Methods, systems, and computer program products for programmatically serializing complex objects (such as JavaBeans.TM.). In contrast to prior art techniques, a manually-specified data type mapping specification is not required as input to the serialization process. Instead, the present invention programmatically generates this type mapping, responsive to encountering run-time exceptions during the serialization process. The serialization process is therefore "self-healing". This approach is especially advantageous when serializing complex objects that may include complex data types and/or embedded objects. The programmatically-generated type mapping information is preferably used to generate a serialized version of the complex object, and can also be used during deserialization. In addition to improving serialization techniques, this type mapping information facilitates dynamic integration and transformation of data between heterogeneous formats.