Android serializable problem

Question

I created a class, which has several member variables, all of which are serializable... except one Bitmap! I tried to extend bitmap and implement serializable, not thinking

Answer 1

How about replacing Bitmap with a class like this:

public class SerialBitmap implements Serializable {

    public Bitmap bitmap;

    // TODO: Finish this constructor
    SerialBitmap() {
        // Take your existing call to BitmapFactory and put it here
        bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeSomething();
    }

    // Converts the Bitmap into a byte array for serialization
    private void writeObject(java.io.ObjectOutputStream out) throws IOException {
        ByteArrayOutputStream byteStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 0, byteStream);
        byte bitmapBytes[] = byteStream.toByteArray();
        out.write(bitmapBytes, 0, bitmapBytes.length);
    }

    // Deserializes a byte array representing the Bitmap and decodes it
    private void readObject(java.io.ObjectInputStream in) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
        ByteArrayOutputStream byteStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        int b;
        while((b = in.read()) != -1)
            byteStream.write(b);
        byte bitmapBytes[] = byteStream.toByteArray();
        bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(bitmapBytes, 0, bitmapBytes.length);
    }
}

The overridden Serializable.writeObject() and readObject() methods serialize the bytes instead of the Bitmap so the class is serializable. You will need to finish the constructor because I don't know how you currently construct your Bitmap. The last thing to do is to replace references to YourClass.bitmap with YourClass.serialBitmap.bitmap.

Good luck!

Barry P.S. This code compiles but I haven't tested it with a real bitmap