CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaserializationavro
Raj V
Raj V

Reputation: 107

What is the need to choose serializaiton frameworks, when java provides APIs to do it?

I am reading about Avro, and I am trying to compare avro vs java serialization system. But somehow I am not able to gauge why avro is used for data serialization instead of java serialization. As a matter of fact, why was another system came in to replace the java serialization system?

Here is the summary of my understanding. To use java serialization capabilities, we will have to make this class implement serilizable interface. If you do so and serialize the object, then during deserialization, something like

e = (Employee) in.readObject();

Next is we can use the getters/setters to play with the employee object.

In avro, First is schema definition. Next is to use the avro APIs to serialize. Again on deserialization there is something like this.

Next is we can use the getters/setters to play with the employee object.

Question is I don't see any difference, only that the API that's used it different? Can anyone please clarify my doubt?

public AvroHttpRequest deSerealizeAvroHttpRequestJSON(byte[] data) {
DatumReader<AvroHttpRequest> reader
     = new SpecificDatumReader<>(AvroHttpRequest.class);
    Decoder decoder = null;
    try {
        decoder = DecoderFactory.get().jsonDecoder(
          AvroHttpRequest.getClassSchema(), new String(data));
        return reader.read(null, decoder);
    } catch (IOException e) {
        logger.error("Deserialization error:" + e.getMessage());
    }}

Next is we can use the getters/setters to play with the employee object.

Question is I don't see any difference between these two approaches. Both does the same thing. Only that the APIs are different? Can anyone please help me in understanding this better?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 169

Answers (1)

PaulProgrammer
PaulProgrammer

Reputation: 17670

The inbuilt java serialization has some pretty significant downsides. For instance, without careful consideration, you may not be able to deserialize an object that may have no changes to data, only changes to the class's methods.

You can also create a case in which the serial uid is the same (set manually) but not actually able to be deserialized because of incompatibility in type between two systems.

A 3rd party serialization library can help mitigate this by using an abstract mapping to pair data together. Well conceived serialization libraries can even provide mappings between different versions of the object.

Finally, the error handling for 3rd party serialization libraries are typically more useful for a developer or operator.

Upvotes: 1

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