Deserialize JSON array into Map using Jackson in Java - serialization

Question

I'm using fasterXML's Jackson (v2.3.3) library to deserialize and serialize a custom class. The class is defined as following:
public class Person {
private String name;
private Map<String, Person> children;
// lots of other fields of different types with no issues
}
the keys of map children are the name fields. I receive data in JSON with each person object structured as following (I have omitted the other fields):
{"name":"Bob", "children":[{"name":"Jimmmy"},{"name":"Judy"}]}
(Many Fields such as children are optional and aren't serialized when null)
I have been storing children in a List<Person> so far with no issues, but many new use cases need to have access to the set of names or to a specific Person using his name as key. This is why I have decided to store them using a Map.
After some research, I think the best way is to use Annotations #JsonDeserialize and #JsonSerialize with a JsonDeserializer and JsonSerializer as parameter respectively for the field children:
public class Person {
private String id;
#JsonSerialize(using=MySerializer.class)
#JsonDeserialize(using=MyDeserializer.class)
private Map<String, Person> friends;
// lots of other fields
}
My question is: Does such a JsonSerializer/JsonDeserializer exist and if not, how do I define one?
edit: I have started implementing a custom Deserializer, but I get this exception:
com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException: Class has no default (no arg) constructor
which is weird because I have defined a default constructor. Here is my custom Deserializer:
public class MyDeserializer extends JsonDeserializer<Map<String, Person>> {
public MyDeserializer() {
}
#Override
public Map<String, Person> deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt)
throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
JsonNode personsNodeArray = jp.getCodec().readTree(jp);
Map<String, Person> newChildren = null;
if (personsNodeArray.isArray() && personsNodeArray.size() > 0) {
newChildren = new HashMap<String, Person>();
for (JsonNode personNode : personsNodeArray) {
String id = personNode.get("name").asText();
// jsonMapper is a default ObjectMapper
newChildren.put(id, jsonMapper.readValue(personNode.toString(), Person.class));
}
}
return newChildren;
}
}

Answer 1

You can also consider reading children information as a collection of persons with subsequent conversion into a map. You can define a setter method (or a constructor parameter) to accept a List<Person> and then put each element into the Map<String, Person> children field. That would avoid unnecessary complexity of custom serialisation.
Here is an example:
public class JacksonChildren {
public static final String JSON = "{\"name\":\"Bob\", \"children\":[{\"name\":\"Jimmmy\"}," +
"{\"name\":\"Judy\"}]}";
public static class Person {
public String name;
private Map<String, Person> children = new HashMap<>();
public void setChildren(final List<Person> children) {
for (Person p : children) {
this.children.put(p.name, p);
}
}
#Override
public String toString() {
return "Person{" +
"name='" + name + '\'' +
", children=" + children +
'}';
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
System.out.println(mapper.readValue(JSON, Person.class));
}
}
Output:
Person{name='Bob', children={Judy=Person{name='Judy', children={}}, Jimmmy=Person{name='Jimmmy', children={}}}}