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How to get Java's object field's name from JSON fields name

I want to filter out some fields in the response. Filtering should be done before the Java object is serialised into the JSON.
Consider:
public class Entity {
#JsonProperty("some_property")
String someProperty;
#JsonProperty("nested_entity")
#OneToMany(mappedBy = "entity", fetch = FetchType.LAZY, cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
NestedEntity nestedEntity;
// other fields for eg fieldA, fieldB
}
API endpoint
get api/entity/{id}?fields=some_property,field_a
Now the ask is, in the o/p we should filter out only someProperty and fieldA. Like
{
"some_property": "foo",
"field_a": "bar"
}
But since these are JSON fields not Java object fields I can't filter or get these fields them by Reflection. Is there a way we can achieve this, i.e. filtering of Java object based on json fields ?
FYI: The advantage of filtering before serialization is that the lazy-fields' DB calls are saved unless these fields are required
Thanks in advance!

On the suggestion of #robocode using #JsonFilter and also to support empty fields or no fields filtering added JacksonConfiguration
#JsonFilter("entityFilter")
public class Entity {
#JsonProperty("some_property")
String someProperty;
// other fields for eg fieldA, fieldB
}
#Configuration
public class JacksonConfiguration {
public JacksonConfiguration(ObjectMapper objectMapper) {
objectMapper.setFilterProvider(new SimpleFilterProvider().setFailOnUnknownId(false));
}
}
public class FieldMapper {
#SneakyThrows
public static Dto getFilteredFields(Dto make, String fields[]) {
ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
if(ArrayUtils.isNotEmpty(fields)) {
FilterProvider filters = new SimpleFilterProvider().addFilter(
"entityFilter", SimpleBeanPropertyFilter.filterOutAllExcept(fields)
);
objectMapper.setFilterProvider(filters);
} else {
objectMapper.setFilterProvider(new SimpleFilterProvider().setFailOnUnknownId(false));
}
JsonNode j = objectMapper.readTree(objectMapper.writeValueAsString(make));
return objectMapper.convertValue(j, Dto.class);
}
}
// controller code to get the dto for api/entity/{id}?fields=some_property,field_a
Dto filteredFields = getFilteredFields(dto, fields);
return filteredFields

Custom JSON Serialization Wrapper for Any Object

I use external application which expects an Object that Serializable from me like his function:
externalFunction(Object input);
So I should give that function an input that will be correctly serialized into JSON when the method is invoked (not controlled by me).
But I don't know how data is structured since I receive input from another external application dynamically. So case like this:
1. Get data from 3rd party
2. MyApp should annotate data for Json Serialization
3. Send data to 3rd party as input
4. Response will be produced as JSON
How can I achieve this? How can I give input to the function that is correctly serialized when the function is invoked?
What I tried so far:
So first thing I try is wrap data with some Wrapper like:
public class JsonWrapper<T> implements Serializable
{
public T attributes;
public JsonWrapper( T attributes )
{
this.attributes = attributes;
}
#JsonValue
public T getAttributes( )
{
return attributes;
}
}
So I wrap data like ->
data = getFromThirdParty();
wrapped = new JsonWrapper<>(data);
externalFunction(wrapped);
But it produces a response with "attributes" field which I don't want. Also I tried to use #JsonUnwrapped public T attributes; but the result is same.
I don't want this:
{
"attributes": {
... some fields/values that I don't know, get from 3rd party
}
}
I want like this:
{
... some fields/values that I don't know, get from 3rd party
}

The #JsonUnwrapped annotation doesn't work when T is a Collection (see this answer from the Jackson's creator). But the #JsonValue annotation actually does the trick:
public class JsonWrapper<T> {
#JsonValue
private T value;
public JsonWrapper(T value) {
this.value = value;
}
public T getValue() {
return value;
}
}
If you use Lombok, you can have:
#Getter
#AllArgsConstructor
public class JsonWrapper<T> {
#JsonValue
private T value;
}
Example
Consider the following class:
#Data
#AllArgsConstructor
public class Person {
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
}
When serializing an Person instance, the following result JSON is produced:
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
JsonWrapper<?> wrapper = new JsonWrapper<>(new Person("John", "Doe"));
String json = mapper.writeValueAsString(wrapper);
{"firstName":"John","lastName":"Doe"}
When serializing a list of Person instances, the following result JSON is produced:
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
JsonWrapper<?> wrapper = new JsonWrapper<>(
Arrays.asList(
new Person("John", "Doe"),
new Person("Jane", "Poe")
));
String json = mapper.writeValueAsString(wrapper);
[{"firstName":"John","lastName":"Doe"},{"firstName":"Jane","lastName":"Poe"}]

