code: def saveState(self,  stateObj):
          
          try:
              fp = open(self._stateFile,  'w')
              pickle.dump(stateObj, fp)
          except:
              raise IOError("Failure in storing plugin state in file: %s" 
                            % self._stateFile)
          return True
docs: Utility methos to save plugin state stored in stateObj to persistent 
          storage to permit access to previous state in subsequent plugin runs.
          
          Any object that can be pickled and unpickled can be used to store the 
          plugin state.
          
          @param stateObj: Object that stores plugin state.