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Jackson, how can I use default deserializer in custom one [duplicate]

I have a problem in my custom deserializer in Jackson. I want to access the default serializer to populate the object I am deserializing into. After the population I will do some custom things but first I want to deserialize the object with the default Jackson behavior.
This is the code that I have at the moment.
public class UserEventDeserializer extends StdDeserializer<User> {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 7923585097068641765L;
public UserEventDeserializer() {
super(User.class);
}
#Override
#Transactional
public User deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt)
throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
ObjectCodec oc = jp.getCodec();
JsonNode node = oc.readTree(jp);
User deserializedUser = null;
deserializedUser = super.deserialize(jp, ctxt, new User());
// The previous line generates an exception java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException
// Because there is no implementation of the deserializer.
// I want a way to access the default spring deserializer for my User class.
// How can I do that?
//Special logic
return deserializedUser;
}
}
What I need is a way to initialize the default deserializer so that I can pre-populate my POJO before I start my special logic.
When calling deserialize from within the custom deserializer It seems the method is called from the current context no matter how I construct the serializer class. Because of the annotation in my POJO. This causes a Stack Overflow exception for obvious reasons.
I have tried initializing a BeanDeserializer but the process is extremely complex and I haven't managed to find the right way to do it. I have also tried overloading the AnnotationIntrospector to no avail, thinking that it might help me ignore the annotation in the DeserializerContext. Finally it seams I might have had some success using JsonDeserializerBuilders although this required me to do some magic stuff to get hold of the application context from Spring. I would appreciate any thing that could lead me to a cleaner solution for example how Can I construct a deserialization context without reading the JsonDeserializer annotation.

As StaxMan already suggested you can do this by writing a BeanDeserializerModifier and registering it via SimpleModule. The following example should work:
public class UserEventDeserializer extends StdDeserializer<User> implements ResolvableDeserializer
{
private static final long serialVersionUID = 7923585097068641765L;
private final JsonDeserializer<?> defaultDeserializer;
public UserEventDeserializer(JsonDeserializer<?> defaultDeserializer)
{
super(User.class);
this.defaultDeserializer = defaultDeserializer;
}
#Override public User deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt)
throws IOException, JsonProcessingException
{
User deserializedUser = (User) defaultDeserializer.deserialize(jp, ctxt);
// Special logic
return deserializedUser;
}
// for some reason you have to implement ResolvableDeserializer when modifying BeanDeserializer
// otherwise deserializing throws JsonMappingException??
#Override public void resolve(DeserializationContext ctxt) throws JsonMappingException
{
((ResolvableDeserializer) defaultDeserializer).resolve(ctxt);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws JsonParseException, JsonMappingException, IOException
{
SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule();
module.setDeserializerModifier(new BeanDeserializerModifier()
{
#Override public JsonDeserializer<?> modifyDeserializer(DeserializationConfig config, BeanDescription beanDesc, JsonDeserializer<?> deserializer)
{
if (beanDesc.getBeanClass() == User.class)
return new UserEventDeserializer(deserializer);
return deserializer;
}
});
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.registerModule(module);
User user = mapper.readValue(new File("test.json"), User.class);
}
}

The DeserializationContext has a readValue() method you may use. This should work for both the default deserializer and any custom deserializers you have.
Just be sure to call traverse() on the JsonNode level you want to read to retrieve the JsonParser to pass to readValue().
public class FooDeserializer extends StdDeserializer<FooBean> {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
public FooDeserializer() {
this(null);
}
public FooDeserializer(Class<FooBean> t) {
super(t);
}
#Override
public FooBean deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
JsonNode node = jp.getCodec().readTree(jp);
FooBean foo = new FooBean();
foo.setBar(ctxt.readValue(node.get("bar").traverse(), BarBean.class));
return foo;
}
}

I found an answer at https://stackoverflow.com/a/51927577/14731 which is much more readable than the accepted answer.
public User deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt)
throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
User user = jp.readValueAs(User.class);
// some code
return user;
}
It really doesn't get easier than this.

