What happens if I annotate a constructor parameter using #JsonProperty but the Json doesn't specify that property. What value does the constructor get?
How do I differentiate between a property having a null value versus a property that is not present in the JSON?
Summarizing excellent answers by Programmer Bruce and StaxMan:
Missing properties referenced by the constructor are assigned a default value as defined by Java.
You can use setter methods to differentiate between properties that are implicitly or explicitly set. Setter methods are only invoked for properties with explicit values. Setter methods can keep track of whether a property was explicitly set using a boolean flag (e.g. isValueSet).
What happens if I annotate a constructor parameter using #JsonProperty but the Json doesn't specify that property. What value does the constructor get?
For questions such as this, I like to just write a sample program and see what happens.
Following is such a sample program.
import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonProperty;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;
public class JacksonFoo
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
// {"name":"Fred","id":42}
String jsonInput1 = "{\"name\":\"Fred\",\"id\":42}";
Bar bar1 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput1, Bar.class);
System.out.println(bar1);
// output:
// Bar: name=Fred, id=42
// {"name":"James"}
String jsonInput2 = "{\"name\":\"James\"}";
Bar bar2 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput2, Bar.class);
System.out.println(bar2);
// output:
// Bar: name=James, id=0
// {"id":7}
String jsonInput3 = "{\"id\":7}";
Bar bar3 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput3, Bar.class);
System.out.println(bar3);
// output:
// Bar: name=null, id=7
}
}
class Bar
{
private String name = "BLANK";
private int id = -1;
Bar(#JsonProperty("name") String n, #JsonProperty("id") int i)
{
name = n;
id = i;
}
#Override
public String toString()
{
return String.format("Bar: name=%s, id=%d", name, id);
}
}
The result is that the constructor is passed the default value for the data type.
How do I differentiate between a property having a null value versus a property that is not present in the JSON?
One simple approach would be to check for a default value post deserialization processing, since if the element were present in the JSON but had a null value, then the null value would be used to replace any default value given the corresponding Java field. For example:
import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonAutoDetect.Visibility;
import org.codehaus.jackson.annotate.JsonMethod;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;
public class JacksonFooToo
{
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper().setVisibility(JsonMethod.FIELD, Visibility.ANY);
// {"name":null,"id":99}
String jsonInput1 = "{\"name\":null,\"id\":99}";
BarToo barToo1 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput1, BarToo.class);
System.out.println(barToo1);
// output:
// BarToo: name=null, id=99
// {"id":99}
String jsonInput2 = "{\"id\":99}";
BarToo barToo2 = mapper.readValue(jsonInput2, BarToo.class);
System.out.println(barToo2);
// output:
// BarToo: name=BLANK, id=99
// Interrogate barToo1 and barToo2 for
// the current value of the name field.
// If it's null, then it was null in the JSON.
// If it's BLANK, then it was missing in the JSON.
}
}
class BarToo
{
String name = "BLANK";
int id = -1;
#Override
public String toString()
{
return String.format("BarToo: name=%s, id=%d", name, id);
}
}
Another approach would be to implement a custom deserializer that checks for the required JSON elements. And yet another approach would be to log an enhancement request with the Jackson project at http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/JACKSON
In addition to constructor behavior explained in #Programmer_Bruce's answer, one way to differentiate between null value and missing value is to define a setter: setter is only called with explicit null value.
Custom setter can then set a private boolean flag ("isValueSet" or whatever) if you want to keep track of values set.
Setters have precedence over fields, in case both field and setter exist, so you can "override" behavior this way as well.
I'm thinking of using something in the style of an Option class, where a Nothing object would tell me if there is such a value or not. Has anyone done something like this with Jackson (in Java, not Scala, et al)?