Custom Jackson serializer on specific fields

I'm looking to have multiple jackson deserializers for the same object(s) all based on a custom annotation.
Ideally I'd have a single POJO like:
public class UserInfo {
#Redacted
String ssn;
String name;
}
Under "normal" conditions I want this object to be serialized the default way:
{"ssn":"123-45-6789", "name":"Bob Smith"}
but for logging purposes (for example) I want to redact the SSN so it doesn't get saved in our logs:
{"ssn":"xxx-xx-xxxx", "name":"Bob Smith"}
I've also looked into using #JsonSerialize and come up with:
public class UserInfo {
#JsonSerialize(using = RedactedSerializer.class, as=String.class)
String firstName;
String lastName;
}
The problem with this is that it ALWAYS uses this rule. Can multiple #JsonSerializers be added and only the specified one be used within the runtime code?
I've also seen "views" but ideally I'd like to atleast show that the field was present on the request - even if I dont know the value.

The 100% safe way would be to use different DTO in different requests. But yeah, if you cant do that, use #JsonView and custom serializer, something like:
class Views {
public static class ShowSSN {}
}
private static class MyBean{
#JsonSerialize(using = MyBeanSerializer.class)
#JsonView(Views.ShowSSN.class)
String ssn;
//getter setter constructor
}
private class MyBeanSerializer extends JsonSerializer<String> {
#Override
public void serialize(String value, JsonGenerator gen,
SerializerProvider serializers) throws IOException {
Class<?> jsonView = serializers.getActiveView();
if (jsonView == Views.ShowSSN.class)
gen.writeString(value); // your custom serialization code here
else
gen.writeString("xxx-xx-xxxx");
}
}
And use it like:
public static void main(String[] args) throws JsonProcessingException {
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
MyBean bean = new MyBean("123-45-6789");
System.out.println(mapper.writerWithView(Views.ShowSSN.class)
.writeValueAsString(bean));
// results in {"ssn":"123-45-6789"}
System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(bean));
// results in {"ssn":"xxx-xx-xxxx"}
}
Also for example in spring it would be really easy to use
#Controller
public class MyController {
#GetMapping("/withView") // results in {"ssn":"123-45-6789"}
#JsonView(Views.ShowSSN.class)
public #ResponseBody MyBean withJsonView() {
return new MyBean("123-45-6789");
}
#GetMapping("/withoutView") // results in {"ssn":"xxx-xx-xxxx"}
public #ResponseBody MyBean withoutJsonView() {
return new MyBean("123-45-6789");
}
}

I think you could achieve that dynamically by coding not annotations,
inside your methods, you can set the proper Serializer and switch between them
(The code depends on your Jackson version)
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
SimpleModule testModule = new SimpleModule("MyModule", new Version(1, 0, 0, null));
testModule.addSerializer(new RedactedSerializer()); // assuming serializer declares correct class to bind to
mapper.registerModule(testModule);
https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-docs/wiki/JacksonHowToCustomSerializers

Deserialize XML to dynamically created class in Java

I have a set of abstract classes like this:
abstract class A {
public abstract B getB() {return this.b;}
public abstract void setB(B b) {this.b = b;}
}
abstract class B {
public abstract C getC() {return this.c;}
public abstract void setC(C c) {this.c = c;}
}
abstract class C {
private String foo;
public String getFoo() {return this.foo;}
public void setFoo(String foo) {this.foo = foo;}
}
In runtime, I create proxies for these classes using ByteBuddy. I can easily serialize objects of these proxy classes to XML. But when I attempt to deserialize an XML, JAXB throws javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException: Unable to create an instance of A since it can't create instances of abstract classes. I want to show it how to create these instances in runtime in order to deserialize them (I have a special Spring bean, which does it - so I need to be able to inject it wherever I define creation logic) I looked at JAXB and Jackson, but couldn't find how to do it.
Is there a way to do it? I'm not bound to any serialization framework, though it would be preferable to stay with JAXB or Jackson.

