I want to serialize and deserialize an immutable object using com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper. The immutable class looks like this (just 3 internal attributes, getters and constructors): However when I run this unit test: I get this exception: This exception asks me to create a default constructor, but this is an immutable object, so I don't want to have it. How would it

How to de/serialize an immutable object without default constructor using ObjectMapper?

I want to serialize and deserialize an immutable object using com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.

The immutable class looks like this (just 3 internal attributes, getters and constructors):

public final class ImportResultItemImpl implements ImportResultItem {

    private final ImportResultItemType resultType;

    private final String message;

    private final String name;

    public ImportResultItemImpl(String name, ImportResultItemType resultType, String message) {
        super();
        this.resultType = resultType;
        this.message = message;
        this.name = name;
    }

    public ImportResultItemImpl(String name, ImportResultItemType resultType) {
        super();
        this.resultType = resultType;
        this.name = name;
        this.message = null;
    }

    @Override
    public ImportResultItemType getResultType() {
        return this.resultType;
    }

    @Override
    public String getMessage() {
        return this.message;
    }

    @Override
    public String getName() {
        return this.name;
    }
}

However when I run this unit test:

@Test
public void testObjectMapper() throws Exception {
    ImportResultItemImpl originalItem = new ImportResultItemImpl("Name1", ImportResultItemType.SUCCESS);
    String serialized = new ObjectMapper().writeValueAsString((ImportResultItemImpl) originalItem);
    System.out.println("serialized: " + serialized);

    //this line will throw exception
    ImportResultItemImpl deserialized = new ObjectMapper().readValue(serialized, ImportResultItemImpl.class);
}

I get this exception:

com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException: No suitable constructor found for type [simple type, class eu.ibacz.pdkd.core.service.importcommon.ImportResultItemImpl]: can not instantiate from JSON object (missing default constructor or creator, or perhaps need to add/enable type information?)
 at [Source: {"resultType":"SUCCESS","message":null,"name":"Name1"}; line: 1, column: 2]
    at 
... nothing interesting here

This exception asks me to create a default constructor, but this is an immutable object, so I don’t want to have it. How would it set the internal attributes? It would totally confuse the user of the API.

So my question is: Can I somehow de/serialize immutable objects without default constructor?

Answer

To let Jackson know how to create an object for deserialization, use the @JsonCreator and @JsonProperty annotations for your constructors, like this:

@JsonCreator
public ImportResultItemImpl(@JsonProperty("name") String name, 
        @JsonProperty("resultType") ImportResultItemType resultType, 
        @JsonProperty("message") String message) {
    super();
    this.resultType = resultType;
    this.message = message;
    this.name = name;
}

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Answer