(My answer might be useful to some people finding this thread via google, even if it doesn't answer OPs question)
If you are dealing with primitive types which are omittable, and you do not want to use a setter like described in the other answers (for example if you want your field to be final), you can use box objects:
public class Foo {
private final int number;
public Foo(#JsonProperty Integer number) {
if (number == null) {
this.number = 42; // some default value
} else {
this.number = number;
}
}
}
this doesn't work if the JSON actually contains null, but it can be sufficient if you know it will only contain primitives or be absent
another option is to validate the object after deserialization either manually or via frameworks such java bean validation or, if you are using spring, the spring validation support.
Related
This question already has answers here:
How to distinguish between null and not provided values for partial updates in Spring Rest Controller
(8 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
I have a PATCH REST endpoint, exposing a JSON interface, which can be used to partially update an entity, based on the attributes which are actually sent in the body.
Let's consider a sample class representing the entity:
class Account {
private UUID accountUuid;
private UUID ownerUuid;
private String number;
private String alias;
// constructor, getters and setters omitted
}
where accountUuid, ownerUuid and number are required properties, and alias is optional. Additionally I have a command class for updating said account:
class UpdateAccountCommand {
private UUID accountUuid;
private String number;
private String alias;
// constructor, getters and setters omitted
}
For my PATCH endpoint, e.g. PATCH /accounts/{account-uuid}, I'd like to implement a functionality, that only properties actually sent in the request are changed:
// this should only update the account number
{"number": "123456"}
// this should only update the alias, by setting it to null
{"alias": null}
// this shouldn't update anything
{}
For required properties, this is fairly easy to do. After deserialisation from the JSON string to UpdateAccountCommand instance using Jackson, I simply check if a required property is null, and when it's not null, I update the given property.
However the situation complicates with optional properties, since the alias property is null in both cases:
when the request body explicitly specifies the alias as null,
when the alias property is not specified in the request body at all.
How can I model these optional properties, so that I can indicate this removable mechanism?
A naive solution would be to introduce some sort of a wrapper, which would not only contain the raw value (e.g. for the alias: string property), but also a boolean, indicating whether a property was specified in the body or not. This would require you to write a custom deserialisation mechanism, which can be a tedious work.
Since the question is about Java 8, for Java 8 and newer, I recommend using a nullable Optional, which works pretty much out of the box with Jackson.
For optional (removable fields), you change the raw values by wrapping them in optional:
class UpdateAccountCommand {
private UUID accountUuid;
private String number;
private Optional<String> alias;
// constructor, getters and setters omitted
}
In order for Jackson to work with Optional<*> fields correctly, the Jdk8Module module has to be registered to the object mapper, e.g.:
ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
objectMapper.registerModule(new Jdk8Module());
The following code:
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
objectMapper.registerModule(new Jdk8Module());
String withNewAliasS = "{\"alias\":\"New Alias\"}";
String withNullAliasS = "{\"alias\":null}";
String withoutPropertyS = "{}";
UpdateAccountCommand withNewAlias = objectMapper.readValue(withNewAliasS, UpdateAccountCommand.class);
if (withNewAlias.getAlias() != null && withNewAlias.getAlias().isPresent()) {
System.out.println("withNewAlias specified new alias.");
}
UpdateAccountCommand withNullAlias = objectMapper.readValue(withNullAliasS, UpdateAccountCommand.class);
if (withNullAlias.getAlias() != null && !withNullAlias.getAlias().isPresent()) {
System.out.println("withNullAlias will remove an alias.");
}
UpdateAccountCommand withoutProperty = objectMapper.readValue(withoutPropertyS, UpdateAccountCommand.class);
if (withoutProperty.getAlias() == null) {
System.out.println("withoutProperty did not contain alias property on input at all.");
}
}
then prints out this to the console:
withNewAlias specified new alias.
withNullAlias will remove an alias.
withoutProperty did not contain alias property on input at all.
you can add an additional boolean property which says if the optional property was present in request
class UpdateAccountCommand {
//...
private String alias;
#JsonIgnore
private boolean isAliasSet;
#JsonProperty
public void setAlias(String value) {
this.alias = value;
this.isAliasSet = true;
}
}
the setter is called only when "alias" is present, be it null or with value
I have a java class representing a JSON using Jackson. All of the fields, with one exception, can be translated using no annotations at all. 1-to-1, simple translations (although some of them are nested POJOs).
