Jackson: How to add custom property to the JSON without modifying the POJO

Question

I am developing a REST interface for my app using Jackson to serialize my POJO domain objects to JSON representation. I want to customize the serialization for some types to

Answer 1

For my use case, I could use a much simpler way. In a the base class I have for all my "Jackson Pojos" I add:

protected Map<String,Object> dynamicProperties = new HashMap<String,Object>();

...


public Object get(String name) {
    return dynamicProperties.get(name);
}

// "any getter" needed for serialization    
@JsonAnyGetter
public Map<String,Object> any() {
    return dynamicProperties;
}

@JsonAnySetter
public void set(String name, Object value) {
    dynamicProperties.put(name, value);
}

I can now deserialize to Pojo, work with fields and reserialize witjout losing any properties. I can also add/change non pojo properties:

// Pojo fields
person.setFirstName("Annna");

// Dynamic field
person.set("ex", "test");

(Got it from Cowtowncoder)

Answer 2

You can do this (previous version did not work with Jackson after 2.6, but this works with Jackson 2.7.3):

public static class CustomModule extends SimpleModule {
    public CustomModule() {
        addSerializer(CustomClass.class, new CustomClassSerializer());
    }

    private static class CustomClassSerializer extends JsonSerializer {
        @Override
        public void serialize(Object value, JsonGenerator jgen, SerializerProvider provider) throws IOException {
            //Validate.isInstanceOf(CustomClass.class, value);
            jgen.writeStartObject();
            JavaType javaType = provider.constructType(CustomClass.class);
            BeanDescription beanDesc = provider.getConfig().introspect(javaType);
            JsonSerializer<Object> serializer = BeanSerializerFactory.instance.findBeanSerializer(provider,
                    javaType,
                    beanDesc);
            // this is basically your 'writeAllFields()'-method:
            serializer.unwrappingSerializer(null).serialize(value, jgen, provider);
            jgen.writeObjectField("my_extra_field", "some data");
            jgen.writeEndObject();
        }
    }
}

Update:

I tried it out with Jackson 2.9.0 and 2.9.6 and it worked as expected with both. Perhaps try this out: http://jdoodle.com/a/z99 (run it locally - jdoodle apparently can't handle Jackson).

Answer 3

Another and perhaps the most simple solution:

Make serialisation a 2-step process. First create a Map<String,Object> like:

Map<String,Object> map = req.mapper().convertValue( result, new TypeReference<Map<String,Object>>() {} );

then add the properties you want like:

map.put( "custom", "value" );

then serialise this to json:

String json = req.mapper().writeValueAsString( map );

Answer 4

We can extend BeanSerializer, but with little trick.

First, define a java class to wrapper your POJO.

@JsonSerialize(using = MixinResultSerializer.class)
public class MixinResult {

    private final Object origin;
    private final Map<String, String> mixed = Maps.newHashMap();

    @JsonCreator
    public MixinResult(@JsonProperty("origin") Object origin) {
        this.origin = origin;
    }

    public void add(String key, String value) {
        this.mixed.put(key, value);
    }

    public Map<String, String> getMixed() {
        return mixed;
    }

    public Object getOrigin() {
        return origin;
    }

}

Then，implement your custom serializer.

public final class MixinResultSerializer extends BeanSerializer {

    public MixinResultSerializer() {
        super(SimpleType.construct(MixinResult.class), null, new BeanPropertyWriter[0], new BeanPropertyWriter[0]);
    }

    public MixinResultSerializer(BeanSerializerBase base) {
        super(base);
    }

    @Override
    protected void serializeFields(Object bean, JsonGenerator gen, SerializerProvider provider) throws IOException {
        if (bean instanceof MixinResult) {
            MixinResult mixin  = (MixinResult) bean;
            Object      origin = mixin.getOrigin();

            BeanSerializer serializer = (BeanSerializer) provider.findValueSerializer(SimpleType.construct(origin.getClass()));

            new MixinResultSerializer(serializer).serializeFields(origin, gen, provider);

            mixin.getMixed().entrySet()
                    .stream()
                    .filter(entry -> entry.getValue() != null)
                    .forEach((entry -> {
                        try {
                            gen.writeFieldName(entry.getKey());
                            gen.writeRawValue(entry.getValue());
                        } catch (IOException e) {
                            throw new RuntimeException(e);
                        }
                    }));
        } else {
            super.serializeFields(bean, gen, provider);
        }

    }

}

This way, we can handle the case that origin object using jackson annotations to custom serialize behavior.

