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WebClient does not return a "valid" list of Strings

I have a spring boot app that among others, has an endpoint that when hit, returns a list of strings. I also have another spring boot app that hits the first app's endpoint to get the data. The fetch code:
return webClient.get().uri("/sensors/get-cities").headers(httpHeaders -> {
httpHeaders.set("Authorization", auth);
}).retrieve()
.bodyToFlux(String.class).collectList().block();
The above yields a list but with this format when I inspect it in the debbuger, "["city"]". The outer double quotes, I get them because it's a string but the brackets and the inside double quotes, I do not. I tried replacing these characters but I had no luck with the brackets (tried regex). It is like they are not there, but at the same time they are. I am confused at this point. But I think that the behavior of the fetch code is not normal, it should yield a valid array of strings.

What you are probably getting (im guessing here) is a response body that looks something like this:
[
"New York",
"Madrid",
"London"
]
You then tell webflux that you want to convert the body to a Flux of String by calling bodyToFlux(String.class).
So the framework takes the entire response and makes a string out of it
// A string of the entire array (im escaping the quotation marks)
"[\"New York\",\"Madrid\",\"London\"]"
And then the framework will throw the entire thing into a Flux which means it takes the first position in the Flux. You then emit all the values into a List by calling collectList The equivalent code is sort of:
List<String> oneString = Flux.just("[\"New York\",\"Madrid\",\"London\"]")
.collectList()
.block();
So you get a list, with one string in it, which is the entire body.
What you probably want to do is to get a list out if it. And this is one way to do it:
List<String> strings = webClient.get()
.uri("/sensors/get-cities")
.headers(httpHeaders -> {
httpHeaders.set("Authorization", auth);
})
.retrieve()
.bodyToMono(new ParameterizedTypeReference<List<String>>() {})
.block();
Spring explains ParameterizedTypeReference:
The purpose of this class is to enable capturing and passing a generic Type. In order to capture the generic type and retain it at runtime
So its sort of a class that makes sure we can use generic types like List<T> and helps us with type information.
So what we do is that we now take the response and tell the framework that the body is a list of strings directly. We dont need to do collectList anymore as the framework will stick it in a list for us. We then call block to wait in the response.

Your Springboot API returns result as parsed to JSON (this is default behavior). So it first builds a list of Strings (in your case just a single String "city" and than serializes it to Json. In this case since it is a list it serializes it to JSON array as opposed to JSON Object. Read about JSON here. So in your second Springboot app that hits the API from the first one should assume that you are getting JSON which you need to parse to get your list. To parse it you can use readValue() method of ObjectMapper class of Json Jackson library which is a default JSON library in Springboot. your code would be
List<String> myList;
ObjectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
//Add setters for ObjectMapper configuration here if you want a specific config
try {
myList = objectMapper.readValue(myJsonString, List.class);
} catch(IOException ioe) {
...
}
In addition I wrote my own Open-source library called MgntUtils, that includes JsonUtils class which is a thin wrapper over Json Jackson library. It provides just Json parser and serializer, but in many cases that is all you need. With my library you would only need one dependency as oppose to Jackson, and JsonUtils class just have 4 methods, so by far easier to understand. But in your case if you use my library the code would be very similar to the above code. It would be something like this:
List<String> myList;
try {
myList = JsonUtils.readObjectFromJsonString(myJsonString, List.class);
} catch(IOException ioe) {
...
}
Note that in this case you won't have to instantiate and configure ObjectMapper instance as readObjectFromJsonString is a static method. Anyway if you are interested in using my library you can find maven artifacts here and The library itself with source code and javadoc is on Github here. Javadoc for JsonUtils class is here

Define POJO for changing JSON responses

I am using Java 8/Spring 5 to call a third-party API. I am using HttpClient which works well, and I have a POJO that works 99% of the time.
When I call this one service, the JSON looks like:
{"field1":"a",
"field2":"b",
"field3:"c"}
Based on different parameters it could come back as:
{"field1":"a",
"field2":{
"subfield1:"x",
"subfield2:"y",
"subfield3":"z"},
"field3:"c"}
I am using the latest FastJacksonMapper to convert from JSON string to a Java POJO, and it works in the first instance, but not in the second instance.
I know it may be common for JSON to change based on requests, but I expect JSON to be a little more consistent.
Any thoughts on how I could tweak my POJO? Any JSON annotations I can use to fix this? Or, maybe create a separate POJO so that in case one fails, the other picks up?
Thanks!