If it is possible for you to declare extra User class then you can implement it just using annotations
// your class
#JsonDeserialize(using = UserEventDeserializer.class)
public class User {
...
}
// extra user class
// reset deserializer attribute to default
#JsonDeserialize
public class UserPOJO extends User {
}
public class UserEventDeserializer extends StdDeserializer<User> {
...
#Override
public User deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt)
throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
// specify UserPOJO.class to invoke default deserializer
User deserializedUser = jp.ReadValueAs(UserPOJO.class);
return deserializedUser;
// or if you need to walk the JSON tree
ObjectMapper mapper = (ObjectMapper) jp.getCodec();
JsonNode node = oc.readTree(jp);
// specify UserPOJO.class to invoke default deserializer
User deserializedUser = mapper.treeToValue(node, UserPOJO.class);
return deserializedUser;
}
}

There are couple of ways to do this, but to do it right involves bit more work. Basically you can not use sub-classing, since information default deserializers need is built from class definitions.
So what you can most likely use is to construct a BeanDeserializerModifier, register that via Module interface (use SimpleModule). You need to define/override modifyDeserializer, and for the specific case where you want to add your own logic (where type matches), construct your own deserializer, pass the default deserializer you are given.
And then in deserialize() method you can just delegate call, take the result Object.
Alternatively, if you must actually create and populate the object, you can do so and call overloaded version of deserialize() that takes third argument; object to deserialize into.
Another way that might work (but not 100% sure) would be to specify Converter object (#JsonDeserialize(converter=MyConverter.class)). This is a new Jackson 2.2 feature.
In your case, Converter would not actually convert type, but simplify modify the object: but I don't know if that would let you do exactly what you want, since the default deserializer would be called first, and only then your Converter.

Along the lines of what Tomáš Záluský has suggested, in cases where using BeanDeserializerModifier is undesirable you can construct a default deserializer yourself using BeanDeserializerFactory, although there is some extra setup necessary. In context, this solution would look like so:
public User deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt)
throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
ObjectCodec oc = jp.getCodec();
JsonNode node = oc.readTree(jp);
User deserializedUser = null;
DeserializationConfig config = ctxt.getConfig();
JavaType type = TypeFactory.defaultInstance().constructType(User.class);
JsonDeserializer<Object> defaultDeserializer = BeanDeserializerFactory.instance.buildBeanDeserializer(ctxt, type, config.introspect(type));
if (defaultDeserializer instanceof ResolvableDeserializer) {
((ResolvableDeserializer) defaultDeserializer).resolve(ctxt);
}
JsonParser treeParser = oc.treeAsTokens(node);
config.initialize(treeParser);
if (treeParser.getCurrentToken() == null) {
treeParser.nextToken();
}
deserializedUser = (User) defaultDeserializer.deserialize(treeParser, context);
return deserializedUser;
}

You are bound to fail if you try to create your custom deserializer from scratch.
Instead, you need to get hold of the (fully configured) default deserializer instance through a custom BeanDeserializerModifier, and then pass this instance to your custom deserializer class:
public ObjectMapper getMapperWithCustomDeserializer() {
ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule();
module.setDeserializerModifier(new BeanDeserializerModifier() {
#Override
public JsonDeserializer<?> modifyDeserializer(DeserializationConfig config,
BeanDescription beanDesc, JsonDeserializer<?> defaultDeserializer)
if (beanDesc.getBeanClass() == User.class) {
return new UserEventDeserializer(defaultDeserializer);
} else {
return defaultDeserializer;
}
}
});
objectMapper.registerModule(module);
return objectMapper;
}
Note: This module registration replaces the #JsonDeserialize annotation, i.e. the User class or User fields should no longer be annotated with this annotation.
The custom deserializer should then be based on a DelegatingDeserializer so that all methods delegate, unless you provide an explicit implementation:
public class UserEventDeserializer extends DelegatingDeserializer {
public UserEventDeserializer(JsonDeserializer<?> delegate) {
super(delegate);
}
#Override
protected JsonDeserializer<?> newDelegatingInstance(JsonDeserializer<?> newDelegate) {
return new UserEventDeserializer(newDelegate);
}
#Override
public User deserialize(JsonParser p, DeserializationContext ctxt)
throws IOException {
User result = (User) super.deserialize(p, ctxt);
// add special logic here
return result;
}
}

I was not ok with using BeanSerializerModifier since it forces to declare some behavioral changes in central ObjectMapper rather than in custom deserializer itself and in fact it is parallel solution to annotating entity class with JsonSerialize. If you feel it the similar way, you might appreciate my answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/43213463/653539

Using BeanDeserializerModifier works well, but if you need to use JsonDeserialize there is a way to do it with AnnotationIntrospector
like this:
ObjectMapper originalMapper = new ObjectMapper();
ObjectMapper copy = originalMapper.copy();//to keep original configuration
copy.setAnnotationIntrospector(new JacksonAnnotationIntrospector() {
#Override
public Object findDeserializer(Annotated a) {
Object deserializer = super.findDeserializer(a);
if (deserializer == null) {
return null;
}
if (deserializer.equals(MyDeserializer.class)) {
return null;
}
return deserializer;
}
});
Now copied mapper will now ignore your custom deserializer (MyDeserializer.class) and use default implementation. You can use it inside deserialize method of your custom deserializer to avoid recursion by making copied mapper static or wire it if using Spring.

