Savings HashMaps with inventories

I have made a Staff plugin where /staff enters you into Staff Mode. When you enter staff mode, your inventory is saved in a hashmap and then the staff inventory is given to you. Then when you leave staff mode your old inventory is given back to you. This all work exactly how I want it to... However.. If the server is reloaded whilst you are in staff mode, your old inventory is lost.

Is there a way to be able to save the hashmap? Ive tried saving to a config but I ran into issues trying to convert the inventory back to items from the config?

Thanks

 

to safe
file.getConfig().set(playerUUID, inventory.getContent());

get:
loop through uuid, get player from uuid and set the content to the players inventory

 

I tried doing this with player name instead of UUID.. and it saves the inven contents... but then when i try to load it it throws an error. Something about not being able to cast ItemStack[] to a string.

 

try:
loop through the UUIDs,
ItemStack[] content = file.getConfig().get(UUID);

or better:

Inventory inv = Bukkit.createInventory(null, size, name);
List<?> content = getConfig().getList(path + ".content");
inv.setContents(content.toArray(new ItemStack[]{}));

this I use in one of my own plugins

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.