/*
 * Copyright 2005-2010 the original author or authors.
 * 
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package org.wamblee.general;

import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;

/**
 * Utility for serializating and deserializing objects.
 * 
 * @author Erik Brakkee
 */
public class ObjectSerializationUtils {

    /**
     * Serialize an object to a byte array. 
     * @param aObject Object ot serialize. 
     * @return Byte array.
     * @throws IOException
     */
    public static byte[] serialize(Object aObject) throws IOException {
        ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream(); 
        ObjectOutputStream os = new ObjectOutputStream(bos);
        os.writeObject(aObject);
        os.flush();
        return bos.toByteArray();
    }
    
    /**
     * Desrializes an object from a byte array. 
     * @param <T> Type of the object.
     * @param aData Serialized data.
     * @param aType Type of the object.
     * @return Object. 
     * @throws IOException
     * @throws ClassNotFoundException
     */
    public static <T> T deserialize(byte[] aData, Class<T> aType) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException { 
        ByteArrayInputStream bis = new ByteArrayInputStream(aData); 
        ObjectInputStream os = new ObjectInputStream(bis); 
        return (T)os.readObject();
    }
}