A simpler solution for me was to just add another bean of ObjectMapper and use that to deserialize the object (thanks to https://stackoverflow.com/users/1032167/varren comment) - in my case I was interested to either deserialize to its id (an int) or the whole object https://stackoverflow.com/a/46618193/986160
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonAutoDetect;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.PropertyAccessor;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.*;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.StdDeserializer;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import java.io.IOException;
public class IdWrapperDeserializer<T> extends StdDeserializer<T> {
private Class<T> clazz;
public IdWrapperDeserializer(Class<T> clazz) {
super(clazz);
this.clazz = clazz;
}
#Bean
public ObjectMapper objectMapper() {
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.configure(DeserializationFeature.FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES, false);
mapper.configure(MapperFeature.DEFAULT_VIEW_INCLUSION, true);
mapper.configure(SerializationFeature.FAIL_ON_EMPTY_BEANS, false);
mapper.setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.ALL, JsonAutoDetect.Visibility.NONE);
mapper.setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.FIELD, JsonAutoDetect.Visibility.ANY);
return mapper;
}
#Override
public T deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext dc) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
String json = jp.readValueAsTree().toString();
// do your custom deserialization here using json
// and decide when to use default deserialization using local objectMapper:
T obj = objectMapper().readValue(json, clazz);
return obj;
}
}
for each entity that needs to be going through custom deserializer we need to configure it in the global ObjectMapper bean of the Spring Boot App in my case (e.g for Category):
#Bean
public ObjectMapper objectMapper() {
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.configure(DeserializationFeature.FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES, false);
mapper.configure(MapperFeature.DEFAULT_VIEW_INCLUSION, true);
mapper.configure(SerializationFeature.FAIL_ON_EMPTY_BEANS, false);
mapper.setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.ALL, JsonAutoDetect.Visibility.NONE);
mapper.setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.FIELD, JsonAutoDetect.Visibility.ANY);
SimpleModule testModule = new SimpleModule("MyModule")
.addDeserializer(Category.class, new IdWrapperDeserializer(Category.class))
mapper.registerModule(testModule);
return mapper;
}

Here is a short solution using default ObjectMapper
private static final ObjectMapper MAPPER = new ObjectMapper(); // use default mapper / mapper without customization
public MyObject deserialize(JsonParser p, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
MyObject object = MAPPER.readValue(p, MyObject.class);
// do whatever you want
return object;
}
And please: There is really no need to use any String value or something else. All needed information are given by JsonParser, so use it.

Using Jackson to dynamically serialize an entity as either its ID or its full representation at runtime

