Java to JSON serialization with Jackson PTH and Spring Data MongoDB DBRef generates extra target property

Question

When serializing from Java to JSON, Jackson generates an extra target property for referenced entities when using the Spring Data MongoDB @DBRef an

Answer 1

The Target field is added by Spring Data because it is a lazy collection. So it is like datahandler etc. in Hibernate for JPA.

Option1: To ignore them you just have to add @JsonIgnoreProperties(value = { "target" }) on class level

@Document(collection = "song")
@JsonIgnoreProperties(value = { "target" })
public class Song {
 ...
}

Option2: Make the Collection not lazy