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POJava "settings object", serialization/deserialization
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copied!<p>(<s>Code is for Android</s> Actually, I need code to be portable between Android and Java SE.)</p> <p>I want to have a "settings" class with various game settings, like</p> <pre><code>public int map_size; public String server_name; </code></pre> <p>etc.</p> <p>The data needs to be accessed fairly frequently (so members, not a key-value map), and from time to time de/serialized in some standard way (mainly to send it through network).</p> <p>I want to be able to</p> <ol> <li><p>Serialize and deserialize the object into XML or JSON, without having to explicitly write the code for every member (but still having some degree of control over the format).</p></li> <li><p>Define some (constant) meta-data about every member (default value, GUI name, XML identifier, ...), in a way that allows for easy modification in the source code (I want to be able to add a new meta-property, define a default value for it, and not have to specify it everywhere else).</p></li> </ol> <p>1 is achievable by using reflection. I thought Java annotations for class members would be perfect for 2:</p> <pre><code>@Setting(id = "server_name", name = "Server title", default = "Server0") public String server_name; </code></pre> <p>But it looks like (user-defined) annotations don't work in Android yet - code using them crashes the compiler...</p> <p><b>What would be the easiest way to store the meta-data about the settings</b> (or another way to approach all this)?</p> <ul> <li><p>Store information about settings in some external XML file?</p></li> <li><p>Store it in a Java data structure, with content defined in the code? Defining the data in this way somehow seems very unwieldy, especially compared to keyword arguments of annotations.</p></li> <li><p>?</p></li> </ul>

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