We're developing a RESTful API using Java EE 7 (RESTEasy / Hibernate / Jackson).
We want the API to serialize all child entities using their IDs, by default. We're doing this mostly to maintain consistency with our deserialization strategy, where we insist on receiving an ID.
However, we also want our users to be able to choose to get an expanded view of any of our child entities, either through a custom endpoint or a query parameter (undecided). For example:
// http://localhost:8080/rest/operator/1
// =====================================
{
"operatorId": 1,
"organization": 34,
"endUser": 23
}
// http://localhost:8080/rest/operator/1?expand=organization
// =====================================
{
"operatorId": 1,
"organization": {
"organizationId": 34,
"organizationName": "name"
},
"endUser": 23
}
// http://localhost:8080/rest/operator/1?expand=enduser
// =====================================
{
"operatorId": 1,
"organization": 34,
"endUser": {
"endUserId": 23,
"endUserName": "other name"
}
}
// http://localhost:8080/rest/operator/1?expand=organization,enduser
// =====================================
{
"operatorId": 1,
"organization": {
"organizationId": 34,
"organizationName": "name"
},
"endUser": {
"endUserId": 23,
"endUserName": "other name"
}
}
Is there a way to dynamically change the behavior of Jackson to determine whether a specified AbstractEntity field is serialized in full form or as its ID? How might it be done?
Additional Info
We know of a few ways to serialize our child entities using their IDs, including:
public class Operator extends AbstractEntity {
...
#JsonIdentityInfo(generator=ObjectIdGenerators.PropertyGenerator.class, property="organizationId")
#JsonIdentityReference(alwaysAsId=true)
public getOrganization() { ... }
...
}
and
public class Operator extends AbstractEntity {
...
#JsonSerialize(using=AbstractEntityIdSerializer.class)
public getOrganization() { ... }
...
}
where AbstractEntityIdSerializer serializes the entity using its ID.
The problem is that we don't know of a way for the user to override that default behavior and revert to standard Jackson object serialization. Ideally they'd also be able to choose which child properties to serialize in full form.
It would be awesome to dynamically toggle the alwaysAsId argument of #JsonIdentityReference for any property at runtime, if that's possible, or make the equivalent change to ObjectMapper/ObjectWriter.
Update: Working(?) Solution
We haven't had a chance to fully test this yet, but I've been working on a solution that leverages overriding Jackson's AnnotationIntrospector class. It seems to be working as intended.
public class CustomAnnotationIntrospector extends JacksonAnnotationIntrospector {
private final Set<String> expandFieldNames_;
public CustomAnnotationIntrospector(Set<String> expandFieldNames) {
expandFieldNames_ = expandFieldNames;
}
#Override
public ObjectIdInfo findObjectReferenceInfo(Annotated ann, ObjectIdInfo objectIdInfo) {
JsonIdentityReference ref = _findAnnotation(ann, JsonIdentityReference.class);
if (ref != null) {
for (String expandFieldName : expandFieldNames_) {
String expandFieldGetterName = "get" + expandFieldName;
String propertyName = ann.getName();
boolean fieldNameMatches = expandFieldName.equalsIgnoreCase(propertyName);
boolean fieldGetterNameMatches = expandFieldGetterName.equalsIgnoreCase(propertyName);
if (fieldNameMatches || fieldGetterNameMatches) {
return objectIdInfo.withAlwaysAsId(false);
}
}
objectIdInfo = objectIdInfo.withAlwaysAsId(ref.alwaysAsId());
}
return objectIdInfo;
}
}
At serialization time, we copy our ObjectMapper (so the AnnotationIntrospector runs again) and apply CustomAnnotationIntrospector as follows:
#Context
private HttpRequest httpRequest_;
#Override
writeTo(...) {
// Get our application's ObjectMapper.
ContextResolver<ObjectMapper> objectMapperResolver = provider_.getContextResolver(ObjectMapper.class,
MediaType.WILDCARD_TYPE);
ObjectMapper objectMapper = objectMapperResolver.getContext(Object.class);
// Get Set of fields to be expanded (pre-parsed).
Set<String> fieldNames = (Set<String>)httpRequest_.getAttribute("ExpandFields");
if (!fieldNames.isEmpty()) {
// Pass expand fields to AnnotationIntrospector.
AnnotationIntrospector expansionAnnotationIntrospector = new CustomAnnotationIntrospector(fieldNames);
// Replace ObjectMapper with copy of ObjectMapper and apply custom AnnotationIntrospector.
objectMapper = objectMapper.copy();
objectMapper.setAnnotationIntrospector(expansionAnnotationIntrospector);
}
ObjectWriter objectWriter = objectMapper.writer();
objectWriter.writeValue(...);
}
Any glaring flaws in this approach? It seems relatively straightforward and is fully dynamic.

The answer is Jackson's mixin feature:
You create a simple Java class that has the exact same method signature as the anotated method of the entity. You annotate that method with the modified value. the body of the method is insignificant (it would not be called):
public class OperatorExpanded {
...
#JsonIdentityInfo(generator=ObjectIdGenerators.PropertyGenerator.class, property="organizationId")
#JsonIdentityReference(alwaysAsId=false)
public Organization getOrganization() { return null; }
...
}
you tie the mixin to the entity-to-be-serialized using Jackson's module system: this can be decided at run time
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
if ("organization".equals(request.getParameter("exapnd")) {
SimpleModule simpleModule = new SimpleModule();
simpleModule.setMixInAnnotation(Operator.class, OperatorExpanded.class);
mapper.registerModule(simpleModule);
}
now, the mapper will take the annotations from the mixin, but invoke the method of the entity.