I found that both JAXB and Jackson can do it.
JAXB provides two ways to solve it: factory methods and adapters.
Using JAXB factory methods, I need to create a factory which would be responsible for object creation:
public class MyFactory {
public static MyObject createMyObject() {
return SomeMagic.createMyObject();
}
}
Then I only need to mark my abstract class with #XmlType annotation:
#XmlType(factoryClass = MyFactory.class, factoryMethod = "createMyObject")
public abstract class MyObject {
...
}
If I wanted to use JAXB adapters, I would need to create Java classes which JAXB can instantiate and fill from the XML, and then I would need to convert objects of these classes to the ones I need:
public class MyAdapter extends XmlAdapter<MyAdapter.MyJaxbObject, MyObject> {
#Override
public MyObject unmarshal(MyJaxbObject src) throws Exception {
MyObject tgt = SomeMagic.createMyObject();
BeanUtils.copyProperties(tgt, src);
return tgt;
}
#Override
public MyObject marshal(MyObject src) throws Exception {
MyJaxbObject tgt = new MyJaxbObject();
BeanUtils.copyProperties(tgt, src);
return tgt;
}
public static class MyJaxbObject {
...
}
}
Then I would mark my abstract class with #XmlJavaAdapter annotation:
#XmlJavaAdapter(MyAdapter.class)
public abstract class MyObject {
...
}
Using Jackson I can create custom deserializer for my abstract class.
public class MyObjectDeserializer extends StdDeserializer<MyObject> {
public MyObjectDeserializer() {
super(MyObject.class);
}
#Override
public MyObject deserialize(JsonParser parser, DeserializationContext context) throws IOException {
ObjectMapper mapper = (ObjectMapper) parser.getCodec();
MyObject myObject = SomeMagic.createMyObject();
return mapper.readerForUpdating(myObject).readValue(parser);
}
}
Later in my code I need to register my deserializers:
ObjectMapper mapper = new XmlMapper();
SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule("module", new Version(1, 0, 0, null, null, null));
module.addDeserializer(MyObject.class, new MyObjectDeserializer());
mapper.registerModule(module);
For my purposes I preferred Jackson custom deserializers, because:
I also need to perform additional operations on the nested objects after their fields are filled but before passing these objects to other objects' setters (JAXB doesn't seem to support it)
I can use custom logic when I fill object's fields (Also achievable with Adapters).
I can create deserializers by myself, so I can use dependency injection to configure them (Factories are static, and Adapters are created by JAXB).

Spring Boot: Wrapping JSON response in dynamic parent objects

I have a REST API specification that talks with back-end microservices, which return the following values:
On "collections" responses (e.g. GET /users) :
{
users: [
{
... // single user object data
}
],
links: [
{
... // single HATEOAS link object
}
]
}
On "single object" responses (e.g. GET /users/{userUuid}) :
{
user: {
... // {userUuid} user object}
}
}
This approach was chosen so that single responses would be extensible (for example, maybe if GET /users/{userUuid} gets an additional query parameter down the line such at ?detailedView=true we would have additional request information).
Fundamentally, I think it is an OK approach for minimizing breaking changes between API updates. However, translating this model to code is proving very arduous.
Let's say that for single responses, I have the following API model object for a single user:
public class SingleUserResource {
private MicroserviceUserModel user;
public SingleUserResource(MicroserviceUserModel user) {
this.user = user;
}
public String getName() {
return user.getName();
}
// other getters for fields we wish to expose
}
The advantage of this method is that we can expose only the fields from the internally used models for which we have public getters, but not others. Then, for collections responses I would have the following wrapper class:
public class UsersResource extends ResourceSupport {
#JsonProperty("users")
public final List<SingleUserResource> users;
public UsersResource(List<MicroserviceUserModel> users) {
// add each user as a SingleUserResource
}
}
For single object responses, we would have the following:
public class UserResource {
#JsonProperty("user")
public final SingleUserResource user;
public UserResource(SingleUserResource user) {
this.user = user;
}
}
This yields JSON responses which are formatted as per the API specification at the top of this post. The upside of this approach is that we only expose those fields that we want to expose. The heavy downside is that I have a ton of wrapper classes flying around that perform no discernible logical task aside from being read by Jackson to yield a correctly formatted response.
My questions are the following:
How can I possibly generalize this approach? Ideally, I would like to have a single BaseSingularResponse class (and maybe a BaseCollectionsResponse extends ResourceSupport class) that all my models can extend, but seeing how Jackson seems to derive the JSON keys from the object definitions, I would have to user something like Javaassist to add fields to the base response classes at Runtime - a dirty hack that I would like to stay as far away from as humanly possible.
Is there an easier way to accomplish this? Unfortunately, I may have a variable number of top-level JSON objects in the response a year from now, so I cannot use something like Jackson's SerializationConfig.Feature.WRAP_ROOT_VALUE because that wraps everything into a single root-level object (as far as I am aware).
Is there perhaps something like #JsonProperty for class-level (as opposed to just method and field level)?