#Data
#AllArgsConstructor
#NoArgsConstructor
public class MyPojo {
private String someString;
private AnotherPojo someOtherPojo;
//The problem child:
private Object value;
}
The field value which is an exception to this rule, can represent any JSON field matching value* where * is a wildcard of indefinite length. That means valueString or valueReference in JSON will be assigned to this field with the assertion that only one may be present.
{
"someString": "asdasdadasdsa",
"someOtherPojo": {
"someOtherProperty": "whatever"
},
"valueCodeableConcept": {
"text": "text value",
"coding": [
{
"code": "my-code"
}
]
}
}
Using a custom deserializer on the top-level class, I can scrape all of the fields from the root node (baseNode in the following example) that start with value and set the value field appropriately. That works great! However, in doing so, I now have to set every other field in this MyPojo class manually in my deserializer, and I have to put a custom copy of this deserializer on each POJO that uses a field like value*.
private Object parseValueX(JsonNode baseNode, DeserializationContext context) throws IOException {
//Find the concrete implementation referred to by the value[x] field
Set<String> concreteNames = new HashSet<>();
baseNode.fieldNames().forEachRemaining(name -> {
if (name.startsWith("value")) {
concreteNames.add(name);
}});
if (concreteNames.isEmpty()) {
return null;
}
if (concreteNames.size() > 1) {
throw JsonMappingException.from(context, "The field value[x] must have no more than one concrete " +
"implementation, ex: valueCode, valueCodeableConcept, valueReference");
}
String concreteName = concreteNames.stream().findFirst().orElseThrow(() -> new RuntimeException(""));
JsonNode jsonSource = baseNode.get(concreteName);
//...deserialize from jsonSource, solved, but not relevant to question...
}
To make this apply to any value* property on any POJO, I tried to move the deserializer to the value attribute in the POJO (whereas it's on the top-level resource now). The first flaw is that the deserializer isn't even invoked unless the JSON property exactly matches value. What I actually need is for the entire parent JSON resource to be passed to that field-specific deserializer, so that I may find the matching field and assign it -- OR -- I need to be able to have the deserializer on MyPojo only assign the one field value and allow the automatic deserialization to take care of the others. How do I do either of these?
For those curious about my motivation, I am implementing the HL7 FHIR Specification, which specifies generic attributes called value[x] (here's one example: https://www.hl7.org/fhir/extensibility.html#Extension) where [x] becomes the type of the resource.
I think a good fit for you problem is #JsonAnySetter. This method annotation tells Jackson to route unknown properties to it. the arg (in your case) is a Map containing the json tree of the unknown property. if I understand your code properly, the name of the value property contains the class name of the target Pojo. so once you have a class name, you can tell Jackson how to "deserialize" the map into an instance of the target class.
Here is an example based on the code from the question
public class MyPojo {
public String someString; // made properties into public for this example...
public AnotherPojo someOtherPojo;
public Object value;
#JsonAnySetter
public void setValue(String name, Object value) {
System.out.println(name + " " + value.getClass());
System.out.println(value);
// basic validation
if (name.startsWith("value") && value instanceof Map) {
String className = "com.company." + name.substring("value".length());
System.out.println(name + " " + value.getClass() + " " + className);
System.out.println(value);
try {
// nice of Jackson to be able to deserialize Map into Pojo :)
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
this.value = mapper.convertValue(value, Class.forName(className));
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println(this.value + " " + this.value.getClass());
}
}
}
public class AnotherPojo {
public String someOtherProperty;
}
public class CodeableConcept {
public String text;
public Code[] coding;
}
public class Code {
public String code;
}
This is a general issue/problem that I have come across. I wondered if anyone knows of any well suited design patterns or techniques.
private ExternalObject personObject;
private String name;
private int age;
private String address;
private String postCode;
public MyBuilderClass(ExternalObject obj)
this.personObject=obj;
build();
}
public build() {
setName(personObject.getName());
setAge(personObject.getAge());
setAddress(personObject.getAddress());
setPostCode(personObject.getPostCode());
.