If you are looking for a generalized solution that needs to be extended to all of your resources you may try following approach. I tried below solution using Jersey and Jackson. It should also work with RestEasy.
Basically, you need to write a custom jackson provider which set a special serializer for an expand field. Also, you need to pass the expand fields to the serializer so that you can decide how to do the serialization for expand fields.
#Singleton
public class ExpandFieldJacksonProvider extends JacksonJaxbJsonProvider {
#Inject
private Provider<ContainerRequestContext> provider;
#Override
protected JsonEndpointConfig _configForWriting(final ObjectMapper mapper, final Annotation[] annotations, final Class<?> defaultView) {
final AnnotationIntrospector customIntrospector = mapper.getSerializationConfig().getAnnotationIntrospector();
// Set the custom (user) introspector to be the primary one.
final ObjectMapper filteringMapper = mapper.setAnnotationIntrospector(AnnotationIntrospector.pair(customIntrospector, new JacksonAnnotationIntrospector() {
#Override
public Object findSerializer(Annotated a) {
// All expand fields should be annotated with '#ExpandField'.
ExpandField expField = a.getAnnotation(ExpandField.class);
if (expField != null) {
// Use a custom serializer for expand field
return new ExpandSerializer(expField.fieldName(), expField.idProperty());
}
return super.findSerializer(a);
}
}));
return super._configForWriting(filteringMapper, annotations, defaultView);
}
#Override
public void writeTo(final Object value, final Class<?> type, final Type genericType, final Annotation[] annotations, final MediaType mediaType, final MultivaluedMap<String, Object> httpHeaders,
final OutputStream entityStream) throws IOException {
// Set the expand fields to java's ThreadLocal so that it can be accessed in 'ExpandSerializer' class.
ExpandFieldThreadLocal.set(provider.get().getUriInfo().getQueryParameters().get("expand"));
super.writeTo(value, type, genericType, annotations, mediaType, httpHeaders, entityStream);
// Once the serialization is done, clear ThreadLocal
ExpandFieldThreadLocal.remove();
}
ExpandField.java
#Retention(RUNTIME)
public #interface ExpandField {
// name of expand field
String fieldName();
// name of Id property in expand field. For eg: oraganisationId
String idProperty();
}
ExpandFieldThreadLocal.java
public class ExpandFieldThreadLocal {
private static final ThreadLocal<List<String>> _threadLocal = new ThreadLocal<>();
public static List<String> get() {
return _threadLocal.get();
}
public static void set(List<String> expandFields) {
_threadLocal.set(expandFields);
}
public static void remove() {
_threadLocal.remove();
}
}
ExpandFieldSerializer.java
public static class ExpandSerializer extends JsonSerializer<Object> {
private String fieldName;
private String idProperty;
public ExpandSerializer(String fieldName,String idProperty) {
this.fieldName = fieldName;
this.idProperty = idProperty;
}
#Override
public void serialize(Object value, JsonGenerator gen, SerializerProvider serializers) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
// Get expand fields in current request which is set in custom jackson provider.
List<String> expandFields = ExpandFieldThreadLocal.get();
if (expandFields == null || !expandFields.contains(fieldName)) {
try {
// If 'expand' is not present in query param OR if the 'expand' field does not contain this field, write only id.
serializers.defaultSerializeValue(value.getClass().getMethod("get"+StringUtils.capitalize(idProperty)).invoke(value),gen);
} catch (Exception e) {
//Handle Exception here
}
} else {
serializers.defaultSerializeValue(value, gen);
}
}
}
Operator.java
public class Operator extends AbstractEntity {
...
#ExpandField(fieldName = "organization",idProperty="organizationId")
private organization;
...
}
The final step is to register the new ExpandFieldJacksonProvider. In Jersey, we register it through an instance of javax.ws.rs.core.Application as shown below. I hope there is something similar in RestEasy. By default, most of the JAX-RS libraries tend to load default JacksonJaxbJsonProvider through auto-discovery. You have to make sure auto-discovery is disabled for Jackson and new ExpandFieldJacksonProvider is registered.
public class JaxRsApplication extends Application{
#Override
public Set<Class<?>> getClasses() {
Set<Class<?>> clazzes=new HashSet<>();
clazzes.add(ExpandFieldJacksonProvider.class);
return clazzes;
}
}

Object Mapper mapping for a particular class during http calls

Is there a way where we can add ObjectMapper for a particular class through annotation.
#JsonRootName("employee")
public class Sample implements Serializable{
private String name;
private String id;
// Getters and setters
}
In the RestController i have RequestMapping and a method like:-
#ResponseBody
public Sample (#RequestBody Sample sample){
//some logic
return sample;
}
My input payload to this will be like
{
"employee":{
"name":"abcd",
"id":"1234"
}
}
My desired output would be
{
"name":"abcd",
"id":"1234"
}
1)Is there a way i can use the same class to fulfill the input and the output.
2) I have added #JsonRootName at the top of the class which requires ObjectMapper's Serialization feature enable to WRAP_ROOT_VALUE like :-
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.enable(SerializationFeature.WRAP_ROOT_VALUE);
mapper.enable(DeserializationFeature.UNWRAP_ROOT_VALUE);
where this can be added to reflect in only this class.

