Serialization versus Deserialization

Figure 5.1: Serialization versus deserialization

An object is something that lives in the application memory. We can invoke its method or access its attributes in our application. However, when we want to transfer or store an object, we will have to convert it into a storable or transferrable format, and that format will be a stream of bytes. It can then be stored in a text file, in a database, or be transmitted over the internet. The process of converting an object to a stream of bytes is called serialization. This stream of bytes persists the state of the object so that it can be recreated later. The recreation of the object from a stream of bytes is called deserialization.

Serialization/deserialization is an essential part of RESTful API development. During actual development, the data validation related to business logic will often be included in the serialization and deserialization implementation processes as well...