Gson - Serialize any null value to empty string [duplicate] - java

This question already has answers here:
gson: Treat null as empty String
(6 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
I'm using gson to serialize some object. I have a requirement that any null field should be treated as an empty string, independent on the variable being a string, double or a pojo.
I tried to create a custom serializer for Object and simply return a new JsonPrimitive("") for the null valued objects, but the problem is how to handle the non-null valued objects without the use of "instanceof" or "getClass" and handling every single type.
Any thoughts on how to do this is appreciated.

This can be done using a custom TypeAdaptor for your model Object.
You can iterate over the object field using reflection and whenever a field is null, set the value in the json representation to an empty string whenever you cross a null field.
This would absolutely be hard to maintain and should be done with some risks as #Sotirios Delimanolis stated, What if the corresponding reference is not a String, how are you going to intending to handle it back and forth?
Here is a bean structure just used to showcase the situation:
public class MyEntity
{
private int id;
private String name;
private Long socialNumber;
private MyInnerEntity innerEntity;
public MyEntity(int id, String name, Long socialNumber, MyInnerEntity innerEntity)
{
this.id = id;
this.name = name;
this.socialNumber = socialNumber;
this.innerEntity = innerEntity;
}
public int getId()
{
return id;
}
public String getName()
{
return name;
}
public Long getSocialNumber()
{
return socialNumber;
}
public MyInnerEntity getInnerEntity()
{
return innerEntity;
}
public static class MyInnerEntity {
#Override
public String toString()
{
return "whateverValue";
}
}
}
Here is the TypeAdapter implementation which set any null value to and empty "" String:
public class GenericAdapter extends TypeAdapter<Object>
{
#Override
public void write(JsonWriter jsonWriter, Object o) throws IOException
{
jsonWriter.beginObject();
for (Field field : o.getClass().getDeclaredFields())
{
Object fieldValue = runGetter(field, o);
jsonWriter.name(field.getName());
if (fieldValue == null)
{
jsonWriter.value("");
}
else {
jsonWriter.value(fieldValue.toString());
}
}
jsonWriter.endObject();
}
#Override
public Object read(JsonReader jsonReader) throws IOException
{
/* Don't forget to add implementation here to have your Object back alive :) */
return null;
}
/**
* A generic field accessor runner.
* Run the right getter on the field to get its value.
* #param field
* #param o {#code Object}
* #return
*/
public static Object runGetter(Field field, Object o)
{
// MZ: Find the correct method
for (Method method : o.getClass().getMethods())
{
if ((method.getName().startsWith("get")) && (method.getName().length() == (field.getName().length() + 3)))
{
if (method.getName().toLowerCase().endsWith(field.getName().toLowerCase()))
{
try
{
return method.invoke(o);
}
catch (IllegalAccessException e)
{ }
catch (InvocationTargetException e)
{ }
}
}
}
return null;
}
}
Now a simple straightforward main method to add the adapter to Gson:
public class Test
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().registerTypeAdapter(MyEntity.class, new GenericAdapter()).create();
Object entity = new MyEntity(16, "entity", (long)123, new MyEntity.MyInnerEntity());
String json = gson.toJson(entity);
System.out.println(json);
Object entity2 = new MyEntity(0, null, null, null);
json = gson.toJson(entity2);
System.out.println(json);
}
}
This would result in below output:
{"id":"16","name":"entity","socialNumber":"123","innerEntity":"whateverValue"}
{"id":"0","name":"","socialNumber":"","innerEntity":""}
Note that whatever the object is of type, its value is set to "" in the marshalled json string.

See gson: Treat null as empty String

Related

GSON: Deserialize: List: How to ignore null value or convert to empty list? [duplicate]