Maybe just leave the default serialization behavior? Then, at deserialization you would still pull out the "employee" wrapper, but at serialization you would write it without the wrapper.
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
//mapper.enable(SerializationFeature.WRAP_ROOT_VALUE);
mapper.enable(DeserializationFeature.UNWRAP_ROOT_VALUE);
With your input, I got the desired serialization output:
{"name":"abcd","id":"1234"}
EDIT
As for where to put this code, I'd recommend a singleton or class with static methods that handle your (de)serialization. You could have two different mappers than perform the "normal" or "wrapped" behavior. Here's an outline of the static method approach:
public class SerializationUtil {
private static ObjectMapper normalObjectMapper;
private static ObjectMapper wrappedObjectMapper;
static {
/* configure different (de)serialization strategies */
normalObjectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
wrappedObjectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
wrappedObjectMapper.enable(SerializationFeature.WRAP_ROOT_VALUE);
wrappedObjectMapper.enable(DeserializationFeature.UNWRAP_ROOT_VALUE);
}
public static <T> T normalDeserialize(String json, Class<T> clazz) throws Exception {
return normalObjectMapper.readValue(json, clazz);
}
public static String normalSerialize(Object bean) throws Exception {
return normalObjectMapper.writeValueAsString(bean);
}
public static <T> T deserializeWrappedObject(String json, Class<T> clazz) throws Exception {
return wrappedObjectMapper.readValue(json, clazz);
}
public static String serializeWrappedObject(Object bean) throws Exception {
return wrappedObjectMapper.writeValueAsString(bean);
}
}
The benefit of this method is it allows the caller to decide the serialization behavior. So if there are portions of your code where you need to handle it differently you can call another method. Note that the wrapping/unwrapping are both enabled. So to get your desired behavior, you would call these methods like so:
public static void main(String[] args) {
Bean bean = SerializationUtil.deserializeWrappedObject(jsonInput, Bean.class);
String jsonOutput = SerializationUtil.normalSerialize(bean);
}
If this does not appeal to you, you could alternatively detect the special case and handle it in the same method call:
public static <T> T deserialize(String json, Class<T> clazz) throws Exception {
if (clazz instanceof Bean) {
return wrappedObjectMapper.readValue(json, clazz);
} else {
return normalObjectMapper.readValue(json, clazz);
}
}

Can you configure Spring controller specific Jackson deserialization?

I need to add a custom Jackson deserializer for java.lang.String to my Spring 4.1.x MVC application. However all answers (such as this) refer to configuring the ObjectMapper for the complete web application and the changes will apply to all Strings across all #RequestBody in all controllers.
I only want to apply the custom deserialization to #RequestBody arguments used within particular controllers. Note that I don't have the option of using #JsonDeserialize annotations for the specific String fields.
Can you configure custom deserialization for specific controllers only?

