Serialization of Graph

[Jim McDonald <Jim AT mcdee.net>]

Hi,
   I've just started using GraphStream and one of my requirements is to 
be able to serialize and deserialize graphs for storage in a database.

   Ideally I'd like to serialize the graph as JSON through Jackson but 
I can't just pass the object as-is to Jackson because any loops in the 
graph will cause Jackson to fail to serialize it.  The next best 
solution is to write custom serializers and deserializers which will 
convert the graph to/from a suitable format.

I know that there are various sinks and sources available, but I'm 
unsure of which one is best to use.  I'd want a compact plain-text 
serialization of the graph which allows me to read and write the entire 
graph to and from a String.  Are there any suggestions on the best 
format to use, and how to work with strings rather than files when 
serializing and deserializing?

   Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Jim.