I have requirement where I need to convert java object to json.
I am using Gson for that but i need the converter to only serialize the non null or not empty values.
For example:
//my java object looks like
class TestObject{
String test1;
String test2;
OtherObject otherObject = new OtherObject();
}
now my Gson instance to convert this object to json looks like
Gson gson = new Gson();
TestObject obj = new TestObject();
obj.test1 = "test1";
obj.test2 = "";
String jsonStr = gson.toJson(obj);
println jsonStr;
In the above print, the result is
{"test1":"test1", "test2":"", "otherObject":{}}
Here i just wanted the result to be
{"test1":"test1"}
Since the test2 is empty and otherObject is empty, i don't want them to be serialized to json data.
Btw, I am using Groovy/Grails so if there is any plugin for this that would be good, if not any suggestion to customize the gson serialization class would be good.
Create your own TypeAdapter
public class MyTypeAdapter extends TypeAdapter<TestObject>() {
#Override
public void write(JsonWriter out, TestObject value) throws IOException {
out.beginObject();
if (!Strings.isNullOrEmpty(value.test1)) {
out.name("test1");
out.value(value.test1);
}
if (!Strings.isNullOrEmpty(value.test2)) {
out.name("test2");
out.value(value.test1);
}
/* similar check for otherObject */
out.endObject();
}
#Override
public TestObject read(JsonReader in) throws IOException {
// do something similar, but the other way around
}
}
You can then register it with Gson.
Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().registerTypeAdapter(TestObject.class, new MyTypeAdapter()).create();
TestObject obj = new TestObject();
obj.test1 = "test1";
obj.test2 = "";
System.out.println(gson.toJson(obj));
produces
{"test1":"test1"}
The GsonBuilder class has a bunch of methods to create your own serialization/deserialization strategies, register type adapters, and set other parameters.
Strings is a Guava class. You can do your own check if you don't want that dependency.
What I personally don't like in TypeAdapter using answer is the fact you need to describe every field of your entire class which could have lets say 50 fields (which means 50 if blocks in TypeAdapter).
My solution is based on Reflection and a fact Gson will not serialize null values fields by default.
I have a special class which holds data for API to create document called DocumentModel, which has about 50 fields and I don't like to send String fields with "" (empty but not null) values or empty arrays to server. So I created a special method which returns me a copy of my object with all empty fields nulled. Note - by default all arrays in my DocumentModel instance are initialized as empty (zero length) arrays and thus they are never null, you should probably check your arrays for null before checking their length.
public DocumentModel getSerializableCopy() {
Field fields[] = new Field[]{};
try {
// returns the array of Field objects representing the public fields
fields = DocumentModel.class.getDeclaredFields();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
DocumentModel copy = new DocumentModel();
Object value;
for (Field field : fields) {
try {
value = field.get(this);
if (value instanceof String && TextUtils.isEmpty((String) value)) {
field.set(copy, null);
// note: here array is not being checked for null!
else if (value instanceof Object[] && ((Object[]) value).length == 0) {
field.set(copy, null);
} else
field.set(copy, value);
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
return copy;
}
