Unpickle java.lang.Class fails with IllegalAccessException

[mklew]

I've created test that illustrates issue.

In short

  val clazz: Class[Int] = classOf[Int]
  val pickle = clazz.pickle
  val deserializedJsonPickle: JSONPickle = JSONPickle(pickle.value)
  val deserializedClass: Class[Int] = deserializedJsonPickle.unpickle[Class[Int]] // fails on this line

It fails like:

[info] - must unpickle java.lang.Class from JSON *** FAILED ***
[info] java.lang.IllegalAccessException: java.lang.Class
[info] at sun.misc.Unsafe.allocateInstance(Native Method)

If this is expected behaviour then just let me know.

Why do I want pickle Class object? Because I've been thinking about serializing akka.actor.Props (which has java.lang.Class of actor) in order to recreate actor at some point in the future at different node (kind of moving computation to data thingy)

[jsuereth]

I think you'll need to create a custom serializer for Class and then register it. You're trying to use our reflective knowledge of class, and it's actually not possible for that to work. Instead of bombing like this, it should just give you a legit error message.

In any case, you should be able to create your own and register it with the dynamic pickling registery to use with Akka.