Java JSON processing with Jackson
Let us see how we can use Jackson Java JSON Processor to convert a java object into JSON and vice versa. We can download the jackson-all-1.6.4.jar from Jackson download page.
The key class which does the marshalling and unmarshalling is org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper.
Let us create a User java bean as follows:
package com.sivalabs.json; import java.util.Date; public class User { private String userId; private UserName userName; private Date dob; @Override public String toString(){ return "User [dob=" + dob + ", userId=" + userId + ", userName="+ userName + "]"; } //setters and getters }
package com.sivalabs.json; public class UserName { private String firstname; private String middlename; private String lastname; @Override public String toString() { return "UserName [firstname=" + firstname + ", lastname=" + lastname+ ", middlename=" + middlename + "]"; } //setters and getters }
Now let us create an instance of User and marshall it into JSON:
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper(); UserName userName = new UserName(); userName.setFirstname("Katamreddy"); userName.setMiddlename("Siva"); userName.setLastname("PrasadReddy"); User user = new User(); user.setUserId("1"); user.setUserName(userName); user.setDob(new Date()); Writer strWriter = new StringWriter(); mapper.writeValue(strWriter, user); String userDataJSON = strWriter.toString(); System.out.println(userDataJSON);
This will print the User data in JSON format as :
{
“userId”:”1″,
“userName”:
{
“firstname”:”Katamreddy”,
“middlename”:”Siva”,
“lastname”:”PrasadReddy”
},
“dob”:1300878089906
}
Now let us unmarshall the following user data in json format into User Object:
{
“userId”:”100″,
“userName”:
{
“firstname”:”K”,
“middlename”:”Siva”,
“lastname”:”Prasad”
},
“dob”:1300878089906
}
String userDataJSON = "{\"userId\":\"100\",\"userName\":{\"firstname\":\"K\""+ ",\"middlename\":\"Siva\",\"lastname\":\"Prasad\"},\"dob\":1300878089906}"; User userFromJSON = mapper.readValue(userDataJSON, User.class); System.out.println(userFromJSON);
This will print the User object as:
User [dob=Wed Mar 23 16:31:29 IST 2011, userId=100, userName=UserName [firstname=K, lastname=Prasad, middlename=Siva]]
The Date value is marshalled as Timestamp which is the default behaviour. If you want you can change the DateFormat as follows:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM-dd-yyyy"); SerializationConfig serConfig = mapper.getSerializationConfig(); serConfig.setDateFormat(dateFormat); DeserializationConfig deserializationConfig = mapper.getDeserializationConfig(); deserializationConfig.setDateFormat(dateFormat); mapper.configure(SerializationConfig.Feature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS, false);
Then the User JSON will be:
{
“userId”:”1″,”userName”:
{
“firstname”:”Katamreddy”,
“middlename”:”Siva”,
“lastname”:”PrasadReddy”
},
“dob”:”03-23-2011″
}
We can also marshall a Java Object as json into a file as:
mapper.writeValue(new File("user.json"), user);
This will create a file user.json as:
{
“userId”:”100″,
“userName”:
{
“firstname”:”K”,
“middlename”:”Siva”,
“lastname”:”Prasad”
},
“dob”:1300878089906
}
We can build the User object from user,json as:
User user = mapper.readValue(new File("user.json"), User.class);
Reference: JSON processing using Jackson Java JSON Processor from our JCG partner Siva Prasad Reddy.
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