diff --git a/org.springframework.integration.file/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/file/FileWritingMessageHandler.java b/org.springframework.integration.file/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/file/FileWritingMessageHandler.java
index ab2b07d7af..74e9117028 100644
--- a/org.springframework.integration.file/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/file/FileWritingMessageHandler.java
+++ b/org.springframework.integration.file/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/file/FileWritingMessageHandler.java
@@ -31,7 +31,14 @@ import org.springframework.util.FileCopyUtils;
  * A {@link MessageHandler} implementation that writes the Message payload to a
  * file. If the payload is a File object, it will copy the File to this
  * consumer's directory. If the payload is a byte array or String, it will
- * write it directly. Otherwise, it will invoke toString on the payload Object.
+ * write it directly. Otherwise, the payload type is unsupported, and an
+ * Exception will be thrown.
+ * <p>
+ * Other transformers may be useful to precede this handler. For example,
+ * any Serializable object payload can be converted into a byte array by the
+ * {@link org.springframework.integration.transformer.PayloadSerializingTransformer}.
+ * Likewise, any Object can be converted to a String based on its <code>toString()</code>
+ * method by the {@link org.springframework.integration.transformer.ObjectToStringTransformer}.
  * 
  * @author Mark Fisher
  */
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadDeserializingTransformer.java b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadDeserializingTransformer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cc429644ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadDeserializingTransformer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.integration.transformer;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
+import java.io.ObjectStreamException;
+
+/**
+ * Transformer that deserializes the inbound byte array payload to an object.
+ * <p>The byte array payload must be a result of serialization.
+ * 
+ * @author Mark Fisher
+ * @since 1.0.1
+ */
+public class PayloadDeserializingTransformer extends AbstractPayloadTransformer<byte[], Object> {
+
+	@Override
+	protected Object transformPayload(byte[] payload) throws Exception {
+		ByteArrayInputStream byteStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(payload);
+		ObjectInputStream objectStream = null;
+		try {
+			objectStream = new ObjectInputStream(byteStream);
+			return objectStream.readObject();
+		}
+		catch (ObjectStreamException e) {
+			throw new IllegalArgumentException(
+					"Failed to deserialize payload. Is the byte array a result of Object serialization?", e);
+		}
+		finally {
+			try {
+				objectStream.close();
+			}
+			catch (Exception e) {
+				// ignore
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadSerializingTransformer.java b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadSerializingTransformer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3c8a02ecec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadSerializingTransformer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.integration.transformer;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
+import java.io.Serializable;
+
+import org.springframework.util.Assert;
+
+/**
+ * Transformer that serializes the inbound payload into a byte array.
+ * <p>The payload instance must be Serializable.
+ * 
+ * @author Mark Fisher
+ * @since 1.0.1
+ */
+public class PayloadSerializingTransformer extends AbstractPayloadTransformer<Object, byte[]> {
+
+	@Override
+	protected byte[] transformPayload(Object payload) throws Exception {
+		Assert.isTrue(payload instanceof Serializable, this.getClass().getName()
+				+ " requires a Serializable payload, but received [" + payload.getClass().getName() + "]");
+		ByteArrayOutputStream byteStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+		ObjectOutputStream objectStream = new ObjectOutputStream(byteStream);
+		objectStream.writeObject(payload);
+		objectStream.flush();
+		objectStream.close();
+		return byteStream.toByteArray();
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadDeserializingTransformerTests.java b/org.springframework.integration/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadDeserializingTransformerTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..cb066f6df8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadDeserializingTransformerTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.integration.transformer;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
+import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
