How to use a Serializable class

Question

I'm using Backendless as a backend service, it offers a class called BackendlessUser for saving and retrieving users. I'm trying to pass a User between two activities on Android by passing it as Serializable extra:

Intent intent = new Intent(PeopleActivity.this, ConversationActivity.class);
intent.putExtra("withUser", contacts.get(position));
startActivity(intent);

Since the class BackendlessUser implements Serializable. However when I run it, it gives me this error:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Parcelable encountered IOException writing serializable object (name = com.backendless.BackendlessUser)
at android.os.Parcel.writeSerializable(Parcel.java:1468)
at android.os.Parcel.writeValue(Parcel.java:1416)
....
Caused by: java.io.NotSerializableException: java.lang.Object
....

Due to, I think, this variable:

public final class BackendlessUser implements Serializable {
    private final Map<String, Object> properties = new HashMap<String, Object>();
...

How can I solve this considering that I cannot modify the BackendlessUser class?

Answer 1

Instead of passing the object, you can save the reference to it in a singleton so that it's available between the activities.

You can extend the Application class and save there. The Application class exists all the time while your app is running and is a singleton.

public class MyApp extends Application {
  public BackendUser currentUser;
}

Then:

((MyApp)getApplication()).currentUser