. I have created a page with a full description and a small class diagram: http://tinyurl.com/jsf2serial. For the client-side state saving I have to implement Serializable at the classes Search, BackingBean and Connection. The exception that was thrown is:

java.io.NotSerializableException: org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1156)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1509)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1474)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1392)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1150)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1509)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1474)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1392)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1150)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1509)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1474)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1392)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1150)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:326)
at java.util.HashMap.writeObject(HashMap.java:1001)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor80.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.invokeWriteObject(ObjectStreamClass.java:945)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1461)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1392)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1150)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1509)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1474)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1392)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1150)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeArray(ObjectOutputStream.java:1338)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1146)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:326)
at java.util.HashMap.writeObject(HashMap.java:1001)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor80.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.invokeWriteObject(ObjectStreamClass.java:945)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1461)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1392)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1150)
at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:326)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.ClientSideStateHelper.doWriteState(ClientSideStateHelper.java:293)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.ClientSideStateHelper.writeState(ClientSideStateHelper.java:167)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.ResponseStateManagerImpl.writeState(ResponseStateManagerImpl.java:123)
at com.sun.faces.application.StateManagerImpl.writeState(StateManagerImpl.java:155)
at com.sun.faces.application.view.WriteBehindStateWriter.flushToWriter(WriteBehindStateWriter.java:221)
at com.sun.faces.application.view.FaceletViewHandlingStrategy.renderView(FaceletViewHandlingStrategy.java:397)
at com.sun.faces.application.view.MultiViewHandler.renderView(MultiViewHandler.java:126)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.RenderResponsePhase.execute(RenderResponsePhase.java:127)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:101)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.render(LifecycleImpl.java:139)
at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:313)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:298)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:852)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:588)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:489)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:637)

Maybe this is a problem of my design, because I am new in developing Java webapps.

Answer 1

The exception basically tells that you cannot (and should not) not store HttpClient in HttpSession. Apparently you've assigned it as a property of some session scoped bean. You should not do that. Either declare it transient or keep it threadlocal (i.e. only declare and use it in local method block, so that you can get rid of the property). The latter approach has my recommendation since HttpClient maintains some internal state which might make your application to break when it all get deserialized. If you'd like to have a long-living instance of it because recreating it is expensive, then I recommend to store it in an application scoped bean instead.