.
. many more setters
}
The class above takes external objects from a queue and constructs MyBuilderClass objects.
A MyBuilderClass object is successfully built if all of the fields have been set to non-null non-empty values.
There will be many MyBuilderClass objects that cannot be built because data will be missing from the ExternalObject.
My problem, what is the best way to detect if an object has been correctly built?
I could check for null or empty values in the set methods and throw an exception. The problem with this approach is throwing exceptions is expensive and it will clogg the log files up because there will be many instances where an object cannot be built;
What other approaches could I use?
Correct me if I'm wrong: you are trying to find a good way to check if an object is valid, and if it is not, tell the client code about this without using an exception.
You can try a factory method:
private MyBuilderClass(ExternalObject obj)
this.personObject=obj;
build();
}
public static MyBuilderClass initWithExternalObject(ExternalObject obj) {
// check obj's properties...
if (obj.getSomeProperty() == null && ...) {
// invalid external object, so return null
return null;
} else {
// valid
MyBuilderClass builder = new MyBuilderClass(obj);
return builder.build();
}
}
Now you know whether an object is valid without using an exception. You just need to check whether the value returned by initWithExternalObject is null.
I wouldn't throw exceptions in cases that aren't exceptional. And as the only way for a constructor not to produce an object is to throw, you should not delay validation to the constructor.
I'd still recommend the constructor to throw if its results were to be invalid, but there should be a validation before that, so you don't even call the constructor with an invalid ExternalObject.
It's up to you if you want to implement that as a static method boolean MyBuilderClass.validate(ExternalObject) or by using the builder pattern with this validation.
Another approach for such a validation is to use java Annotations:
Make a simple annotaion class, let's say Validate:
#Target({ElementType.FIELD})
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#interface Validate {
boolean required() default true;
}
then annotate the fields you want to be present as #Validate(required=true):
class MyBuilderClass {
private ExternalObject externalObject;
#Validate(required=true)
private String name;
#Validate(required=false) /*since it's a primitive field*/
private int age;
#Validate(required=true)
private String address;
#Validate(required=true)
private String postCode;
MyBuilderClass(ExternalObject externalObject) {
this.externalObject = externalObject;
build();
}
public void build() {
setName(personObject.getName());
setAge(personObject.getAge());
setAddress(personObject.getAddress());
setPostCode(personObject.getPostCode());
}
//.
//.
//. many more setters
}
And then add this method in the MyBuilderClass class, in order to check if your Object is built correctly:
public boolean isCorrectlyBuilt() throws IllegalAccessException {
boolean retVal = true;
for (Field f : getClass().getDeclaredFields()) {
f.setAccessible(true);
boolean isToBeChecked = f.isAnnotationPresent(Validate.class);
if (isToBeChecked) {
Validate validate = f.getAnnotation(Validate.class);
if (validate.required()/*==true*/) {
if (f.get(this) == null) {
retVal = false;
break;
/* return false; */
}
}
}
}
return retVal;
}
Here is an example of use :
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
ExternalObject personObject = new ExternalObject();
personObject.setAge(20);
personObject.setName("Musta");
personObject.setAddress("Home");
personObject.setPostCode("123445678");
MyBuilderClass myBuilderClass = new MyBuilderClass(personObject);
System.out.println(myBuilderClass.isCorrectlyBuilt());
}
Output : true because the object is correctly built.
This will allow you to choose the fields that you want to be in the structure by reflection, without bringing those inherited from a base class.