To have different deserialization configurations you must have different ObjectMapper instances but out of the box Spring uses MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter which is designed to use only one instance.
I see at least two options here:
Move away from MessageConverter to an ArgumentResolver
Create a #CustomRequestBody annotation, and an argument resolver:
public class CustomRequestBodyArgumentResolver implements HandlerMethodArgumentResolver {
private final ObjectMapperResolver objectMapperResolver;
public CustomRequestBodyArgumentResolver(ObjectMapperResolver objectMapperResolver) {
this.objectMapperResolver = objectMapperResolver;
}
#Override
public boolean supportsParameter(MethodParameter methodParameter) {
return methodParameter.getParameterAnnotation(CustomRequestBody.class) != null;
}
#Override
public Object resolveArgument(MethodParameter methodParameter, ModelAndViewContainer mavContainer, NativeWebRequest webRequest, WebDataBinderFactory binderFactory) throws Exception {
if (this.supportsParameter(methodParameter)) {
ObjectMapper objectMapper = objectMapperResolver.getObjectMapper();
HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) webRequest.getNativeRequest();
return objectMapper.readValue(request.getInputStream(), methodParameter.getParameterType());
} else {
return WebArgumentResolver.UNRESOLVED;
}
}
}
#CustomRequestBody annotation:
#Target(ElementType.PARAMETER)
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Documented
public #interface CustomRequestBody {
boolean required() default true;
}
ObjectMapperResolver is an interface we will be using to resolve actual ObjectMapper instance to use, I will discuss it below. Of course if you have only one use case where you need custom mapping you can simply initialize your mapper here.
You can add custom argument resolver with this configuration:
#Configuration
public class WebConfiguration extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter {
#Bean
public CustomRequestBodyArgumentResolver customBodyArgumentResolver(ObjectMapperResolver objectMapperResolver) {
return new CustomRequestBodyArgumentResolver(objectMapperResolver)
}
#Override
public void addArgumentResolvers(List<HandlerMethodArgumentResolver> argumentResolvers) {
argumentResolvers.add(customBodyArgumentResolver(objectMapperResolver()));
}
}
Note: Do not combine #CustomRequestBody with #RequestBody, it will be ignored.
Wrap ObjectMapper in a proxy that hides multiple instances
MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter is designed to work with only one instance of ObjectMapper. We can make that instance a proxy delegate. This will make working with multiple mappers transparent.
First of all we need an interceptor that will translate all method invocations to an underlying object.
public abstract class ObjectMapperInterceptor implements MethodInterceptor {
#Override
public Object invoke(MethodInvocation invocation) throws Throwable {
return ReflectionUtils.invokeMethod(invocation.getMethod(), getObject(), invocation.getArguments());
}
protected abstract ObjectMapper getObject();
}
Now our ObjectMapper proxy bean will look like this:
#Bean
public ObjectMapper objectMapper(ObjectMapperResolver objectMapperResolver) {
ProxyFactory factory = new ProxyFactory();
factory.setTargetClass(ObjectMapper.class);
factory.addAdvice(new ObjectMapperInterceptor() {
#Override
protected ObjectMapper getObject() {
return objectMapperResolver.getObjectMapper();
}
});
return (ObjectMapper) factory.getProxy();
}
Note: I had class loading issues with this proxy on Wildfly, due to its modular class loading, so I had to extend ObjectMapper (without changing anything) just so I can use class from my module.
It all tied up together using this configuration:
#Configuration
public class WebConfiguration extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter {
#Bean
public MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter jackson2HttpMessageConverter() {
return new MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter(objectMapper(objectMapperResolver()));
}
#Override
public void configureMessageConverters(List<HttpMessageConverter<?>> converters) {
converters.add(jackson2HttpMessageConverter());
}
}
ObjectMapperResolver implementations
Final piece is the logic that determines which mapper should be used, it will be contained in ObjectMapperResolver interface. It contains only one look up method:
public interface ObjectMapperResolver {
ObjectMapper getObjectMapper();
}
If you do not have a lot of use cases with custom mappers you can simply make a map of preconfigured instances with ReqeustMatchers as keys. Something like this:
public class RequestMatcherObjectMapperResolver implements ObjectMapperResolver {
private final ObjectMapper defaultMapper;
private final Map<RequestMatcher, ObjectMapper> mapping = new HashMap<>();
public RequestMatcherObjectMapperResolver(ObjectMapper defaultMapper, Map<RequestMatcher, ObjectMapper> mapping) {
this.defaultMapper = defaultMapper;
this.mapping.putAll(mapping);
}
public RequestMatcherObjectMapperResolver(ObjectMapper defaultMapper) {
this.defaultMapper = defaultMapper;
}
#Override
public ObjectMapper getObjectMapper() {
ServletRequestAttributes sra = (ServletRequestAttributes) RequestContextHolder.getRequestAttributes();
HttpServletRequest request = sra.getRequest();
for (Map.Entry<RequestMatcher, ObjectMapper> entry : mapping.entrySet()) {
if (entry.getKey().matches(request)) {
return entry.getValue();
}
}
return defaultMapper;
}
}
You can also use a request scoped ObjectMapper and then configure it on a per-request basis. Use this configuration:
#Bean
public ObjectMapperResolver objectMapperResolver() {
return new ObjectMapperResolver() {
#Override
public ObjectMapper getObjectMapper() {
return requestScopedObjectMapper();
}
};
}
#Bean
#Scope(value = WebApplicationContext.SCOPE_REQUEST, proxyMode = ScopedProxyMode.TARGET_CLASS)
public ObjectMapper requestScopedObjectMapper() {
return new ObjectMapper();
}
This is best suited for custom response serialization, since you can configure it right in the controller method. For custom deserialization you must also use Filter/HandlerInterceptor/ControllerAdvice to configure active mapper for current request before the controller method is triggered.
You can create interface, similar to ObjectMapperResolver:
public interface ObjectMapperConfigurer {
void configureObjectMapper(ObjectMapper objectMapper);
}
Then make a map of this instances with RequstMatchers as keys and put it in a Filter/HandlerInterceptor/ControllerAdvice similar to RequestMatcherObjectMapperResolver.
P.S. If you want to explore dynamic ObjectMapper configuration a bit further I can suggest my old answer here. It describes how you can make dynamic #JsonFilters at run time. It also contains my older approach with extended MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter that I suggested in comments.

Probably this would help, but it ain't pretty. It would require AOP. Also I did not validate it.
Create a #CustomAnnotation.
Update your controller:
void someEndpoint(#RequestBody #CustomAnnotation SomeEntity someEntity);
Then implemment the AOP part:
#Around("execution(* *(#CustomAnnotation (*)))")
public void advice(ProceedingJoinPoint proceedingJoinPoint) {
// Here you would add custom ObjectMapper, I don't know another way around it
HttpServletRequest request = ((ServletRequestAttributes) RequestContextHolder.currentRequestAttributes()).getRequest();
String body = request .getReader().lines().collect(Collectors.joining(System.lineSeparator()));
SomeEntity someEntity = /* deserialize */;
// This could be cleaner, cause the method can accept multiple parameters
proceedingJoinPoint.proceed(new Object[] {someEntity});
}

You can create custom deserializer for your String data.
Custom Deserializer
public class CustomStringDeserializer extends JsonDeserializer<String> {
#Override
public String deserialize(JsonParser p, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws IOException {
String str = p.getText();
//return processed String
}
}
Now suppose the String is present inside a POJO use #JsonDeserialize annotation above the variable:
public class SamplePOJO{
#JsonDeserialize(using=CustomStringDeserializer.class)
private String str;
//getter and setter
}
Now when you return it as a response it will be Deserialized in the way you have done it in CustomDeserializer.
Hope it helps.