So for the same URL and http method you can get different payloads? The same key "field2" might have a string value in option A and a different object in option B? IMHO that's bad design of API.
That third-party API having any description like swagger? Such description will help you generate correct POJO with proper annotations.
If such documentation is not available try to use generators like: http://www.jsonschema2pojo.org/

private static Either<Type1Obj, Type2Obj> getPojoFromJson(String json) {
try {
// Type1Obj from json
return Either.left(obj1);
} catch (IOException e) {
try {
//Type2Obj from json
return Either.right(obj2);
} catch (IOException e1) {
//fallback
}
e.printStackTrace();
}
return null;
}

Jersey + Gson not deserializing java.util.Date

I'm having a strange issue with a little servlet which uses Jersey and Gson for the JSON serialization/deserialization. I actually copy-pasted the basic Gson provider written for Jersey, like this one: http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/2012/11/02/integrating-gson-into-a-jax-rs-based-application/ and everything seemed to work fine, until I tried to deserialize a Date (in the standard ISO 8601 format), which always gets mapped into my POJO as null.
My first try was to register a deserializer type adapter before returning the gsonBuilder instance, like that:
import java.util.Date;
...
gsonBuilder.registerTypeAdapter(Date.class,
new JsonDeserializer<Date>() {
#Override
public Date deserialize(JsonElement json, Type type,
JsonDeserializationContext arg2) throws JsonParseException {
try {
System.out.println(json);
return (new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXX")).parse(json.getAsString());
} catch (ParseException e) {
return null;
}
}
});
This didn't work, and nothing is printed out when I send the POST request. I tried to use the setDateFormat method on the gsonBuilder instance before returning it, but this didn't change anything.
I thought there were some others classes implementing the MessageBodyWriter and MessageBodyReader overriding my own implementation, so I tried to delete my own implementation and Jersey complained that it wasn't able to deserialize the JSON (so there are no other providers, i guess).
I tried to set breakpoints in the readFrom method in my MessageBodyReader but the request is actually deserialized without suspending the execution.
I should mention that my class contains different fields too, some strings and one date: the string are always deserialized correctly.
I tried sending different dates, starting with 2016-06-23T00:00:00.000+0200 (which should be formatted with the date format string I used in the code above), and getting to the simple 2016-06-17 by removing one part at the time, and it never worked.
I cleaned my maven project, recompiled it and it didn't work.
I thought it could have been Jetty not loading the correct classes, so i deployed the same code into a Tomcat 8 server, and the result was the same.
My last try was to write another parallel MessageBodyReader but instead of making it generic for the Object type, I made a specific java.util.Date deserializer, and still the readFrom method seems not to be called.
I seriously don't know what I could try now, do you have any idea?
Thanks in advance.

The reason of the error is here...
try {
System.out.println(json);
return (new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXX")).parse(json.getAsString());
} catch (ParseException e) {
return null;
}
to be more specific here:
"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXX"
java Date and SimpleParser can hold at the most only 3 places for the milliseconds, and there is no wildcard .SSSXX in the string used for the SimpleDateFormat, so your parser is throwing an Exception, that you are catching but returning a Date referenced to null,
Ergo:
Gson is handling a null referenced object,

Is there a way to create the bean class from a json response

Converting JSON to Java
The above question is with reference to what has been described on the above thread. There are so many API(s) which provide the flexibility to return responses either in XML or JSON. **I would like to know if there is a way to automatically construct the java bean corresponding to a JSON response. **

lets say you get an object like
[
{
"name":"Java 6 Greatest Hits",
"Author":"Jim Bob Jones",
"price":10.25
},
{
"name":"How to raise a goat",
"Author":"Sir Paxton",
"price":55.97
},
{
"name":"Snow - It is cold",
"Author":"Dr. White",
"price":9.99
}
]
And you want a class like
public class Book{
private String author;
private String name;
private Number price
}
with getters and setters
One option is to use a service like JSONGen, which will create that class. You need to use it first, and include the generated code in your project.
Another option could be dynamically generate the class using javassist or CGLib, but that class would be useless unless you use reflection to access its members, so even if it would be a class, it will behave like a really annoying Map. In no way will be better that simple using JSONObject

