How to Deserialize Array of JSON Objects in Java

Question

So I'm used to getting JSON objects from a given API/endpoint, e.g.:

{
    "count": 5,
    "results": [
        {
            "example": "test",
            "is_valid": true
        },
        {
            "example": "test2",
            "is_valid": true
        }
    ]
}

And in a custom deserializer that extends com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.StdDeserializer, I know I can use the JsonParser object like so to get the base node to work off of, i.e.:

@Override
public ResultExample deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt) {
    JsonNode node = jp.getCodec().readTree(jp);
    JsonNode count = node.get("count");
    // code to put parsed objects into a ResultExample object...
}

However, I just encountered an API that simply returns an array of JSON objects, e.g.:

[
    {
        "example": "test",
        "is_valid": true
    },
    {
        "example": "test2",
        "is_valid": true
    },
]

So, I don't believe I can just parse this the same way as before. What would be the correct way to parse this using Jackson?

Answer 1

This may help you:

import java.io.IOException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonInclude;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonPropertyOrder;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();

        String json = "[\r\n" + "    {\r\n" + "        \"example\": \"test\",\r\n" + "        \"is_valid\": true\r\n"
                + "    },\r\n" + "    {\r\n" + "        \"example\": \"test2\",\r\n" + "        \"is_valid\": true\r\n"
                + "    }\r\n" + "]";
        Example[] ex = mapper.readValue(json, Example[].class);

    }

}

@JsonInclude(JsonInclude.Include.NON_NULL)
@JsonPropertyOrder({ "example", "is_valid" })
class Example {

    @JsonProperty("example")
    private String example;
    @JsonProperty("is_valid")
    private Boolean isValid;

    public String getExample() {
        return example;
    }

    @JsonProperty("example")
    public void setExample(String example) {
        this.example = example;
    }

    @JsonProperty("is_valid")
    public Boolean getIsValid() {
        return isValid;
    }

    @JsonProperty("is_valid")
    public void setIsValid(Boolean isValid) {
        this.isValid = isValid;
    }
}

Answer 2

When response is a JSON Object you can use default bean deserialiser. In case it is a JSON Array you can read it as array and create response object manually. Below you can find example custom deserialiser and BeanDeserializerModifier which is used to register custom deserialiser. BeanDeserializerModifier allows to use default deserialiser when JSON payload fits POJO model:

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonProperty;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonToken;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.BeanDescription;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationConfig;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonDeserializer;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerModifier;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.MismatchedInputException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.module.SimpleModule;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.type.CollectionType;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.List;

public class JsonApp {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        File jsonFile = new File("./resource/test.json").getAbsoluteFile();

        SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule();
        module.setDeserializerModifier(new BeanDeserializerModifier() {
            @Override
            public JsonDeserializer<?> modifyDeserializer(DeserializationConfig config, BeanDescription beanDesc, JsonDeserializer<?> deserializer) {
                if (beanDesc.getBeanClass() == Response.class) {
                    return new ResponseJsonDeserializer((BeanDeserializerBase) deserializer);
                }
                return super.modifyDeserializer(config, beanDesc, deserializer);
            }
        });

        ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
        mapper.registerModule(module);


        System.out.println(mapper.readValue(jsonFile, Response.class));
    }
}

class ResponseJsonDeserializer extends BeanDeserializer {

    private final BeanDeserializerBase baseDeserializer;

    protected ResponseJsonDeserializer(BeanDeserializerBase src) {
        super(src);
        this.baseDeserializer = src;
    }

    @Override
    public Response deserialize(JsonParser p, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws IOException {
        if (p.currentToken() == JsonToken.START_OBJECT) {
            return (Response) baseDeserializer.deserialize(p, ctxt);
        }
        if (p.currentToken() == JsonToken.START_ARRAY) {
            CollectionType collectionType = ctxt.getTypeFactory().constructCollectionType(List.class, Item.class);
            JsonDeserializer<Object> deserializer = ctxt.findRootValueDeserializer(collectionType);
            List<Item> results = (List<Item>) deserializer.deserialize(p, ctxt);

            Response response = new Response();
            response.setCount(results.size());
            response.setResults(results);

            return response;
        }

        throw MismatchedInputException.from(p, Response.class, "Only object or array!");
    }
}

class Response {

    private int count;
    private List<Item> results;

    // getters, setters, toString
}

class Item {

    private String example;

    @JsonProperty("is_valid")
    private boolean isValid;

    // getters, setters, toString
}

Above code for JSON Object payload prints:

Response{count=5, results=[Item{example='test', isValid=true}, Item{example='test2', isValid=true}]}

And for JSON Array payload prints:

Response{count=2, results=[Item{example='test', isValid=true}, Item{example='test2', isValid=true}]}

Answer 3

Guess I should have just written the unit test before asking the question, but apparently you can just do it the same way. Only difference is the base node is a JsonArray which you have to iterate over. Thanks everyone who looked into this.