The Open Source Zone

XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again.
Features includes:

• Ease of use. A high level facade is supplied that simplifies common use cases.
• No mappings required. Most objects can be serialized without need for specifying mappings.
• Performance. Speed and low memory footprint are a crucial part of the design, making it suitable for large object graphs or systems with high message throughput.
• Clean XML. No information is duplicated that can be obtained via reflection. This results in XML that is easier to read for humans and more compact than native Java serialization.
• Requires no modifications to objects. Serializes internal fields, including private and final. Supports non-public and inner classes. Classes are not required to have default constructor.
• Full object graph support. Duplicate references encountered in the object-model will be maintained. Supports circular references.
• Integrates with other XML APIs. By implementing an interface, XStream can serialize directly to/from any tree structure (not just XML).
• Customizable conversion stategies. Strategies can be registered allowing customization of how particular types are represented as XML.
• Error messages. When an exception occurs due to malformed XML, detailed diagnostics are provided to help isolate and fix the problem.