--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/src/org/dancres/util/ObjectTransformer.java	Sat Mar 21 11:00:06 2009 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+package org.dancres.util;
+
+import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
+import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.Serializable;
+
+/**
+   Converts an object to a byte-array or vice versa
+ */
+public class ObjectTransformer {
+    public static byte[] toByte(Serializable anObject) throws IOException {
+        ByteArrayOutputStream myBAOS = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+        ObjectOutputStream myOOS = new ObjectOutputStream(myBAOS);
+
+        myOOS.writeObject(anObject);
+        myOOS.close();
+
+        return myBAOS.toByteArray();
+    }
+
+    public static Serializable toObject(byte[] aFlattenedObject) 
+        throws IOException {
+
+        try {
+            ByteArrayInputStream myBAIS =
+                new ByteArrayInputStream(aFlattenedObject);
+            ObjectInputStream myOIS = new ObjectInputStream(myBAIS);
+
+            Serializable myObject = (Serializable) myOIS.readObject();
+            myOIS.close();
+
+            return myObject;
+        } catch (ClassNotFoundException aCNFE) {
+            throw new IOException("ClassNotFoundException: " +
+                                  aCNFE.toString());
+        }
+    }
+}