There are several possibilities.
You can use a java.util.Map:
List<UserResource> userResources = new ArrayList<>();
userResources.add(new UserResource("John"));
userResources.add(new UserResource("Jane"));
userResources.add(new UserResource("Martin"));
Map<String, List<UserResource>> usersMap = new HashMap<String, List<UserResource>>();
usersMap.put("users", userResources);
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(usersMap));
You can use ObjectWriter to wrap the response that you can use like below:
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
ObjectWriter writer = mapper.writer().withRootName(root);
result = writer.writeValueAsString(object);
Here is a proposition for generalizing this serialization.
A class to handle simple object:
public abstract class BaseSingularResponse {
private String root;
protected BaseSingularResponse(String rootName) {
this.root = rootName;
}
public String serialize() {
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
ObjectWriter writer = mapper.writer().withRootName(root);
String result = null;
try {
result = writer.writeValueAsString(this);
} catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
result = e.getMessage();
}
return result;
}
}
A class to handle collection:
public abstract class BaseCollectionsResponse<T extends Collection<?>> {
private String root;
private T collection;
protected BaseCollectionsResponse(String rootName, T aCollection) {
this.root = rootName;
this.collection = aCollection;
}
public T getCollection() {
return collection;
}
public String serialize() {
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
ObjectWriter writer = mapper.writer().withRootName(root);
String result = null;
try {
result = writer.writeValueAsString(collection);
} catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
result = e.getMessage();
}
return result;
}
}
And a sample application:
public class Main {
private static class UsersResource extends BaseCollectionsResponse<ArrayList<UserResource>> {
public UsersResource() {
super("users", new ArrayList<UserResource>());
}
}
private static class UserResource extends BaseSingularResponse {
private String name;
private String id = UUID.randomUUID().toString();
public UserResource(String userName) {
super("user");
this.name = userName;
}
public String getUserName() {
return this.name;
}
public String getUserId() {
return this.id;
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws JsonProcessingException {
UsersResource userCollection = new UsersResource();
UserResource user1 = new UserResource("John");
UserResource user2 = new UserResource("Jane");
UserResource user3 = new UserResource("Martin");
System.out.println(user1.serialize());
userCollection.getCollection().add(user1);
userCollection.getCollection().add(user2);
userCollection.getCollection().add(user3);
System.out.println(userCollection.serialize());
}
}
You can also use the Jackson annotation #JsonTypeInfo in a class level
#JsonTypeInfo(include=As.WRAPPER_OBJECT, use=JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME)

Personally I don't mind the additional Dto classes, you only need to create them once, and there is little to no maintenance cost. And If you need to do MockMVC tests, you will most likely need the classes to deserialize your JSON responses to verify the results.
As you probably know the Spring framework handles the serialization/deserialization of objects in the HttpMessageConverter Layer, so that is the correct place to change how objects are serialized.
If you don't need to deserialize the responses, it is possible to create a generic wrapper, and a custom HttpMessageConverter (and place it before MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter in the message converter list). Like this:
public class JSONWrapper {
public final String name;
public final Object object;
public JSONWrapper(String name, Object object) {
this.name = name;
this.object = object;
}
}
public class JSONWrapperHttpMessageConverter extends MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter {
#Override
protected void writeInternal(Object object, Type type, HttpOutputMessage outputMessage) throws IOException, HttpMessageNotWritableException {
// cast is safe because this is only called when supports return true.
JSONWrapper wrapper = (JSONWrapper) object;
Map<String, Object> map = new HashMap<>();
map.put(wrapper.name, wrapper.object);
super.writeInternal(map, type, outputMessage);
}
#Override
protected boolean supports(Class<?> clazz) {
return clazz.equals(JSONWrapper.class);
}
}
You then need to register the custom HttpMessageConverter in the spring configuration which extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter by overriding configureMessageConverters(). Be aware that doing this disables the default auto detection of converters, so you will probably have to add the default yourself (check the Spring source code for WebMvcConfigurationSupport#addDefaultHttpMessageConverters() to see defaults. if you extend WebMvcConfigurationSupport instead WebMvcConfigurerAdapter you can call addDefaultHttpMessageConverters directly (Personally I prefere using WebMvcConfigurationSupport over WebMvcConfigurerAdapter if I need to customize anything, but there are some minor implications to doing this, which you can probably read about in other articles.

Jackson doesn't have a lot of support for dynamic/variable JSON structures, so any solution that accomplishes something like this is going to be pretty hacky as you mentioned. As far as I know and from what I've seen, the standard and most common method is using wrapper classes like you are currently. The wrapper classes do add up, but if you get creative with your inheretence you may be able to find some commonalities between classes and thus reduce the amount of wrapper classes. Otherwise you might be looking at writing a custom framework.

I guess you are looking for Custom Jackson Serializer. With simple code implementation same object can be serialized in different structures
some example:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/10835504/814304
http://www.davismol.net/2015/05/18/jackson-create-and-register-a-custom-json-serializer-with-stdserializer-and-simplemodule-classes/