Using this method I don't care if some fields was added or removed after this method was written or whatever. The only problem left - is checking custom type fields, which are not String or array, but this depends to particular class and should be extra coded in if/else blocks.
It seems to me the problem is not with gson. Gson correctly keeps track of the difference between null and an empty string. Are you sure you want to erase that distinction? Are you sure all classes that use TestObject don't care?
What you could do if you don't care about the difference is to change the empty strings to null within a TestObject before serializing it. Or better, make the setters in TestObject such that an empty string is set to null; that way you define rigidly within the class that an empty string is the same as null. You'll have to make sure the values cannot be set outside the setters.
I have ran into the same problem and found 2 distinct solutions
Write a custom TypeAdapter for each field class
TypeAdapter example for String class:
#SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
public class JSONStringAdapter extends TypeAdapter {
#Override
public String read(JsonReader jsonReader) throws IOException {
String value = jsonReader.nextString();
if(value == null || value.trim().length() == 0) {
return null;
} else {
return value;
}
}
#Override
public void write(JsonWriter jsonWriter, Object object) throws IOException {
String value = String.valueOf(object);
if(value == null || value.trim().length() == 0) {
jsonWriter.nullValue();
} else {
jsonWriter.value(value);
}
}
}
Use:
public class Doggo {
#JsonAdapter(JSONStringAdapter.class)
private String name;
public Doggo(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
}
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Doggo aDoggo = new Doggo("");
String jsonString = new Gson().toJson(aDoggo);
}
}
Process the object manually before generating the JSON string
Seems to work on anything, haven't tested the performance:
public static boolean removeEmpty(JSONObject source) {
if (null == source || source.length() == 0) {
return true;
}
boolean isJsonObjectEmpty = false;
for (String key : JSONObject.getNames(source)) {
Object value = source.get(key);
boolean isValueEmpty = isValueEmpty(value);
if(isValueEmpty) {
source.remove(key);
}
}
if(source.length() == 0) {
isJsonObjectEmpty = true;
}
return isJsonObjectEmpty;
}
private static boolean isValueEmpty(Object value) {
if (null == value) {
return true;
}
if (value instanceof JSONArray) {
JSONArray arr = (JSONArray) value;
if(arr.length() > 0) {
List<Integer> indextesToRemove = new ArrayList<>();
for(int i = 0; i< arr.length(); i++) {
boolean isValueEmpty = isValueEmpty(arr.get(i));
if(isValueEmpty) {
indextesToRemove.add(i);
};
}
for(Integer index : indextesToRemove) {
arr.remove(index);
}
if(arr.length() == 0) {
return true;
}
} else {
return true;
}
} else if (value instanceof JSONObject) {
return removeEmpty((JSONObject) value);
} else {
if (JSONObject.NULL.equals(value)
|| null == value
|| value.toString().trim().length() == 0)
) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
Use:
public class Doggo {
private String name;
public Doggo(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
}
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Doggo aDoggo = new Doggo("");
// if you are not using Type Adapters for your fields
JSONObject aJSONObject1 = new JSONObject(aDoggo);
removeEmpty(aJSONObject1);
String jsonString1 = aJSONObject1.toString();
// if you are using Type Adapters for your fields
Gson gsonParser = new Gson();
JSONObject aJSONObject2 = new JSONObject(gsonParser .toJson(aDoggo));
removeEmpty(aJSONObject2);
String jsonString2 = aJSONObject2.toString();
}
}