seems a simple Message Type Entity not meet you requirement ?
if you want convert a json to an existed and known java bean class,
many lib can do so, like
http://json-lib.sourceforge.net/apidocs/net/sf/json/class-use/JSONObject.html
JSONObject.toBean(JSONObject jsonObject, Class beanClass)
Creates a bean from a JSONObject, with a specific target class.
btw, if you are communicating with restful webservice, org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate will help you get direct bean result
insteadof json.
if class does not exists, you need program with java reflect mechanism.
try use CGLIB ,http://cglib.sourceforge.net/, dynamic create some class like BeanMap. i wrote a simple sample,
but be ware, opearting class byte is hard and you may meet strange trouble with JVM . Strongly not encourage to do so.
public static BeanMap generateBean(JSONObject json) {
BeanGenerator generator = new BeanGenerator();
Iterator keys = json.keys();
while (keys.hasNext()) {
Object key = keys.next();
Object value = json.get(key);
Class keyClass = guessValueClass(value);
generator.addProperty(key.toString(), keyClass);
}
Object result = generator.create();
BeanMap bean = BeanMap.create(result);
keys = json.keys();
while (keys.hasNext()) {
Object key = keys.next();
Object value = json.get(key);
bean.put(key, value);
}
return bean;
}
/**
* TODO fix guess
*/
static Class guessValueClass(Object value) {
try {
Integer.parseInt(value.toString());
return Integer.class;
} catch (NumberFormatException e1) {
}
try {
Double.parseDouble(value.toString());
return Double.class;
} catch (NumberFormatException e1) {
}
return String.class;
}

I believe the main issue here is that the JSON response lacks type information and last time I checked :-) in Java you need to declare the type of a class property. So some heuristics will be needed to infer the type form the value in the JSON response.
For a related question here in SO have a look at: Generate Java class from JSON?

Yes check out http://flexjson.sourceforge.net

If you're wanting to generate Java classes from JSON, perhaps you could try Jackson. It provides a lot of JSON-related functionality, including the ability to generate bytecode from arbitrary JSON. See this blog post for details.

If you're using Jackson (the most popular library there), try
https://bitbucket.org/astav/jsontojava/wiki/Home
Its open source and anyone should be able to contribute.
Summary
A JsonToJava source class file generator that deduces the schema based on supplied sample json data and generates the necessary java data structures.
It encourages teams to think in Json first, before writing actual code.
Features
Can generate classes for an arbitrarily complex hierarchy (recursively)
Can read your existing Java classes and if it can deserialize into those structures, will do so
Will prompt for user input when ambiguous cases exist

Use class name as root key for JSON Jackson serialization

Suppose I have a pojo:
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.*;
public class MyPojo {
int id;
public int getId()
{ return this.id; }
public void setId(int id)
{ this.id = id; }
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
MyPojo mp = new MyPojo();
mp.setId(4);
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.configure(SerializationConfig.Feature.WRAP_ROOT_VALUE, true);
System.out.println(mapper.getSerializationConfig().isEnabled(SerializationConfig.Feature.WRAP_ROOT_VALUE));
System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(mp));
}
}
When I serialize using the Jackson ObjectMapper, I just get
true
{"id":4}
but I want
true
{"MyPojo":{"id":4}}
I've searched all over, Jacksons documentation is really unorganized and mostly out of date.

By adding the jackson annotation #JsonTypeInfo in class level you can have the expected output. i just added no-changes in your class.
package com.test.jackson;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.SerializationConfig;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonTypeInfo;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonTypeInfo.As;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonTypeInfo.Id;
#JsonTypeInfo(include=As.WRAPPER_OBJECT, use=Id.NAME)
public class MyPojo {
// Remain same as you have
}
output:
{
"MyPojo": {
"id": 4
}
}

I'm not using jackson, but searching I found this configuration that seems to be what you want: WRAP_ROOT_VALUE
Feature that can be enabled to make root value (usually JSON Object but can be any type) wrapped within a single property JSON object, where key as the "root name", as determined by annotation introspector (esp. for JAXB that uses #XmlRootElement.name) or fallback (non-qualified class name). Feature is mostly intended for JAXB compatibility.
Default setting is false, meaning root
value is not wrapped.
So that you can configure mapper:
objectMapper.configure(SerializationConfig.Feature.WRAP_ROOT_VALUE, true);
I hope it helps you...

