Jackson and generic type reference
JavaJsonGenericsJacksonJava Problem Overview
I want to use jackson json library for a generic method as follows:
public MyRequest<T> tester() {
TypeReference<MyWrapper<T>> typeRef = new TypeReference<MyWrapper<T>>();
MyWrapper<T> requestWrapper = (MyWrapper<T>) JsonConverter.fromJson(jsonRequest, typeRef);
return requestWrapper.getRequest();
}
public class MyWrapper<T> {
private MyRequest<T> request;
public MyRequest<T> getRequest() {
return request;
}
public void setRequest(MyRequest<T> request) {
this.request = request;
}
}
public class MyRequest
public void setMyObjects(List<T> ets) {
this.myobjects = ets;
}
@NotNull
@JsonIgnore
public T getMyObject() {
return myobjects.get(0);
}
}
Now the problem is that when I call getMyObject() which is inside the request object Jackson returns the nested custom object as a LinkedHashMap. Is there any way in which I specify that T object needs to be returned? For example: if I sent object of type Customer then Customer should be returned from that List?
Java Solutions
Solution 1 - Java
This is a well-known problem with Java type erasure: T is just a type variable, and you must indicate actual class, usually as Class
In this case, tester method needs to have access to Class
JavaType type = mapper.getTypeFactory().
constructCollectionType(List.class, Foo.class)
and then
List<Foo> list = mapper.readValue(new File("input.json"), type);
Solution 2 - Java
'JavaType' works !!
I was trying to unmarshall (deserialize) a List in json String to ArrayList
Below is the code that finally gave me solution.
Code:
JsonMarshallerUnmarshaller<T> {
T targetClass;
public ArrayList<T> unmarshal(String jsonString) {
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
AnnotationIntrospector introspector = new JacksonAnnotationIntrospector();
mapper.getDeserializationConfig()
.withAnnotationIntrospector(introspector);
mapper.getSerializationConfig()
.withAnnotationIntrospector(introspector);
JavaType type = mapper.getTypeFactory().
constructCollectionType(
ArrayList.class,
targetclass.getClass());
try {
Class c1 = this.targetclass.getClass();
Class c2 = this.targetclass1.getClass();
ArrayList<T> temp = (ArrayList<T>)
mapper.readValue(jsonString, type);
return temp ;
} catch (JsonParseException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (JsonMappingException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null ;
}
}
Solution 3 - Java
I modified rushidesai1's answer to include a working example.
JsonMarshaller.java
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
public class JsonMarshaller<T> {
private static ClassLoader loader = JsonMarshaller.class.getClassLoader();
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
JsonMarshallerUnmarshaller<Station> marshaller = new JsonMarshallerUnmarshaller<>(Station.class);
String jsonString = read(loader.getResourceAsStream("data.json"));
List<Station> stations = marshaller.unmarshal(jsonString);
stations.forEach(System.out::println);
System.out.println(marshaller.marshal(stations));
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
@SuppressWarnings("resource")
public static String read(InputStream ios) {
return new Scanner(ios).useDelimiter("\\A").next(); // Read the entire file
}
}
Output
Station [id=123, title=my title, name=my name]
Station [id=456, title=my title 2, name=my name 2]
[{"id":123,"title":"my title","name":"my name"},{"id":456,"title":"my title 2","name":"my name 2"}]
JsonMarshallerUnmarshaller.java
import java.io.*;
import java.util.List;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.*;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.*;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.introspect.JacksonAnnotationIntrospector;
public class JsonMarshallerUnmarshaller<T> {
private ObjectMapper mapper;
private Class<T> targetClass;
public JsonMarshallerUnmarshaller(Class<T> targetClass) {
AnnotationIntrospector introspector = new JacksonAnnotationIntrospector();
mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.getDeserializationConfig().with(introspector);
mapper.getSerializationConfig().with(introspector);
this.targetClass = targetClass;
}
public List<T> unmarshal(String jsonString) throws JsonParseException, JsonMappingException, IOException {
return parseList(jsonString, mapper, targetClass);
}
public String marshal(List<T> list) throws JsonProcessingException {
return mapper.writeValueAsString(list);
}
public static <E> List<E> parseList(String str, ObjectMapper mapper, Class<E> clazz)
throws JsonParseException, JsonMappingException, IOException {
return mapper.readValue(str, listType(mapper, clazz));
}
public static <E> List<E> parseList(InputStream is, ObjectMapper mapper, Class<E> clazz)
throws JsonParseException, JsonMappingException, IOException {
return mapper.readValue(is, listType(mapper, clazz));
}
public static <E> JavaType listType(ObjectMapper mapper, Class<E> clazz) {
return mapper.getTypeFactory().constructCollectionType(List.class, clazz);
}
}
Station.java
public class Station {
private long id;
private String title;
private String name;
public long getId() {
return id;
}
public void setId(long id) {
this.id = id;
}
public String getTitle() {
return title;
}
public void setTitle(String title) {
this.title = title;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
@Override
public String toString() {
return String.format("Station [id=%s, title=%s, name=%s]", id, title, name);
}
}
data.json
[{ "id": 123, "title": "my title", "name": "my name"}, { "id": 456, "title": "my title 2", "name": "my name 2"}]