Read-only field in GSON serialization [duplicate]

I'm trying to learn Gson and I'm struggling with field exclusion. Here are my classes
public class Student {
private Long id;
private String firstName = "Philip";
private String middleName = "J.";
private String initials = "P.F";
private String lastName = "Fry";
private Country country;
private Country countryOfBirth;
}
public class Country {
private Long id;
private String name;
private Object other;
}
I can use the GsonBuilder and add an ExclusionStrategy for a field name like firstName or country but I can't seem to manage to exclude properties of certain fields like country.name.
Using the method public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes fa), FieldAttributes doesn't contain enough information to match the field with a filter like country.name.
P.S: I want to avoid annotations since I want to improve on this and use RegEx to filter fields out.
Edit: I'm trying to see if it's possible to emulate the behavior of Struts2 JSON plugin
using Gson
<interceptor-ref name="json">
<param name="enableSMD">true</param>
<param name="excludeProperties">
login.password,
studentList.*\.sin
</param>
</interceptor-ref>
Edit:
I reopened the question with the following addition:
I added a second field with the same type to futher clarify this problem. Basically I want to exclude country.name but not countrOfBirth.name. I also don't want to exclude Country as a type.
So the types are the same it's the actual place in the object graph that I want to pinpoint and exclude.
Any fields you don't want serialized in general you should use the "transient" modifier, and this also applies to json serializers (at least it does to a few that I have used, including gson).
If you don't want name to show up in the serialized json give it a transient keyword, eg:
private transient String name;
More details in the Gson documentation
Nishant provided a good solution, but there's an easier way. Simply mark the desired fields with the #Expose annotation, such as:
#Expose private Long id;
Leave out any fields that you do not want to serialize. Then just create your Gson object this way:
Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().excludeFieldsWithoutExposeAnnotation().create();
So, you want to exclude firstName and country.name. Here is what your ExclusionStrategy should look like
public class TestExclStrat implements ExclusionStrategy {
public boolean shouldSkipClass(Class<?> arg0) {
return false;
}
public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes f) {
return (f.getDeclaringClass() == Student.class && f.getName().equals("firstName"))||
(f.getDeclaringClass() == Country.class && f.getName().equals("name"));
}
}
If you see closely it returns true for Student.firstName and Country.name, which is what you want to exclude.
You need to apply this ExclusionStrategy like this,
Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
.setExclusionStrategies(new TestExclStrat())
//.serializeNulls() <-- uncomment to serialize NULL fields as well
.create();
Student src = new Student();
String json = gson.toJson(src);
System.out.println(json);
This returns:
{ "middleName": "J.", "initials": "P.F", "lastName": "Fry", "country": { "id": 91}}
I assume the country object is initialized with id = 91L in student class.
You may get fancy. For example, you do not want to serialize any field that contains "name" string in its name. Do this:
public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes f) {
return f.getName().toLowerCase().contains("name");
}
This will return:
{ "initials": "P.F", "country": { "id": 91 }}
EDIT: Added more info as requested.
This ExclusionStrategy will do the thing, but you need to pass "Fully Qualified Field Name". See below:
public class TestExclStrat implements ExclusionStrategy {
private Class<?> c;
private String fieldName;
public TestExclStrat(String fqfn) throws SecurityException, NoSuchFieldException, ClassNotFoundException
{
this.c = Class.forName(fqfn.substring(0, fqfn.lastIndexOf(".")));
this.fieldName = fqfn.substring(fqfn.lastIndexOf(".")+1);
}
public boolean shouldSkipClass(Class<?> arg0) {
return false;
}
public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes f) {
return (f.getDeclaringClass() == c && f.getName().equals(fieldName));
}
}
Here is how we can use it generically.
Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
.setExclusionStrategies(new TestExclStrat("in.naishe.test.Country.name"))
//.serializeNulls()
.create();
Student src = new Student();
String json = gson.toJson(src);
System.out.println(json);
It returns:
{ "firstName": "Philip" , "middleName": "J.", "initials": "P.F", "lastName": "Fry", "country": { "id": 91 }}
After reading all available answers I found out, that most flexible, in my case, was to use custom #Exclude annotation. So, I implemented simple strategy for this (I didn't want to mark all fields using #Expose nor I wanted to use transient which conflicted with in app Serializable serialization) :
Annotation:
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Target(ElementType.FIELD)
public #interface Exclude {
}
Strategy:
public class AnnotationExclusionStrategy implements ExclusionStrategy {
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes f) {
return f.getAnnotation(Exclude.class) != null;
}
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipClass(Class<?> clazz) {
