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Jackson JSON - Jackson Commonly used Configuration Examples

[Last Updated: Jun 1, 2021]

Jackson provides SerializationFeature/DeserializationFeature (also known as Jackson configurations) to customize ObjectMapper behavior. Followings are quick examples to get familiar with the commonly used such features.

  • Enabling Indented Output

    A POJO:

    public class MyObject {
      private int intVal;
      private String stringVal;
      private List<String> list;
        .............
    }

    Using default:

    By default JSON output is not indented:

       MyObject myObject = new MyObject(3, "test String",
               List.of("one", "two"));
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       String s = om.writeValueAsString(myObject);
       System.out.println(s);
    
    {"intVal":3,"stringVal":"test String","list":["one","two"]}

    Enabling INDENT_OUTPUT

       MyObject myObject = new MyObject(3, "test String",
               List.of("one", "two"));
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       om.enable(SerializationFeature.INDENT_OUTPUT);
       String s = om.writeValueAsString(myObject);
       System.out.println(s);
    
    {
    "intVal" : 3,
    "stringVal" : "test String",
    "list" : [ "one", "two" ]
    }


  • Fail on Unknown Properties

    Following POJO does not have a corresponding property for getStrVal() method (according to the Java Bean convention):

    public class MyObject2 {
      private int intVal;
    
      public MyObject2(int intVal) {
          this.intVal = intVal;
      }
    
      public MyObject2() {
      }
    
      public int getIntVal() {
          return intVal;
      }
    
      public void setIntVal(int intVal) {
          this.intVal = intVal;
      }
    
      public String getStrVal() {
          return Integer.toString(intVal);
      }
        .............
    }

    Using default:

       MyObject2 myObject = new MyObject2(3);
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       String s = om.writeValueAsString(myObject);
       System.out.println(s);
       myObject = om.readValue(s, MyObject2.class);
       System.out.println(myObject);
    
    {"intVal":3,"strVal":"3"}
    com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.UnrecognizedPropertyException: Unrecognized field "strVal" (class com.logicbig.example.MyObject2), not marked as ignorable (one known property: "intVal"])
    at [Source: (String)"{"intVal":3,"strVal":"3"}"; line: 1, column: 23] (through reference chain: com.logicbig.example.MyObject2["strVal"])
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.UnrecognizedPropertyException.from(UnrecognizedPropertyException.java:60)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.handleUnknownProperty(DeserializationContext.java:822)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.StdDeserializer.handleUnknownProperty(StdDeserializer.java:1152)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase.handleUnknownProperty(BeanDeserializerBase.java:1567)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase.handleUnknownVanilla(BeanDeserializerBase.java:1545)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.vanillaDeserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:293)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:151)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._readMapAndClose(ObjectMapper.java:4001)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.readValue(ObjectMapper.java:2992)
    at com.logicbig.example.DisableFailOnUnknownProps.defaultOutput(DisableFailOnUnknownProps.java:18)

    Disabling FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES

       MyObject2 myObject = new MyObject2(3);
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       om.disable(DeserializationFeature.FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES);
       String s = om.writeValueAsString(myObject);
       System.out.println(s);
       myObject = om.readValue(s, MyObject2.class);
       System.out.println(myObject);
    
    {"intVal":3,"strVal":"3"}
    MyObject2{intVal=3}


  • Allow serialization of empty POJOs

    Following POJO does not have any Java Bean properties:

    public class MyEmptyObject {
      private int i = 10;
    }

    Using default:

       MyEmptyObject myObject = new MyEmptyObject();
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       String s = om.writeValueAsString(myObject);
       System.out.println(s);
    
    com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException: No serializer found for class com.logicbig.example.MyEmptyObject and no properties discovered to create BeanSerializer (to avoid exception, disable SerializationFeature.FAIL_ON_EMPTY_BEANS)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException.from(InvalidDefinitionException.java:77)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializerProvider.reportBadDefinition(SerializerProvider.java:1191)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DatabindContext.reportBadDefinition(DatabindContext.java:312)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.impl.UnknownSerializer.failForEmpty(UnknownSerializer.java:71)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.impl.UnknownSerializer.serialize(UnknownSerializer.java:33)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.DefaultSerializerProvider._serialize(DefaultSerializerProvider.java:480)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.DefaultSerializerProvider.serializeValue(DefaultSerializerProvider.java:319)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._configAndWriteValue(ObjectMapper.java:3893)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.writeValueAsString(ObjectMapper.java:3207)
    at com.logicbig.example.DisableFailOnEmptyBeans.defaultOutput(DisableFailOnEmptyBeans.java:16)

