generates a new unique id and returns it as a string . the contents of the string is supposed to be unique with respect to all strings generated by other instances of this class . todo : we should consider using java.util.uuid for this instead . concode_field_sep Logger LOG concode_elem_sep Class MYCLASS concode_elem_sep String id concode_field_sep String readObjectID concode_elem_sep String createObjectID concode_elem_sep String toString concode_elem_sep String getIDOfObject