Value Dependent Deserialization with Jackson - jackson

Question

I want to deserialize into a data structure. Dependent on the version of the JSON data I want to deserialize into different implementations of the same interface. And this works so far with a custom deserializer.
However, in the data structure I use references. And I expect that when undefined references are encountered an exception is thrown. The way I programmed it, this does not work together with the interface.
I created a small example with a (currently not passing) test case to show the desired behavior.
Additional Information:
In the test case, when I use concrete classes (instead of the interface) in readValue the desired behavior occurs. That is, when I write mapper.readValue(buggy, Database2.class); instead of mapper.readValue(buggy, DatabaseI.class);. But then I lose the ability to abstract from the particular content of the JSON data.
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrows;
import com.btc.adt.pop.scen.objectstreams.Person;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JacksonException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationFeature;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.StdDeserializer;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.module.SimpleModule;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.IntNode;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
public class Example {
#Test
public void test() throws JsonProcessingException {
ObjectMapper mapper =
new ObjectMapper().configure(DeserializationFeature.FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES, false)
.configure(JsonParser.Feature.ALLOW_SINGLE_QUOTES, true);
SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule();
module.addDeserializer(DatabaseI.class, new ToyDeserializer());
mapper.registerModule(module);
String correct = "{'version':1,'people':[{'id':'a','friends':['b','c']},{'id':'b','friends':['c']},{'id':'c','friends':['b']}]}";
DatabaseI deserCorrect = mapper.readValue(correct, DatabaseI.class);
System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(deserCorrect));
String buggy = "{'version':2,'people':[{'id':'a','friends':['b','c']},{'id':'b','friends':['c']},{'id':'c','friends':['FOO']}]}";
assertThrows(Exception.class, () -> {
mapper.readValue(buggy, DatabaseI.class);
}, "The reference FOO is undefined. An Exception should be thrown.");
}
}
class Person {
#JsonProperty("id")
private String id;
#JsonIdentityInfo(generator = ObjectIdGenerators.PropertyGenerator.class,
property = "id")
#JsonIdentityReference(alwaysAsId = true)
private List<Person> friends = new ArrayList<>();
public Person() {
}
public String getId() {
return id;
}
public void setId(String id) {
this.id = id;
}
public List<Person> getFriends() {
return friends;
}
public void setFriends(List<Person> friends) {
this.friends = friends;
}
}
interface DatabaseI {
}
class Database1 implements DatabaseI {
private int version;
private List<Person> people = new ArrayList<>();
public Database1() {
}
public List<Person> getPeople() {
return people;
}
public void setPeople(List<Person> people) {
this.people = people;
}
public int getVersion() {
return version;
}
public void setVersion(int version) {
this.version = version;
}
}
class Database2 implements DatabaseI {
private String version;
private List<Person> people = new ArrayList<>();
public Database2() {
}
public List<Person> getPeople() {
return people;
}
public void setPeople(List<Person> people) {
this.people = people;
}
public String getVersion() {
return version;
}
public void setVersion(String version) {
this.version = version;
}
}
class ToyDeserializer extends StdDeserializer<DatabaseI> {
protected ToyDeserializer(Class<?> vc) {
super(vc);
}
public ToyDeserializer() {
this(null);
}
#Override
public DatabaseI deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws IOException, JacksonException {
ObjectMapper mapper = (ObjectMapper) jp.getCodec();
JsonNode node = mapper.readTree(jp);
int version = (Integer) ((IntNode) node.get("version")).numberValue();
if (version == 1) {
return mapper.treeToValue(node, Database1.class);
} else {
return mapper.treeToValue(node, Database2.class);
}
}
}

Answer 1

This very good question! If you want to understand why no exception is thrown, your class Person must look like this:
#JsonIdentityInfo(
generator = ObjectIdGenerators.PropertyGenerator.class,
property = "id",
scope = Person.class,
resolver = SimpleObjectIdResolverThrowsException.class
)
#JsonIdentityReference
class Person {
String id;
List<Person> friends = new ArrayList<>();
#ConstructorProperties({"id"})
public Person(String id) {
this.id = id;
}
public String getId() {
return id;
}
public void setId(String id) {
this.id = id;
}
public List<Person> getFriends() {
return friends;
}
public void setFriends(List<Person> friends) {
this.friends = friends;
}
}
class SimpleObjectIdResolverThrowsException extends SimpleObjectIdResolver {
public SimpleObjectIdResolverThrowsException() {
super();
}
#Override
public Object resolveId(ObjectIdGenerator.IdKey id) {
if (this._items == null) {
return null;
}
Object obj = this._items.get(id);
if (obj == null) {
throw new RuntimeException("Unresolved reference for: " + id);
}
return obj;
}
#Override
public ObjectIdResolver newForDeserialization(Object context) {
return new SimpleObjectIdResolverThrowsException();
}
}
Now you can set break point in the method resolveId and see what happens when we de-serialize the string "{'version':1,'people':[{'id':'a','friends':['b','c']},{'id':'b','friends':['c']},{'id':'c','friends':['b']}]}":
The problem is that the objects are processed one after the other and the references from the friends list are not resolved at that time.