Assignment 6 Serializing objects in Java

Assignment 6

Objective
This assignment should give you practice with various aspects of serializing objects in Java and working with
files of serialized objects. You will also get some more practice handling exceptions. Additionally, you will
have a chance to get used to the basic usage of Collections in Java.
Task
Write a program to handle Student objects, including saving and loading a variable number of these objects
and creating new Student objects. Your final jar file will contain the following classes
• Student.java
• StudentHandler.java
StudentHandler.java will be built entirely by you to match the sample output as well as possible.
Student.java will be edited by you. You will begin with the Student class found here.
Each file should have a comment including your name at the top of the file. Each file should
also have appropriate comments throughout. Make sure you indicate anywhere you change
Student.java with comments
Requirements
1. Student Class: Most of the student class is provided for you. You will need to make changes to meet
the following requirements:
• You should be able to serialize the Student class after making changes to it
• All member data of the Student class should be serialized EXCEPT the double grade and
any static variables (Java automatically does not attempt to serialize static member data, so you
will not need to make changes to the static variables to meet this requirement, just the grade
variable)
• You should not NEED to change anything else about the Student class, but if you do, make sure
you mark it clearly with comments
2. StudentHandler Data: StudentHandler should contain one piece of data called students.
This should be some collection of Students. You may store this with any collection you feel is
appropriate other than an array. I recommend that you use some sort of List (an ArrayList
or LinkedList in particular), but feel free to use another class if you feel it is appropriate/feel more
comfortable with it.
3. StudentHandler Class Methods: This class will contain your main method (discussed below)
as well as the following non-static methods:
• StudentHandler() – A single parameterless constructor, should just instantiate the member
data
• void saveStudents(Scanner s) – This method will ask the user for a filename to save under
and save the entire collection of students held in this StudentHandler as serialized objects
• void loadStudents(Scanner s) – This method will first clear all students out of the StudentHandler,
then ask the user for a filename and load all of students stored in that file into the StudentHandler
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• void addStudent(Scanner s) – This method will prompt the user for the various pieces of a
Student object (name, grades, etc.) and create a new object and add it to the StudentHandler
• void printAllStudents() – This method will print all of the students, sorted by name (last
name first, if those are the same, then sort by first name) as well as the count of the number of
student records (you are REQUIRED to use the static totalStudents member data for this
count)
• void clearAllStudents() – This method will clear all of the students from the collection/array
4. Main method: First, you should create a StudentHandler object. From there, your main method
should print the menu (as seen in sample output) and ask the user for input. The user should input an
integer and then you call the appropriate method (on your StudentHandler object) based on the
user input. When the user inputs the integer 6, then the program should quit.
5. Error handling: You will need to handle various errors and exceptions in this project. Each of the
following errors should be handled appropriately (as indicated):
• Invalid menu input: If the user inputs invalid menu input (either a non-integer or an integer not
between 1 and 6), then print an appropriate error message and go back to the beginning of your
loop
• Invalid input in addStudent() method: If the user inputs an invalid item for any of the inputs
in this method, print an appropriate error message and begin the method again (see the example
output for how this should work)
• File exception: If there is an error reading a file for reading or writing, indicate this to the user
and go back to the main menu
• Invalid Student File: If the user attempts to read from a file that does not contain serialized
objects, this will trigger a ClassNotFoundException which you should handle by printing an
error message and going back to the main menu
6. Other Requirements:
• When saving the students, make sure you are saving each student individually rather than the
entire collection (when I test, I may load your data using a different data structure in order to
test your file containing serialized data).
• Similarly, when loading the student data, make sure you load each student individually rather
than an entire collection (again, during testing, I may load a file created using a different program
that contains serialized data)
7. Hints:
• You only need the classes/methods I mention above, but if you want to add more, feel free (make
them private, please)
• Remember to use ObjectOutputStream and ObjectInputStream for your file I/O
• As mentioned above, a good default collection to hold your students is an ArrayList.
• Pay attention to the non-serialized data when loading data from the serialized file
• It is especially easy to get off on your count when there are exceptions during the addStudent()
method
• Exceptions don’t “use” the input from a Scanner, so if you are using a Scanner, make sure to
include a line like s.NextLine() in your exceptions to process the bad input
• Again, remember that you are REQUIRED to use the static totalStudents member data
when printing the number of students, do not simply count the elements in your collection
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Sample Output
User input is underlined (there has been input before this, so there will be 3 total Students)
1: Print out all loaded students
2: Add student
3: Clear students
4: Save students to file
5: Load students from file
6: Quit
Please input the number of your choice: cd
Invalid choice, try again.
1: Print out all loaded students
2: Add student
3: Clear students
4: Save students to file
5: Load students from file
6: Quit
Please input the number of your choice: 2
Please input a first name: Joe
Please input a last name: Blow
Please input student homework grades one at a time (negative value to finish): c98
Invalid input, please try inputting the student again
Please input a first name: Joe
Please input a last name: Blow
Please input student homework grades one at a time (negative value to finish): 98
Please add another homework grade (negative value to finish): 77
Please add another homework grade (negative value to finish): -4
Please input student test grades one at a time (negative value to finish): 75
Please add another test grade (negative value to finish): 88
Please add another test grade (negative value to finish): 99
Please add another test grade (negative value to finish): -2
1: Print out all loaded students
2: Add student
3: Clear students
4: Save students to file
5: Load students from file
3
6: Quit
Please input the number of your choice: 4
Please input the filename to save as: TheFile.txt
1: Print out all loaded students
2: Add student
3: Clear students
4: Save students to file
5: Load students from file
6: Quit
Please input the number of your choice: 1
First name: Joe
Last name: Blow
Final Grade: 87.41666666666666
First name: Another
Last name: Student
Final Grade: 89.26666768391928
First name: Test
Last name: Student
Final Grade: 89.5
Printed 3 Student Records
1: Print out all loaded students
2: Add student
3: Clear students
4: Save students to file
5: Load students from file
6: Quit
Please input the number of your choice: 3
1: Print out all loaded students
2: Add student
3: Clear students
4: Save students to file
5: Load students from file
6: Quit
Please input the number of your choice: 1
Printed 0 Student Records
1: Print out all loaded students
2: Add student
4
3: Clear students
4: Save students to file
5: Load students from file
6: Quit
Please input the number of your choice: 5
Please input the filename to load from: TheFile.txt
1: Print out all loaded students
2: Add student
3: Clear students
4: Save students to file
5: Load students from file
6: Quit
Please input the number of your choice: 1
First name: Joe
Last name: Blow
Final Grade: 87.41666666666666
First name: Another
Last name: Student
Final Grade: 89.26666768391928
First name: Test
Last name: Student
Final Grade: 89.5
Printed 3 Student Records
1: Print out all loaded students
2: Add student
3: Clear students
4: Save students to file
5: Load students from file
6: Quit
Please input the number of your choice: 6
Goodbye!
Submitting
Pack all of your files (class files and source code) into a fully runnable JAR file called hw6.jar. The
main program that the jar file should execute should be in class StudentHandler. I should be able to run
the main() method from your file with the command:
java -jar hw6.jar
Submit your jar file via the Blackboard submission link for assignment 6.
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