Below is a way to achieve this
Map<String, MyPojo> singletonMap = Collections.singletonMap("mypojo", mp);
System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(singletonMap));
Output
{ "mypojo" : { "id" : 4}}
Here the advantage is that we can give our on name for the root key of json object. By the above code, mypojo will be the root key. This approach will be most useful when we use java script template like Mustache.js for iteration of json objects

To achieve this you need to use the JsonTypeInfo annotation on your class and in particular WRAPPER_OBJECT
#JsonTypeName("foo")
#JsonTypeInfo(include = JsonTypeInfo.As.WRAPPER_OBJECT ,use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME)
public class Bar(){
)

There is also a nice annotation for this:
#JsonRootName(value = "my_pojo")
public class MyPojo{
...
}
will generate:
{
"my_pojo" : {...}
}

How about simplest possible solution; just use a wrapper class like:
class Wrapper {
public MyPojo MyPojo;
}
and wrapping/unwrapping in your code?
Beyond this, it would help to know WHY you would like additional json object entry like this? I know this is done by libs that emulate json via xml api (because of impedance between xml and json, due to conversion from xml to json), but for pure json solutions it is usually not needed.
Is it to allow you do figure out what actual type is?
If so, perhaps you could consider enabled polymorphic type information, to let Jackson handle it automatically? (see 1.5 release notes, entry for PTH, for details).

there is another way i used and that worked for me.
I am working with a third party jar, so i have no control for annotations.
So i had to write through bit of hack.
Override: org.codehaus.jackson.map.ser.BeanSerializerFactory.findBeanProperties(SerializationConfig, BasicBeanDescription)
Add your property as below
List<BeanPropertyWriter> props = super.findBeanProperties(config, beanDesc);
BeanPropertyWriter bpw = null;
try {
Class cc = beanDesc.getType().getRawClass();
Method m = cc.getMethod("getClass", null);
bpw = new BeanPropertyWriter("$className", null, null, m, null,true, null);
} catch (SecurityException e) {
// TODO
} catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
// TODO
}
props.add(bpw);
return props;
This way i get more control and can do other kind of filters too.

#JsonTypeInfo(include=As.WRAPPER_OBJECT, use=Id.NAME)
This annotation works perfectly, as suggested by Arun Prakash. I was trying to get json in this form:
{"Rowset":{"ROW":{"receiptno":"881604199388936","status":"SUCCESS"}}}
but getting like this:
{"ROW":{"receiptno":"881604199388936","status":"SUCCESS"}}
Now that annotation resolved my problem.

I would be interested in hearing the OP's solution for this. I'm having similar issues where my RESTful web service is serializing objects as either XML or JSON for clients. The Javascript clients need to know the wrapping type so that can parse it. Coupling the type to a URI pattern is not an option.
Thanks.
Edit: I noticed that Spring MappingJacksonJsonMarshaller adds the wrapping class when marshalling, so I stepped through the code in debug and noticed that Spring passes in a HashMap with a single key-value pair such that the key is the wrapping name and the value is the object. So, I extended JacksonJaxbJsonProvider, override the writeTo() method and added the following:
HashMap<String, Object> map = new HashMap<String, Object>();
map.put(value.getClass().getSimpleName(), value);
super.writeTo(map, type, genericType, annotations, mediaType, httpHeaders,entityStream);
It's a bit of a hack, but it works nicely.

use withRootName.
objectMapper.writer().withRootName(MyPojo.class.getName());

I have found through experience that it is a good idea for all JSON to include both the backend type (as a string) and the component type used to render it in the front end (if using something like angular or Vue).
The justification for doing this is so that you can process various types with a single set of code.
In vue, for example, having the name of the UI component in the data allows you, among other things, to have a screen rendering a list of children of different types using only a single tag in the parent template.
<component :is="child.componentType"/>.
For backend systems and web services - I prefer to use a single web service processor class that provides logging, auditing and exception handling for all web services by looking up the appropriate processor class based on the incoming payload. That makes the implementation of all my web services look exactly the same (about 3 lines of code), and I get detailed event logging through the lifecycle of the call without writing any per service code to do so.
Having the type wrapping the JSON makes it self documenting. If all you see are the properties, you have no idea what you are looking at until you find the corresponding end point.
If you want to write data driven software, being able to identify what you are processing is a basic requirement.