How would I save/load this configuration of JButtons?

Question

This is how I add all of my JButtons to the panel and to the arraylist

  private ArrayList<JButton> b;
  String defaultLogo = "O";


  for(int i=0; i<81;i++)
  {

      b.add(new JButton(defaultLogo));
      b.get(i).addActionListener(new ActionListener(){

        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            for (int i = 0; i < b.size(); i++){
                if (e.getSource() == b.get(i)){
                    b.get(i).setText(getSymbol());
                    b.get(i).setForeground(getColor());
                    b.get(i).setBackground(getBackColor());
                }
            }

        }

      });
      tilePanel.add(b.get(i));

  }

The program allows a user to choose a symbol, background color, and foreground color and when each JButton is pressed it changes to the selected symbol, foreground color, and background color.

I want to be able to save the JButton configuration using DataOutputStream and DataInputStream. I have two action listeners attached to a save and load button that activate a save and load method when pressed. What should I write in each method to allow a user to save and load files of the JButton configurations.

save = new JMenuItem("Save");
  file.add(save);
  save.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){

    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        if (e.getSource()==save){
            save();
        }

    }

  });

  load = new JMenuItem("Load");
  file.add(load);
  load.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){

    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        if (e.getSource() == load){
            load();
        }

    }

    });

here's an image of the program when its running

And another one

Answer 1

You can try serialization, saving an object that holds your buttons.

Here's an example:

The object that holds the data

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.ArrayList;

public class Config implements Serializable {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    private ArrayList<String[]> Data;
    public Config(){
        Data=new ArrayList<String>();

    }

    public void addData(String path){
        Data.add(path);
    }
    public String getData(int index){
        return Data.get(index);
    }

}

For serialization:

import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.io.File;
public class FileSerial {

    private FileSerial(){}

    public static Config deserialize(){

        Config result;

        try {
            FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(Paths.get("path to your file"));
            ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(fis);
            result = (Config) ois.readObject();
            ois.close();
        } catch (Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace();
    }

        return result;

    }

    public static void serialize(Config obj){
        try {

            File file = new File(Paths.get("path to file"));
            if(!file.exists()){
                file.getParentFile().mkdirs();
            }

            FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(path.toString());
            ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(fos);
            oos.writeObject(obj);
            oos.close();

        } catch (Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

}

The filename of the object to serialize should have the extension ".ser"