+import java.io.Serializable;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.springframework.integration.core.Message;
+import org.springframework.integration.message.GenericMessage;
+
+/**
+ * @author Mark Fisher
+ */
+public class PayloadDeserializingTransformerTests {
+
+	@Test
+	public void deserializeString() throws Exception {
+		ByteArrayOutputStream byteStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+		ObjectOutputStream objectStream = new ObjectOutputStream(byteStream);
+		objectStream.writeObject("foo");
+		byte[] serialized = byteStream.toByteArray();
+		PayloadDeserializingTransformer transformer = new PayloadDeserializingTransformer();
+		Message<?> result = transformer.transform(new GenericMessage<byte[]>(serialized));
+		Object payload = result.getPayload();
+		assertNotNull(payload);
+		assertEquals(String.class, payload.getClass());
+		assertEquals("foo", payload);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void deserializeObject() throws Exception {
+		TestBean testBean = new TestBean("test");
+		ByteArrayOutputStream byteStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+		ObjectOutputStream objectStream = new ObjectOutputStream(byteStream);
+		objectStream.writeObject(testBean);
+		byte[] serialized = byteStream.toByteArray();
+		PayloadDeserializingTransformer transformer = new PayloadDeserializingTransformer();
+		Message<?> result = transformer.transform(new GenericMessage<byte[]>(serialized));
+		Object payload = result.getPayload();
+		assertNotNull(payload);
+		assertEquals(TestBean.class, payload.getClass());
+		assertEquals(testBean.name, ((TestBean) payload).name);
+	}
+
+	@Test(expected = MessageTransformationException.class)
+	public void invalidPayload() {
+		byte[] bytes = new byte[] { 1, 2, 3 };
+		PayloadDeserializingTransformer transformer = new PayloadDeserializingTransformer();
+		transformer.transform(new GenericMessage<byte[]>(bytes));
+	}
+
+
+	@SuppressWarnings("serial")
+	private static class TestBean implements Serializable {
+
+		private String name;
+		
+		public TestBean(String name) {
+			this.name = name;
+		}
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadSerializingTransformerTests.java b/org.springframework.integration/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadSerializingTransformerTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..beb3fcfbf3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/transformer/PayloadSerializingTransformerTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.integration.transformer;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
+import java.io.Serializable;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.springframework.integration.core.Message;
+import org.springframework.integration.message.GenericMessage;
+import org.springframework.integration.message.StringMessage;
+
+/**
+ * @author Mark Fisher
+ */
+public class PayloadSerializingTransformerTests {
+
+	@Test
+	public void serializeString() throws Exception {
+		PayloadSerializingTransformer transformer = new PayloadSerializingTransformer();
+		Message<?> result = transformer.transform(new StringMessage("foo"));
+		Object payload = result.getPayload();
+		assertNotNull(payload);
+		assertTrue(payload instanceof byte[]);
+		ByteArrayInputStream byteStream = new ByteArrayInputStream((byte[]) payload);
+		ObjectInputStream objectStream = new ObjectInputStream(byteStream);
+		Object deserialized = objectStream.readObject();
+		assertEquals("foo", deserialized);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void serializeObject() throws Exception {
+		PayloadSerializingTransformer transformer = new PayloadSerializingTransformer();
+		TestBean testBean = new TestBean("test");
+		Message<?> result = transformer.transform(new GenericMessage<TestBean>(testBean));
+		Object payload = result.getPayload();
+		assertNotNull(payload);
+		assertTrue(payload instanceof byte[]);
+		ByteArrayInputStream byteStream = new ByteArrayInputStream((byte[]) payload);
+		ObjectInputStream objectStream = new ObjectInputStream(byteStream);
+		Object deserialized = objectStream.readObject();
+		assertEquals(TestBean.class, deserialized.getClass());
+		assertEquals(testBean.name, ((TestBean) deserialized).name);
+	}
+
+	@Test(expected = MessageTransformationException.class)
+	public void invalidPayload() {
+		PayloadSerializingTransformer transformer = new PayloadSerializingTransformer();
+		transformer.transform(new GenericMessage<Object>(new Object()));
+	}
+
+
+	@SuppressWarnings("serial")
+	private static class TestBean implements Serializable {
+
+		private String name;
+		
+		public TestBean(String name) {
+			this.name = name;
+		}
+	}
+
+}