You could try Message Converters.
They have a context about http input request (for example, docs see here, JSON). How to customize you could see here.
Idea that you could check HttpInputMessage with special URIs, which used in your controllers and convert string as you want.
You could create special annotation for this, scan packages and do it automatically.
Note
Likely, you don't need implementation of ObjectMappers. You can use simple default ObjectMapper to parse String and then convert string as you wish.
In that case you would create RequestBody once.

You can define a POJO for each different type of request parameter that you would like to deserialize. Then, the following code will pull in the values from the JSON into the object that you define, assuming that the names of the fields in your POJO match with the names of the field in the JSON request.
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
YourPojo requestParams = null;
try {
requestParams = mapper.readValue(JsonBody, YourPOJO.class);
} catch (IOException e) {
throw new IOException(e);
}

How to keep track of classes that Jackson might deserialize to?

In order to impose certain checks on classes that Jackson might deserialize to, I'd like to be able to easily find any such classes. However, in standard usage, Jackson can deserialize into a completely normal looking class that has no Jackson annotations.
A colleague mentioned having previously seen some way to setup Jackson to only successfully deserialize classes that are explicitly annotated as being able to do so. This would present an easy solution, as I could then just find classes with such an annotation. However, looking through all the Jackson docs, I can't find this functionality. Does anyone know where it's to be found/is this deprecated?

Consider an option where you mark your "json" classes with a custom annotation, then set a special annotation introspector which would fail to serialize all the other classes from your application.
Note that you will need to be able differentiate between the standard classes such as primitives, string, collection, etc., which don't have the custom annotation, and the classes from your application which shall not be processed.
Here is an example:
package stackoverflow;
public class JacksonTracking {
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public static #interface Json {
}
#Json
public static class A {
public final String field1;
public A(String field1) {
this.field1 = field1;
}
}
public static class B {
public final String field2;
public B(String field2) {
this.field2 = field2;
}
}
public static class UnsupportedSerializer extends JsonSerializer.None {
private final Class<?> type;
public UnsupportedSerializer(Class<?> type) {
this.type = type;
}
#Override
public void serialize(Object value, JsonGenerator jgen, SerializerProvider provider) throws IOException {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Unsupported type: " + type);
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws JsonProcessingException {
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.setAnnotationIntrospector(new JacksonAnnotationIntrospector() {
#Override
public Object findSerializer(Annotated a) {
if (a instanceof AnnotatedClass
&& a.getRawType().getPackage().getName().startsWith("stackoverflow")
&& !a.hasAnnotation(Json.class)) {
return new UnsupportedSerializer(a.getRawType());
}
return super.findSerializer(a);
}
});
System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(new A("value1")));
System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(new B("value2")));
}
}
Output:
{"field1":"value1"}
Exception in thread "main" com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException: Unsupported type: class stackoverflow.JacksonTracking$B
at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.DefaultSerializerProvider.serializeValue(DefaultSerializerProvider.java:125)
at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._configAndWriteValue(ObjectMapper.java:2866)
at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.writeValueAsString(ObjectMapper.java:2323)
at stackoverflow.JacksonTracking.main(JacksonTracking.java:71)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:134)
Caused by: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Unsupported type: class stackoverflow.JacksonTracking$B
at stackoverflow.JacksonTracking$UnsupportedSerializer.serialize(JacksonTracking.java:52)
at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.DefaultSerializerProvider.serializeValue(DefaultSerializerProvider.java:114)
... 8 more

On the ObjectMapper that you use for deserialization you can configure auto detection of fields, methods, and creators. If you want to enforce this across your entire application I would recommend extending ObjectMapper and using the custom implementation everywhere. Then any additional config you want to impose can live there as well. Something like this:
public class CustomObjectMapper extends ObjectMapper {
public CustomObjectMapper() {
setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.ALL, JsonAutoDetect.Visibility.NONE);
}
}
You could of course just call setVisibility anywhere you declare an ObjectMapper instead:
ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
om.setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.ALL, JsonAutoDetect.Visibility.NONE);