return false;
}
}
Usage:
new GsonBuilder().setExclusionStrategies(new AnnotationExclusionStrategy()).create();
I ran into this issue, in which I had a small number of fields I wanted to exclude only from serialization, so I developed a fairly simple solution that uses Gson's #Expose annotation with custom exclusion strategies.
The only built-in way to use #Expose is by setting GsonBuilder.excludeFieldsWithoutExposeAnnotation(), but as the name indicates, fields without an explicit #Expose are ignored. As I only had a few fields I wanted to exclude, I found the prospect of adding the annotation to every field very cumbersome.
I effectively wanted the inverse, in which everything was included unless I explicitly used #Expose to exclude it. I used the following exclusion strategies to accomplish this:
new GsonBuilder()
.addSerializationExclusionStrategy(new ExclusionStrategy() {
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes fieldAttributes) {
final Expose expose = fieldAttributes.getAnnotation(Expose.class);
return expose != null && !expose.serialize();
}
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipClass(Class<?> aClass) {
return false;
}
})
.addDeserializationExclusionStrategy(new ExclusionStrategy() {
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes fieldAttributes) {
final Expose expose = fieldAttributes.getAnnotation(Expose.class);
return expose != null && !expose.deserialize();
}
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipClass(Class<?> aClass) {
return false;
}
})
.create();
Now I can easily exclude a few fields with #Expose(serialize = false) or #Expose(deserialize = false) annotations (note that the default value for both #Expose attributes is true). You can of course use #Expose(serialize = false, deserialize = false), but that is more concisely accomplished by declaring the field transient instead (which does still take effect with these custom exclusion strategies).
You can explore the json tree with gson.
Try something like this :
gson.toJsonTree(student).getAsJsonObject()
.get("country").getAsJsonObject().remove("name");
You can add some properties also :
gson.toJsonTree(student).getAsJsonObject().addProperty("isGoodStudent", false);
Tested with gson 2.2.4.
I came up with a class factory to support this functionality. Pass in any combination of either fields or classes you want to exclude.
public class GsonFactory {
public static Gson build(final List<String> fieldExclusions, final List<Class<?>> classExclusions) {
GsonBuilder b = new GsonBuilder();
b.addSerializationExclusionStrategy(new ExclusionStrategy() {
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes f) {
return fieldExclusions == null ? false : fieldExclusions.contains(f.getName());
}
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipClass(Class<?> clazz) {
return classExclusions == null ? false : classExclusions.contains(clazz);
}
});
return b.create();
}
}
To use, create two lists (each is optional), and create your GSON object:
static {
List<String> fieldExclusions = new ArrayList<String>();
fieldExclusions.add("id");
fieldExclusions.add("provider");
fieldExclusions.add("products");
List<Class<?>> classExclusions = new ArrayList<Class<?>>();
classExclusions.add(Product.class);
GSON = GsonFactory.build(null, classExclusions);
}
private static final Gson GSON;
public String getSomeJson(){
List<Provider> list = getEntitiesFromDatabase();
return GSON.toJson(list);
}
I solved this problem with custom annotations.
This is my "SkipSerialisation" Annotation class:
#Target (ElementType.FIELD)
public #interface SkipSerialisation {
}
and this is my GsonBuilder:
gsonBuilder.addSerializationExclusionStrategy(new ExclusionStrategy() {
#Override public boolean shouldSkipField (FieldAttributes f) {
return f.getAnnotation(SkipSerialisation.class) != null;
}
#Override public boolean shouldSkipClass (Class<?> clazz) {
return false;
}
});
Example :
public class User implements Serializable {
public String firstName;
public String lastName;
#SkipSerialisation
public String email;
}
Kotlin's #Transientannotation also does the trick apparently.
data class Json(
#field:SerializedName("serialized_field_1") val field1: String,
#field:SerializedName("serialized_field_2") val field2: String,
#Transient val field3: String
)
Output:
{"serialized_field_1":"VALUE1","serialized_field_2":"VALUE2"}
Or can say whats fields not will expose with:
Gson gson = gsonBuilder.excludeFieldsWithModifiers(Modifier.TRANSIENT).create();
on your class on attribute:
private **transient** boolean nameAttribute;
I used this strategy:
i excluded every field which is not marked with #SerializedName annotation, i.e.:
public class Dummy {
#SerializedName("VisibleValue")
final String visibleValue;
final String hiddenValue;
public Dummy(String visibleValue, String hiddenValue) {
this.visibleValue = visibleValue;
this.hiddenValue = hiddenValue;
}
}
public class SerializedNameOnlyStrategy implements ExclusionStrategy {
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes f) {
return f.getAnnotation(SerializedName.class) == null;
}
#Override
public boolean shouldSkipClass(Class<?> clazz) {
return false;
}
}
Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
.setExclusionStrategies(new SerializedNameOnlyStrategy())
.create();
