Serializing enums with Jackson

Question

I have an Enum desrcibed below:

public enum OrderType {

  UNKNOWN(0, \"Undefined\"),
  TYPEA(1, \"Type A\"),
  TYPEB(2, \"Type B\"),
  TYPEC(3, \"Type C\");         


        

Answer 1

Here is my solution. I want transform enum to {id: ..., name: ...} form.

With Jackson 1.x:

pom.xml:

<properties>
    <jackson.version>1.9.13</jackson.version>
</properties>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
        <artifactId>jackson-core-asl</artifactId>
        <version>${jackson.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
        <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
        <version>${jackson.version}</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Rule.java:

import org.codehaus.jackson.map.annotate.JsonSerialize;
import my.NamedEnumJsonSerializer;
import my.NamedEnum;

@Entity
@Table(name = "RULE")
public class Rule {
    @Column(name = "STATUS", nullable = false, updatable = true)
    @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
    @JsonSerialize(using = NamedEnumJsonSerializer.class)
    private Status status;
    public Status getStatus() { return status; }
    public void setStatus(Status status) { this.status = status; }

    public static enum Status implements NamedEnum {
        OPEN("open rule"),
        CLOSED("closed rule"),
        WORKING("rule in work");

        private String name;
        Status(String name) { this.name = name; }
        public String getName() { return this.name; }
    };
}

NamedEnum.java:

package my;

public interface NamedEnum {
    String name();
    String getName();
}

NamedEnumJsonSerializer.java:

package my;

import my.NamedEnum;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.*;
import org.codehaus.jackson.JsonGenerator;
import org.codehaus.jackson.JsonProcessingException;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.JsonSerializer;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.SerializerProvider;

public class NamedEnumJsonSerializer extends JsonSerializer<NamedEnum> {
    @Override
    public void serialize(NamedEnum value, JsonGenerator jgen, SerializerProvider provider) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
        Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<>();
        map.put("id", value.name());
        map.put("name", value.getName());
        jgen.writeObject(map);
    }
}

With Jackson 2.x:

pom.xml:

<properties>
    <jackson.version>2.3.3</jackson.version>
</properties>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
        <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
        <version>${jackson.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
        <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
        <version>${jackson.version}</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Rule.java:

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonFormat;

@Entity
@Table(name = "RULE")
public class Rule {
    @Column(name = "STATUS", nullable = false, updatable = true)
    @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
    private Status status;
    public Status getStatus() { return status; }
    public void setStatus(Status status) { this.status = status; }

    @JsonFormat(shape = JsonFormat.Shape.OBJECT)
    public static enum Status {
        OPEN("open rule"),
        CLOSED("closed rule"),
        WORKING("rule in work");

        private String name;
        Status(String name) { this.name = name; }
        public String getName() { return this.name; }
        public String getId() { return this.name(); }
    };
}

Rule.Status.CLOSED translated to {id: "CLOSED", name: "closed rule"}.

Answer 2

In Spring Boot 2, the easiest way is to declare in your application.properties:

spring.jackson.serialization.WRITE_ENUMS_USING_TO_STRING=true
spring.jackson.deserialization.READ_ENUMS_USING_TO_STRING=true

and define the toString() method of your enums.

Answer 3

Finally I found solution myself.

I had to annotate enum with @JsonSerialize(using = OrderTypeSerializer.class) and implement custom serializer:

public class OrderTypeSerializer extends JsonSerializer<OrderType> {

  @Override
  public void serialize(OrderType value, JsonGenerator generator,
            SerializerProvider provider) throws IOException,
            JsonProcessingException {

    generator.writeStartObject();
    generator.writeFieldName("id");
    generator.writeNumber(value.getId());
    generator.writeFieldName("name");
    generator.writeString(value.getName());
    generator.writeEndObject();
  }
}

Answer 4

An easy way to serialize Enum is using @JsonFormat annotation. @JsonFormat can configure the serialization of a Enum in three ways.

@JsonFormat.Shape.STRING
public Enum OrderType {...}

uses OrderType::name as the serialization method. Serialization of OrderType.TypeA is “TYPEA”

@JsonFormat.Shape.NUMBER
Public Enum OrderTYpe{...}

uses OrderType::ordinal as the serialization method. Serialization of OrderType.TypeA is 1

@JsonFormat.Shape.OBJECT
Public Enum OrderType{...}

treats OrderType as a POJO. Serialization of OrderType.TypeA is {"id":1,"name":"Type A"}

JsonFormat.Shape.OBJECT is what you need in your case.

A little more complicated way is your solution, specifying a serializer for the Enum.

Check out this reference: https://fasterxml.github.io/jackson-annotations/javadoc/2.2.0/com/fasterxml/jackson/annotation/JsonFormat.html

Answer 5

Use @JsonCreator annotation, create method getType(), is serialize with toString or object working

{"ATIVO"}

or

{"type": "ATIVO", "descricao": "Ativo"}

...

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonCreator;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonFormat;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.JsonNodeType;

@JsonFormat(shape = JsonFormat.Shape.OBJECT)
public enum SituacaoUsuario {

    ATIVO("Ativo"),
    PENDENTE_VALIDACAO("Pendente de Validação"),
    INATIVO("Inativo"),
    BLOQUEADO("Bloqueado"),
    /**
     * Usuarios cadastrados pelos clientes que não possuem acesso a aplicacao,
     * caso venham a se cadastrar este status deve ser alterado
     */
    NAO_REGISTRADO("Não Registrado");

    private SituacaoUsuario(String descricao) {
        this.descricao = descricao;
    }

    private String descricao;

    public String getDescricao() {
        return descricao;
    }

    // TODO - Adicionar metodos dinamicamente
    public String getType() {
        return this.toString();
    }

    public String getPropertieKey() {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("enum.");
        sb.append(this.getClass().getName()).append(".");
        sb.append(toString());
        return sb.toString().toLowerCase();
    }

    @JsonCreator
    public static SituacaoUsuario fromObject(JsonNode node) {
        String type = null;
        if (node.getNodeType().equals(JsonNodeType.STRING)) {
            type = node.asText();
        } else {
            if (!node.has("type")) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException();
            }
            type = node.get("type").asText();
        }
        return valueOf(type);
    }

}

Answer 6

I've found a very nice and concise solution, especially useful when you cannot modify enum classes as it was in my case. Then you should provide a custom ObjectMapper with a certain feature enabled. Those features are available since Jackson 1.6.

public class CustomObjectMapper extends ObjectMapper {
    @PostConstruct
    public void customConfiguration() {
        // Uses Enum.toString() for serialization of an Enum
        this.enable(WRITE_ENUMS_USING_TO_STRING);
        // Uses Enum.toString() for deserialization of an Enum
        this.enable(READ_ENUMS_USING_TO_STRING);
    }
}

There are more enum-related features available, see here:

https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/wiki/Serialization-features https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/wiki/Deserialization-Features