Error when deserializing java.awt.Font

I have found the problem:

Because PureJavaReflectionProvider is being used, XStream is having problems instantiating the java.awt.font.TextAttribute objects that are members of java.awt.Font.

<problem> (if you're interested)
The reason behind this is that this class doesn't have a default constructor, so XStream doesn't know how to directly instantiate this. It gets around this internally by building a stream of bytes that can be deserialized using standard Java Object (de)Serialization into a TextAttribute object, which it then populates as normal. What's happening is the TextAttribute class has some additional code in it (a method called readResolve()) that is automatically called by Java Object (de)Serialization before XStream has had a chance to fully populate the object even though this method relies on the object being fully populated.
</problem>

I can see a number of solutions:

1. Use Sun14ReflectionProvider instead of PureJavaReflectionProvider. I've confirmed that this works ok, however it is not available to all JDKs.
2. If you are not using a JDK that Sun14ReflectionProvider works on, let me know which JDK you are using and I can try to build an equivalent.
3. A special Converter for TextAttribute could be created. This would do some custom code to instantiate the class correctly. However there may be other classes with similar problems.

Which option sounds the most suitable for you?

Hi Joe,
Thanks for looking into this. Now about the solutions:
I was using PureJavaReflection because using the default constructor for Xstream I was getting this error upon deserialization of a custom class:
---- Debugging information ----
cause-exception : java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
required-type : grafico.CeldaFuente
class : grafico.CeldaFuente
message : Could not call grafico.CeldaFuente.readObject()
line number : 6
path : /grafico.CeldaFuente/javax.swing.tree.DefaultMutableTreeNode/default/allowsChildren
cause-message : null

I read somewhere in the mailing list that someone had this problem and solved it using PureJavaReflectionProvider.

2. If I use Sun14ReflectionProvider I get this error when deserializing:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: sun.misc.Unsafe.objectFieldOffset(Ljava/lang/reflect/Field;)J
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.Sun14ReflectionProvider.write(Sun14ReflectionProvider.java:74)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.Sun14ReflectionProvider.writeField(Sun14ReflectionProvider.java:68)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.ReflectionConverter.unmarshal(ReflectionConverter.java:103)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:38)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.convertAnother(ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.java:39)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.collections.AbstractCollectionConverter.readItem(AbstractCollectionConverter.java:82)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.collections.MapConverter.populateMap(MapConverter.java:68)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.collections.MapConverter.unmarshal(MapConverter.java:59)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:38)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.convertAnother(ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.java:39)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.extended.FontConverter.unmarshal(FontConverter.java:31)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:38)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.convertAnother(ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.java:39)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.start(TreeUnmarshaller.java:99)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.ReferenceByXPathMarshallingStrategy.unmarshal(ReferenceByXPathMarshallingStrategy.java:12)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.unmarshal(XStream.java:549)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.unmarshal(XStream.java:528)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream$2.readFromStream(XStream.java:798)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.util.CustomObjectInputStream.readObjectOverride(CustomObjectInputStream.java:66)
at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject(ObjectInputStream.java:316)
at SerialXStream2.main(SerialXStream2.java:74)

Is this because of my JDK? I’m using 1.4.0_01 on Windows 98 SE. Which version should I use that support it?

German, we have working it for all sorts of JDKs, please try a 1.4.2 version and comment/reopen if it does not work for you.