Dummy dummy = new Dummy("I will see this","I will not see this");
String json = gson.toJson(dummy);
It returns
{"VisibleValue":"I will see this"}
Another approach (especially useful if you need to make a decision to exclude a field at runtime) is to register a TypeAdapter with your gson instance. Example below:
Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
.registerTypeAdapter(BloodPressurePost.class, new BloodPressurePostSerializer())
In the case below, the server would expect one of two values but since they were both ints then gson would serialize them both. My goal was to omit any value that is zero (or less) from the json that is posted to the server.
public class BloodPressurePostSerializer implements JsonSerializer<BloodPressurePost> {
#Override
public JsonElement serialize(BloodPressurePost src, Type typeOfSrc, JsonSerializationContext context) {
final JsonObject jsonObject = new JsonObject();
if (src.systolic > 0) {
jsonObject.addProperty("systolic", src.systolic);
}
if (src.diastolic > 0) {
jsonObject.addProperty("diastolic", src.diastolic);
}
jsonObject.addProperty("units", src.units);
return jsonObject;
}
}
I'm working just by putting the #Expose annotation, here my version that I use
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.0.2'
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.0.2'
In Model class:
#Expose
int number;
public class AdapterRestApi {
In the Adapter class:
public EndPointsApi connectRestApi() {
OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient.Builder()
.connectTimeout(90000, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
.readTimeout(90000,TimeUnit.SECONDS).build();
Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
.baseUrl(ConstantRestApi.ROOT_URL)
.addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
.client(client)
.build();
return retrofit.create (EndPointsApi.class);
}
I have Kotlin version
#Retention(AnnotationRetention.RUNTIME)
#Target(AnnotationTarget.FIELD)
internal annotation class JsonSkip
class SkipFieldsStrategy : ExclusionStrategy {
override fun shouldSkipClass(clazz: Class<*>): Boolean {
return false
}
override fun shouldSkipField(f: FieldAttributes): Boolean {
return f.getAnnotation(JsonSkip::class.java) != null
}
}
and how You can add this to Retrofit GSONConverterFactory:
val gson = GsonBuilder()
.setExclusionStrategies(SkipFieldsStrategy())
//.serializeNulls()
//.setDateFormat(DateFormat.LONG)
//.setFieldNamingPolicy(FieldNamingPolicy.UPPER_CAMEL_CASE)
//.setPrettyPrinting()
//.registerTypeAdapter(Id.class, IdTypeAdapter())
.create()
return GsonConverterFactory.create(gson)
This what I always use:
The default behaviour implemented in Gson is that null object fields are ignored.
Means Gson object does not serialize fields with null values to JSON. If a field in a Java object is null, Gson excludes it.
You can use this function to convert some object to null or well set by your own
/**
* convert object to json
*/
public String toJson(Object obj) {
// Convert emtpy string and objects to null so we don't serialze them
setEmtpyStringsAndObjectsToNull(obj);
return gson.toJson(obj);
}
/**
* Sets all empty strings and objects (all fields null) including sets to null.
*
* #param obj any object
*/
public void setEmtpyStringsAndObjectsToNull(Object obj) {
for (Field field : obj.getClass().getDeclaredFields()) {
field.setAccessible(true);
try {
Object fieldObj = field.get(obj);
if (fieldObj != null) {
Class fieldType = field.getType();
if (fieldType.isAssignableFrom(String.class)) {
if(fieldObj.equals("")) {
field.set(obj, null);
}
} else if (fieldType.isAssignableFrom(Set.class)) {
for (Object item : (Set) fieldObj) {
setEmtpyStringsAndObjectsToNull(item);
}
boolean setFielToNull = true;
for (Object item : (Set) field.get(obj)) {
if(item != null) {
setFielToNull = false;
break;
}
}
if(setFielToNull) {
setFieldToNull(obj, field);
}
} else if (!isPrimitiveOrWrapper(fieldType)) {
setEmtpyStringsAndObjectsToNull(fieldObj);
boolean setFielToNull = true;
for (Field f : fieldObj.getClass().getDeclaredFields()) {
f.setAccessible(true);
if(f.get(fieldObj) != null) {
setFielToNull = false;
break;
}
}
if(setFielToNull) {
setFieldToNull(obj, field);
}
}
}
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
System.err.println("Error while setting empty string or object to null: " + e.getMessage());
}
}
}
private void setFieldToNull(Object obj, Field field) throws IllegalAccessException {
if(!Modifier.isFinal(field.getModifiers())) {
field.set(obj, null);
}
}
private boolean isPrimitiveOrWrapper(Class fieldType) {
return fieldType.isPrimitive()
|| fieldType.isAssignableFrom(Integer.class)
|| fieldType.isAssignableFrom(Boolean.class)
|| fieldType.isAssignableFrom(Byte.class)
|| fieldType.isAssignableFrom(Character.class)
|| fieldType.isAssignableFrom(Float.class)
|| fieldType.isAssignableFrom(Long.class)
|| fieldType.isAssignableFrom(Double.class)
|| fieldType.isAssignableFrom(Short.class);
}
in kotlin can use #Transient to ignore the field... eg.
data class MyClass{
#Transient var myVar: Boolean
//....
}
Use different DTO for cached object.
For example, you can create UserCached class and keep there only fields you need.
After that, create mapper to map objects back & forth. Mapstruct is good for that.
Such approach solves the problem, decouples your application, and makes changes in your primary DTO more safe to make.

