public static Object decodeToObject( String encodedObject )
	{
		// Decode and gunzip if necessary
		byte[] objBytes = decode( encodedObject );

		java.io.ByteArrayInputStream bais = null;
		java.io.ObjectInputStream ois = null;
		Object obj = null;

		try
		{
			bais = new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream( objBytes );
			ois = new java.io.ObjectInputStream( bais );

			obj = ois.readObject();
		}   // end try
		catch( java.io.IOException e )
		{
			e.printStackTrace();
			obj = null;
		}   // end catch
		catch( java.lang.ClassNotFoundException e )
		{
			e.printStackTrace();
			obj = null;
		}   // end catch
		finally
		{
			try
			{
				bais.close();
			}
			catch( Exception e )
			{
			}
			try
			{
				ois.close();
			}
			catch( Exception e )
			{
			}
		}   // end finally

		return obj;
	}   // end decodeObject