    Disabling FAIL_ON_EMPTY_BEANS

       MyEmptyObject myObject = new MyEmptyObject();
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       om.disable(SerializationFeature.FAIL_ON_EMPTY_BEANS);
       String s = om.writeValueAsString(myObject);
       System.out.println(s);
    
    {}


  • Assigning JSON empty string to null POJO

    By default a JSON empty string ("") cannot be assign to a user defined POJO:

       String s = "{\"myObjKey\":\"\"}";
       System.out.println("input:\n" + s);
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       Map<String, MyObject> myObject = om.readValue(s, new TypeReference<Map<String, MyObject>>() { });
       System.out.println(myObject);
    
    input:
    {"myObjKey":""}
    com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.MismatchedInputException: Cannot construct instance of `com.logicbig.example.MyObject` (although at least one Creator exists): no String-argument constructor/factory method to deserialize from String value ('')
    at [Source: (String)"{"myObjKey":""}"; line: 1, column: 13] (through reference chain: java.util.LinkedHashMap["myObjKey"])
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.MismatchedInputException.from(MismatchedInputException.java:63)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.reportInputMismatch(DeserializationContext.java:1342)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.handleMissingInstantiator(DeserializationContext.java:1031)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.ValueInstantiator._createFromStringFallbacks(ValueInstantiator.java:370)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.StdValueInstantiator.createFromString(StdValueInstantiator.java:314)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase.deserializeFromString(BeanDeserializerBase.java:1351)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer._deserializeOther(BeanDeserializer.java:170)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:161)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.MapDeserializer._readAndBindStringKeyMap(MapDeserializer.java:527)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.MapDeserializer.deserialize(MapDeserializer.java:364)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.MapDeserializer.deserialize(MapDeserializer.java:29)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._readMapAndClose(ObjectMapper.java:4001)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.readValue(ObjectMapper.java:3011)
    at com.logicbig.example.EnableEmptyStringAsNullPojo.defaultOutput(EnableEmptyStringAsNullPojo.java:19)

    Enabling ACCEPT_EMPTY_STRING_AS_NULL_OBJECT

    This feature assigns JSON empty string to the target object as null value.

       String s = "{\"myObjKey\":\"\"}";
       System.out.println("input:\n " + s);
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       om.enable(DeserializationFeature.ACCEPT_EMPTY_STRING_AS_NULL_OBJECT);
       Map<String, MyObject> myObject = om.readValue(s, new TypeReference<Map<String, MyObject>>() { });
       System.out.println(myObject);
    
    input:
    {"myObjKey":""}
    {myObjKey=null}

    This property does not mean that an empty JSON string will be assigned to Java String as null, but it means that it will assign the empty string to a null POJO.

    Note that, by default Java simple objects are assigned as null without enabling this feature. Check out EmptyStringAsNullSimpleObject example in the project browser below.



  • Serialize java.util.Date as formatted String

    Using default:

       Date date = new Date();
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       String s = om.writeValueAsString(Map.of("myDate", date));
       System.out.println(s);
    
    {"myDate":1512684866094}

    Disabling WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS

       Date date = new Date();
       ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
       om.disable(SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS);
       String s = om.writeValueAsString(Map.of("myDate", date));
       System.out.println(s);
    
    {"myDate":"2017-12-07T22:14:26.951+0000"}


Example Project

Dependencies and Technologies Used:

  • jackson-databind 2.9.2: General data-binding functionality for Jackson: works on core streaming API.
  • JDK 9
  • Maven 3.3.9

Jackson Commonly used Configurations Examples Select All Download
  • jackson-commonly-used-configurations
    • src
      • main
        • java
          • com
            • logicbig
              • example
                • DisableFailOnUnknownProps.java

    See Also