Setting Default value to a variable when deserializing using gson

I am trying to convert JSON to Java object. When a certain value of a pair is null, it should be set with some default value.
Here is my POJO:
public class Student {
String rollNo;
String name;
String contact;
String school;
public String getRollNo() {
return rollNo;
}
public void setRollNo(String rollNo) {
this.rollNo = rollNo;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public String getSchool() {
return school;
}
public void setSchool(String school) {
this.school = school;
}
}
Example JSON object:
{
"rollNo":"123", "name":"Tony", "school":null
}
So if school is null, I should make this into a default value, such as "school":"XXX". How can I configure this with Gson while deserializing the objects?
If the null is in the JSON, Gson is going to override any defaults you might set in the POJO. You could go to the trouble of creating a custom deserializer, but that might be overkill in this case.
I think the easiest (and, arguably best given your use case) thing to do is the equivalent of Lazy Loading. For example:
private static final String DEFAULT_SCHOOL = "ABC Elementary";
public String getSchool() {
if (school == null) school == DEFAULT_SCHOOL;
return school;
}
public void setSchool(String school) {
if (school == null) this.school = DEFAULT_SCHOOL;
else this.school = school;
}
Note: The big problem with this solution is that in order to change the Defaults, you have to change the code. If you want the default value to be customizable, you should go with the custom deserializer as linked above.
I think that the way to do this is to either write your no-args constructor to fill in default values, or use a custom instance creator. The deserializer should then replace the default values for all attributes in the JSON object being deserialized.
I was having the same issue, until I found this great solution.
For reference, you can create a post-processing class:
interface PostProcessable {
fun gsonPostProcess()
}
class PostProcessingEnabler : TypeAdapterFactory {
fun <T> create(gson: Gson, type: TypeToken<T>): TypeAdapter<T> {
val delegate = gson.getDelegateAdapter(this, type)
return object : TypeAdapter<T>() {
#Throws(IOException::class)
fun write(out: JsonWriter, value: T) {
delegate.write(out, value)
}
#Throws(IOException::class)
fun read(`in`: JsonReader): T {
val obj = delegate.read(`in`)
if (obj is PostProcessable) {
(obj as PostProcessable).gsonPostProcess()
}
return obj
}
}
}
}
Register it like this:
GsonBuilder().registerTypeAdapterFactory(PostProcessingEnabler())
Implement it on your model:
class MyClass : Serializable, PostProcessable {
// All your variable data
override fun gsonPostProcess() {
// All your post processing logic you like on your object
// set default value for example
}
}
And finally use it when converting json string:
var myObject = myGson.fromJson(myObjectJson, MyClass::class)
Or using retrofit2:
val api = Retrofit.Builder()
.baseUrl(BASE_URL)
.addConverterFactory(
GsonConverterFactory.create(
GsonBuilder().registerTypeAdapterFactory(
GsonPostProcessingEnabler()
).create()
)
)
.client(OkHttpClient.Builder().build())
.build()
.create(AccountApi::class.java)
You can simply make a universal function that checks for null
model.SchoolName= stringNullChecker(model.SchoolName);
public static String stringNullChecker(String val) {
if (null == val) val = "";
return val;
}

Deserializing JSON objects as List<type> not working in HTTPHandler

I am facing problem while deserializing to below entity using Javascript Serializer. Please help
JSON String:
{"AccountNo":0,"EmailAddress":"test#gmail.com","Destination_Prefernce":[{"Value":"Test Data"}]}
Java Code
public class EMailPreferenceEntity
{
private int _accountNo;
private string emailAddress;
private DestinationPreferences _destinationPrefernce = new DestinationPreferences();
public int AccountNo
{
get { return _accountNo; }
set { _accountNo = value; }
}
public string EmailAddress
{
get { return emailAddress; }
set { emailAddress = value; }
}
public DestinationPreferences Destination_Prefernce
{
get { return _destinationPrefernce; }
set { _destinationPrefernce = value; }
}
}
Handler File:
public class AjaxHandler : IHttpHandler, IRequiresSessionState
{
public void ProcessRequest (HttpContext context) {
string jsData = context.Request["Data"];
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(jsData))
{
JavaScriptSerializer ser = new JavaScriptSerializer();
EMailPreferenceEntity jsEntity = ser.Deserialize<EMailPreferenceEntity>(jsData);
}
}
Type erasure means your List will just become List after compilation so, when your http request arrives, it will try to deserialize List, and probably won't hit whatever you registered for List.
I'm not sure how your serializer handles it, but in Gson's case, you create a TypeToken out of the generic, so that the connection between type and serializer doesn't get lost after compilation.