As this previous answer suggests, here are 2 options either of which should be added after you have tried to set the variables.
use reflection to check whether any of the variables are null. (As mentioned in comments this will check all fields in this object but be careful with fields in any superclasses).
public boolean checkNull() throws IllegalAccessException {
for (Field f : getClass().getDeclaredFields())
if (f.get(this) != null)
return false;
return true;
}
perform a null check on each variable.
boolean isValidObject = !Stream.of(name, age, ...).anyMatch(Objects::isNull);
Previous answer
From what I've come across you could overwrite the equals method of your object and compare it with a valid example object. Its dirty and might only work in some cases.
Your approach is the best I could think of. Write a seperate method or class that has for example a static validate method. You could reuse it anywhere.
My basic question: is there anything built that already does this automatically (doesn't have to be part of a popular library/package)? The main things I'm working with are Spring (MVC) and Jackson2.
I understand there are a few manual ways to do this:
Create a method in each class that serializes its specific properties into property=value& form (kind of stinks because it's a bunch of logic duplication, I feel).
Create a function that accepts an object, and uses reflection to dynamically read all the properties (I guess the getters), and build the string by getting each. I'm assuming this is how Jackson works for serialization/deserialization in general, but I really don't know.
Use some feature of Jackson to customly serialize the object. I've researched custom serializers, but it seems they are specific to a class (so I'd have to create one for each Class I'm trying to serialize), while I was hoping for a generic way. I'm just having trouble understanding how to apply one universally to objects. A few of the links:
http://techtraits.com/Programming/2011/11/20/using-custom-serializers-with-jackson/
http://wiki.fasterxml.com/JacksonHowToCustomSerializers
Use ObjectMapper.convertValue(object, HashMap.class);, iterate over the HashMap's key/value pairs, and build the string (which is what I'm using now, but I feel the conversions are excessive?).
I'm guessing there's others I'm not thinking of.
The main post I've looked into is Java: Getting the properties of a class to construct a string representation
My point is that I have several classes that I want to be able to serialize without having to specify something specific for each. That's why I'm thinking a function using reflection (#2 above) is the only way to handle this (if I have to do it manually).
If it helps, an example of what I mean is with, say, these two classes:
public class C1 {
private String C1prop1;
private String C1prop2;
private String C1prop3;
// Getters and setters for the 3 properties
}
public class C2 {
private String C2prop1;
private String C2prop2;
private String C2prop3;
// Getters and setters for the 3 properties
}
(no, the properties names and conventions are not what my actual app is using, it's just an example)
The results of serializing would be C1prop1=value&C1prop2=value&C1prop3=value and C2prop1=value&C2prop2=value&C2prop3=value, but there's only one place that defines how the serialization happens (already defined somewhere, or created manually by me).
So my idea is that I will have to end up using a form of the following (taken from the post I linked above):
public String toString() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
try {
Class c = Class.forName(this.getClass().getName());
Method m[] = c.getDeclaredMethods();
Object oo;
for (int i = 0; i < m.length; i++)
if (m[i].getName().startsWith("get")) {
oo = m[i].invoke(this, null);
sb.append(m[i].getName().substring(3) + ":"
+ String.valueOf(oo) + "\n");
}
} catch (Throwable e) {
System.err.println(e);
}
return sb.toString();
}
And modify it to accept an object, and change the format of the items appended to the StringBuilder. That works for me, I don't need help modifying this now.
So again, my main question is if there's something that already handles this (potentially simple) serialization instead of me having to (quickly) modify the function above, even if I have to specify how to deal with each property and value and how to combine each?