Answer 5

Though this question is already answered, I found another way that requires no special Jackson hooks.

static class JsonWrapper<T> {
    @JsonUnwrapped
    private T inner;
    private String extraField;

    public JsonWrapper(T inner, String field) {
        this.inner = inner;
        this.extraField = field;
    }

    public T getInner() {
        return inner;
    }

    public String getExtraField() {
        return extraField;
    }
}

static class BaseClass {
    private String baseField;

    public BaseClass(String baseField) {
        this.baseField = baseField;
    }

    public String getBaseField() {
        return baseField;
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) throws JsonProcessingException {
    Object input = new JsonWrapper<>(new BaseClass("inner"), "outer");
    System.out.println(new ObjectMapper().writerWithDefaultPrettyPrinter().writeValueAsString(input));
}

Outputs:

{
  "baseField" : "inner",
  "extraField" : "outer"
}

For writing collections, you can simply use a view:

public static void main(String[] args) throws JsonProcessingException {
    List<BaseClass> inputs = Arrays.asList(new BaseClass("1"), new BaseClass("2"));
    //Google Guava Library <3
    List<JsonWrapper<BaseClass>> modInputs = Lists.transform(inputs, base -> new JsonWrapper<>(base, "hello"));
    System.out.println(new ObjectMapper().writerWithDefaultPrettyPrinter().writeValueAsString(modInputs));
}

Output:

[ {
  "baseField" : "1",
  "extraField" : "hello"
}, {
  "baseField" : "2",
  "extraField" : "hello"
} ]

Answer 6

Inspired from what wajda said and written in this gist:

Here is how to add a listener for bean serialization in jackson 1.9.12. In this example, the listerner is considered as a Chain Of Command which interface is :

public interface BeanSerializerListener {
    void postSerialization(Object value, JsonGenerator jgen) throws IOException;
}

MyBeanSerializer.java:

public class MyBeanSerializer extends BeanSerializerBase {
    private final BeanSerializerListener serializerListener;

    protected MyBeanSerializer(final BeanSerializerBase src, final BeanSerializerListener serializerListener) {
        super(src);
        this.serializerListener = serializerListener;
    }

    @Override
    public void serialize(final Object bean, final JsonGenerator jgen, final SerializerProvider provider) throws IOException, JsonGenerationException {
        jgen.writeStartObject();
        if (_propertyFilterId != null) {
            serializeFieldsFiltered(bean, jgen, provider);
        } else {
            serializeFields(bean, jgen, provider);
        }

        serializerListener.postSerialization(bean, jgen);

        jgen.writeEndObject();
    }
}

MyBeanSerializerBuilder.java:

public class MyBeanSerializerBuilder extends BeanSerializerBuilder {
    private final BeanSerializerListener serializerListener;

    public MyBeanSerializerBuilder(final BasicBeanDescription beanDesc, final BeanSerializerListener serializerListener) {
        super(beanDesc);
        this.serializerListener = serializerListener;
    }

    @Override
    public JsonSerializer<?> build() {
        BeanSerializerBase src = (BeanSerializerBase) super.build();
        return new MyBeanSerializer(src, serializerListener);
    }
}

MyBeanSerializerFactory.java:

public class MyBeanSerializerFactory extends BeanSerializerFactory {

    private final BeanSerializerListener serializerListener;

    public MyBeanSerializerFactory(final BeanSerializerListener serializerListener) {
        super(null);
        this.serializerListener = serializerListener;
    }

    @Override
    protected BeanSerializerBuilder constructBeanSerializerBuilder(final BasicBeanDescription beanDesc) {
        return new MyBeanSerializerBuilder(beanDesc, serializerListener);
    }
}

The last class below shows how to provide it using Resteasy 3.0.7:

@Provider
public class ObjectMapperProvider implements ContextResolver<ObjectMapper> {
    private final MapperConfigurator mapperCfg;

    public ObjectMapperProvider() {
        mapperCfg = new MapperConfigurator(null, null);
        mapperCfg.setAnnotationsToUse(new Annotations[]{Annotations.JACKSON, Annotations.JAXB});
        mapperCfg.getConfiguredMapper().setSerializerFactory(serializerFactory);
    }

    @Override
    public ObjectMapper getContext(final Class<?> type) {
        return mapperCfg.getConfiguredMapper();
    }
}