Suggestions on extending fit.RowFixture and fit.TypeAdapter so that I can bind/invoke on a class that keeps attrs in a map

TLDR: I'd like to know how to extend fit.TypeAdaptor so that I can invoke a method that expects parameters as default implementation of TypeAdaptor invokes the binded (bound ?) method by reflection and assumes it's a no-param method...
Longer version -
I'm using fit to build a test harness for my system (a service that returns a sorted list of custom objects). In order to verify the system, I thought I'd use fit.RowFixture to assert attributes of the list items.
Since RowFixture expects the data to be either a public attribute or a public method, I thought of using a wrapper over my custom object (say InstanceWrapper) - I also tried to implement the suggestion given in this previous thread about formatting data in RowFixture.
The trouble is that my custom object has around 41 attributes and I'd like to provide testers with the option of choosing which attributes they want to verify in this RowFixture. Plus, unless I dynamically add fields/methods to my InstanceWrapper class, how will RowFixture invoke either of my getters since both expect the attribute name to be passed as a param (code copied below) ?
I extended RowFixture to bind on my method but I'm not sure how to extend TypeAdaptor so that it invokes with the attr name..
Any suggestions ?
public class InstanceWrapper {
private Instance instance;
private Map<String, Object> attrs;
public int index;
public InstanceWrapper() {
super();
}
public InstanceWrapper(Instance instance) {
this.instance = instance;
init(); // initialise map
}
private void init() {
attrs = new HashMap<String, Object>();
String attrName;
for (AttrDef attrDef : instance.getModelDef().getAttrDefs()) {
attrName = attrDef.getAttrName();
attrs.put(attrName, instance.getChildScalar(attrName));
}
}
public String getAttribute(String attr) {
return attrs.get(attr).toString();
}
public String description(String attribute) {
return instance.getChildScalar(attribute).toString();
}
}
public class MyDisplayRules extends fit.RowFixture {
#Override
public Object[] query() {
List<Instance> list = PHEFixture.hierarchyList;
return convertInstances(list);
}
private Object[] convertInstances(List<Instance> instances) {
Object[] objects = new Object[instances.size()];
InstanceWrapper wrapper;
int index = 0;
for (Instance instance : instances) {
wrapper = new InstanceWrapper(instance);
wrapper.index = index;
objects[index++] = wrapper;
}
return objects;
}
#Override
public Class getTargetClass() {
return InstanceWrapper.class;
}
#Override
public Object parse(String s, Class type) throws Exception {
return super.parse(s, type);
}
#Override
protected void bind(Parse heads) {
columnBindings = new TypeAdapter[heads.size()];
for (int i = 0; heads != null; i++, heads = heads.more) {
String name = heads.text();
String suffix = "()";
try {
if (name.equals("")) {
columnBindings[i] = null;
} else if (name.endsWith(suffix)) {
columnBindings[i] = bindMethod("description", name.substring(0, name.length()
- suffix.length()));
} else {
columnBindings[i] = bindField(name);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
exception(heads, e);
}
}
}
protected TypeAdapter bindMethod(String name, String attribute) throws Exception {
Class partypes[] = new Class[1];
partypes[0] = String.class;
return PHETypeAdaptor.on(this, getTargetClass().getMethod("getAttribute", partypes), attribute);
}
}
For what it's worth, here's how I eventually worked around the problem:
I created a custom TypeAdapter (extending TypeAdapter) with the additional public attribute (String) attrName. Also:
#Override
public Object invoke() throws IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException {
if ("getAttribute".equals(method.getName())) {
Object params[] = { attrName };
return method.invoke(target, params);
} else {
return super.invoke();
}
}
Then I extended fit.RowFixture and made the following overrides:
public getTargetClass() - to return my class reference
protected TypeAdapter bindField(String name) throws Exception - this is a protected method in ColumnFixture which I modified so that it would use my class's getter method:
#Override
protected TypeAdapter bindField(String name) throws Exception {
String fieldName = camel(name);
// for all attributes, use method getAttribute(String)
Class methodParams[] = new Class[1];
methodParams[0] = String.class;
TypeAdapter a = TypeAdapter.on(this, getTargetClass().getMethod("getAttribute", methodParams));
PHETypeAdapter pheAdapter = new PHETypeAdapter(fieldName);
pheAdapter.target = a.target;
pheAdapter.fixture = a.fixture;
pheAdapter.field = a.field;
pheAdapter.method = a.method;
pheAdapter.type = a.type;
return pheAdapter;
}
I know this is not a neat solution, but it was the best I could come up with. Maybe I'll get some better solutions here :-)

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