Jackson: XML to Map with List deserialization

Question

Is there a way to deserialize the following xml into Map holding List of items using Jackson?

    12345678
    <         


        

Answer 1

This is a known jackson-dataformat-xml bug filed under issue 205. In a nutshell, duplicated elements in the XML get swallowed by the current UntypedObjectDeserializer implementation. Fortunately, the author (João Paulo Varandas) of the report also provided a temporary fix in the form a custom UntypedObjectDeserializer implementation. Below I share my interpretation of the fix:

import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonToken;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.UntypedObjectDeserializer;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.module.SimpleModule;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.xml.XmlMapper;

import javax.annotation.Nullable;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.*;

public enum JacksonDataformatXmlIssue205Fix {;

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        String xml = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n" +
                "<items>\n" +
                "    <item><id>1</id></item>\n" +
                "    <item><id>2</id></item>\n" +
                "    <item><id>3</id></item>\n" +
                "</items>";
        SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule().addDeserializer(Object.class, Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer.getInstance());
        XmlMapper xmlMapper = (XmlMapper) new XmlMapper().registerModule(module);
        Object object = xmlMapper.readValue(xml, Object.class);
        System.out.println(object);     // {item=[{id=1}, {id=2}, {id=3}]}
    }

    @SuppressWarnings({ "deprecation", "serial" })
    public static class Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer extends UntypedObjectDeserializer {

        private static final Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer INSTANCE = new Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer();

        private Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer() {}

        public static Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer getInstance() {
            return INSTANCE;
        }

        @Override
        @SuppressWarnings({ "unchecked", "rawtypes" })
        protected Object mapObject(JsonParser parser, DeserializationContext context) throws IOException {

            // Read the first key.
            @Nullable String firstKey;
            JsonToken token = parser.getCurrentToken();
            if (token == JsonToken.START_OBJECT) {
                firstKey = parser.nextFieldName();
            } else if (token == JsonToken.FIELD_NAME) {
                firstKey = parser.getCurrentName();
            } else {
                if (token != JsonToken.END_OBJECT) {
                    throw context.mappingException(handledType(), parser.getCurrentToken());
                }
                return Collections.emptyMap();
            }

            // Populate entries.
            Map<String, Object> valueByKey = new LinkedHashMap<>();
            String nextKey = firstKey;
            do {

                // Read the next value.
                parser.nextToken();
                Object nextValue = deserialize(parser, context);

                // Key conflict? Combine existing and current entries into a list.
                if (valueByKey.containsKey(nextKey)) {
                    Object existingValue = valueByKey.get(nextKey);
                    if (existingValue instanceof List) {
                        List<Object> values = (List<Object>) existingValue;
                        values.add(nextValue);
                    } else {
                        List<Object> values = new ArrayList<>();
                        values.add(existingValue);
                        values.add(nextValue);
                        valueByKey.put(nextKey, values);
                    }
                }

                // New key? Put into the map.
                else {
                    valueByKey.put(nextKey, nextValue);
                }

            } while ((nextKey = parser.nextFieldName()) != null);

            // Ship back the collected entries.
            return valueByKey;

        }

    }

}

Answer 2

Created a custom deserializer by extending UntypedObjectDeserializer to do this job.

Answer 3

The other answers don't work if you have to use readTree() and JsonNode. I know it's an ugly solution but at least you don't need to paste someone's gist in your project.

Add org.json to your project dependencies.

And then do the following:

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import org.json.JSONObject;
import org.json.XML;
...
private static final ObjectMapper OBJECT_MAPPER = new ObjectMapper();
...
    JSONObject soapDatainJsonObject = XML.toJSONObject(data);
    return OBJECT_MAPPER.readTree(soapDatainJsonObject.toString());

The conversion goes as follows:

XML -> JSONObject (using org.json) -> string -> JsonNode (using readTree)

Of course, toJSONObject handles duplicates without any problems, I suggest to avoid using Jackson and readTree() if you can.