encode(String s) Returns a String that uniquely identifies the object.
Note: since this method uses the Object.toString()
method, it's up to the caller to make sure that this method
doesn't change between different JVM executions (like
it may normally happen).
Inverse of encode exept it do not use path.
So decode(encode(s) - m_path) = s.
In other words it returns a String that can be used as key to retive
the record contained in the 'filename' file.
Returns a String that uniquely identifies the object.
Note: since this method uses the Object.toString()
method, it's up to the caller to make sure that this method
doesn't change between different JVM executions (like
it may normally happen). For this reason, it's highly recommended
(even if not mandated) that Strings be used as keys.
Store the given object in a persistent state.
1) Null values generate empty directories.
2) String values are dumped to text files
3) Object values are serialized