If it helps, the background of this is that I'm using a RestTemplate (Spring) to make a GET request to a different server, and I want to pass a specific object's properties/values in the URL. I understand I can use something like:
restTemplate.getForObject("URL?C1prop1={C1Prop1}&...", String.class, C1Object);
I believe the properties will be automatically mapped. But like I said, I don't want to have to make a different URL template and method for each object type. I'm hoping to have something like the following:
public String getRequest(String url, Object obj) {
String serializedUri = SERIALIZE_URI(obj);
String response = restTemplate.getForObject("URL?" + serializedUri, String.class);
return response;
}
where SERIALIZE_URI is where I'd handle it. And I could call it like getRequest("whatever", C1Object); and getRequest("whateverElse", C2Object);.
I think, solution number 4 is OK. It is simple to understand and clear.
I propose similar solution in which we can use #JsonAnySetter annotation. Please, see below example:
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonAnySetter;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
public class JacksonProgram {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
C1 c1 = new C1();
c1.setProp1("a");
c1.setProp3("c");
User user = new User();
user.setName("Tom");
user.setSurname("Irg");
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
System.out.println(mapper.convertValue(c1, UriFormat.class));
System.out.println(mapper.convertValue(user, UriFormat.class));
}
}
class UriFormat {
private StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
#JsonAnySetter
public void addToUri(String name, Object property) {
if (builder.length() > 0) {
builder.append("&");
}
builder.append(name).append("=").append(property);
}
#Override
public String toString() {
return builder.toString();
}
}
Above program prints:
prop1=a&prop2=null&prop3=c
name=Tom&surname=Irg
And your getRequest method could look like this:
public String getRequest(String url, Object obj) {
String serializedUri = mapper.convertValue(obj, UriFormat.class).toString();
String response = restTemplate.getForObject(url + "?" + serializedUri, String.class);
return response;
}
Lets we have c1.
c1.setC1prop1("C1prop1");
c1.setC1prop2("C1prop2");
c1.setC1prop3("C1prop3");
Converts c1 into URI
UriComponentsBuilder.fromHttpUrl("http://test.com")
.queryParams(new ObjectMapper().convertValue(c1, LinkedMultiValueMap.class))
.build()
.toUri());
After we will have
http://test.com?c1prop1=C1prop1&c1prop2=C1prop2&c1prop3=C1prop3
I use FlexJson for serialization, the only problem is that it generates the field names lower case while I need them to start with upper case:
class Person
{
String name;
public String getName() { return name;}
}
When serialized the field is serialized as name, while I need it to be Name.
How can I specify the output field name? Is there some attribute I can put to specify the required serialization name?
You can achieve this by using a Custom Transformer. As per Flexjson page transformer is:
Responsible for deciding how to translate the passed in object to
JSON, making the appropriate calls on the JSONContext object to output
the JSON, and/or passing the object along the transformation process.
Flexjson has provided an abstract class AbstractTransformer for this purpose; Extend and override transform(Object object) to handle the transformation by yourself.
Pasted below is the code of FieldNameTransformer which I wrote for specifying the field name s manually:
public class FieldNameTransformer extends AbstractTransformer {
private String transformedFieldName;
public FieldNameTransformer(String transformedFieldName) {
this.transformedFieldName = transformedFieldName;
}
public void transform(Object object) {
boolean setContext = false;
TypeContext typeContext = getContext().peekTypeContext();
//Write comma before starting to write field name if this
//isn't first property that is being transformed
if (!typeContext.isFirst())
getContext().writeComma();
typeContext.setFirst(false);
getContext().writeName(getTransformedFieldName());
getContext().writeQuoted(object.toString());
if (setContext) {
getContext().writeCloseObject();
}
}
/***
* TRUE tells the JSONContext that this class will be handling
* the writing of our property name by itself.
*/
#Override
public Boolean isInline() {
return Boolean.TRUE;
}
public String getTransformedFieldName() {
return this.transformedFieldName;
}
}
Following is how to use this custom transformer:
JSONSerializer serializer = new JSONSerializer().transform(new FieldNameTransformer("Name"), "name");
where original field's name is 'name' but in json ouput it will be replaced with Name.
Sample out:
{"Name":"Abdul Kareem"}