PlainText

Juneau supports converting POJOs to and from plain text.

Serialization simply uses the object's toString() method (or an ObjectSwap<?,String> swap if one is defined for the class). Parsing converts text back into a POJO via a static fromString(String) / valueOf(String) method, or a constructor taking a single String argument (again, honoring any registered swap).

PlainText support is included in juneau-marshall.

Maven	<dependency> <groupId>org.apache.juneau</groupId> <artifactId>juneau-marshall</artifactId> <version>${juneau.version}</version> </dependency>

The relevant classes are:

PlainText - Marshaller pairing the serializer and parser.PlainTextSerializer - Converts POJOs to plain text.PlainTextParser - Converts plain text to POJOs.

Media Types

Both the serializer and parser handle text/plain.

Quick Start

The PlainText marshaller provides one-line convenience methods over its default serializer and parser:

// Serialize a POJO to plain text (uses toString()).
String text = PlainText.DEFAULT.of(myPojo);

// Parse plain text back into a POJO.
MyPojo pojo = PlainText.DEFAULT.to(text, MyPojo.class);

Round-Tripping POJOs

Any class that provides a string representation and a way to reconstruct itself from a string can be round-tripped:

public class Temperature {

	private final int celsius;

	// Used by the parser (single-String constructor).
	public Temperature(String value) {
		celsius = Integer.parseInt(value.replace("C", ""));
	}

	// Used by the serializer.
	@Override
	public String toString() {
		return celsius + "C";
	}
}

String text = PlainText.DEFAULT.of(new Temperature("20C"));  // "20C"
Temperature t = PlainText.DEFAULT.to("20C", Temperature.class);

Serializer / Parser

The underlying serializer and parser can also be used directly via their reusable DEFAULT instances:

String text = PlainTextSerializer.DEFAULT.write(myPojo);
MyPojo pojo = PlainTextParser.DEFAULT.read(text, MyPojo.class);

See Also

• Marshallers for the common of(...) / to(...) marshaller API.
• Swaps for replacing non-string types with string equivalents.
• POJO Categories for the categories of objects that can be reconstructed from strings.