serialize/deserialize java 8 java.time with Jackso

Question

How do I use Jackson JSON mapper with Java 8 LocalDateTime?

org.codehaus.jackson.map.JsonMappingException: Can not instantiate value of type [simple type, class java.time.LocalDateTime] from JSON String; no single-String constructor/factory method (through reference chain: MyDTO["field1"]->SubDTO["date"])

Answer 1

If you are using ObjectMapper class of fasterxml, by default ObjectMapper do not understand the LocalDateTime class, so, you need to add another dependency in your gradle/maven :

compile 'com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype:jackson-datatype-jsr310:2.7.3'

Now you need to register the datatype support offered by this library into you objectmapper object, this can be done by following :

ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
objectMapper.findAndRegisterModules();

Now, in your jsonString, you can easily put your java.LocalDateTime field as follows :

{
    "user_id": 1,
    "score": 9,
    "date_time": "2016-05-28T17:39:44.937"
}

By doing all this, your Json file to Java object conversion will work fine, you can read the file by following :

objectMapper.readValue(jsonString, new TypeReference<List<User>>() {
            });

Answer 2

If you are using Jersey then you need to add the Maven dependency (jackson-datatype-jsr310) as the others suggested and register your object mapper instance like so:

@Provider
public class JacksonObjectMapper implements ContextResolver<ObjectMapper> {

  final ObjectMapper defaultObjectMapper;

  public JacksonObjectMapper() {
    defaultObjectMapper = createDefaultMapper();
  }

  @Override
  public ObjectMapper getContext(Class<?> type) {
    return defaultObjectMapper;
  }

  private static ObjectMapper createDefaultMapper() {
    final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();    
    mapper.registerModule(new JavaTimeModule());
    return mapper;
  }
}

When registering Jackson in your resources, you need to add this mapper like so:

final ResourceConfig rc = new ResourceConfig().packages("<your package>");
rc
  .register(JacksonObjectMapper.class)
  .register(JacksonJaxbJsonProvider.class);

Answer 3

There's no need to use custom serializers/deserializers here. Use jackson-modules-java8's datetime module:

Datatype module to make Jackson recognize Java 8 Date & Time API data types (JSR-310).

This module adds support for quite a few classes:

• Duration
• Instant
• LocalDateTime
• LocalDate
• LocalTime
• MonthDay
• OffsetDateTime
• OffsetTime
• Period
• Year
• YearMonth
• ZonedDateTime
• ZoneId
• ZoneOffset

Answer 4

I had a similar problem while using Spring boot. With Spring boot 1.5.1.RELEASE all I had to do is to add dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-datatype-jsr310</artifactId>
</dependency>

Answer 5

If you can't use jackson-modules-java8 for whatever reasons you can (de-)serialize the instant field as long using @JsonIgnore and @JsonGetter & @JsonSetter:

public class MyBean {

    private Instant time = Instant.now();

    @JsonIgnore
    public Instant getTime() {
        return this.time;
    }

    public void setTime(Instant time) {
        this.time = time;
    }

    @JsonGetter
    private long getEpochTime() {
        return this.time.toEpochMilli();
    }

    @JsonSetter
    private void setEpochTime(long time) {
        this.time = Instant.ofEpochMilli(time);
    }
}

Example:

@Test
public void testJsonTime() throws Exception {
    String json = new ObjectMapper().writeValueAsString(new MyBean());
    System.out.println(json);
    MyBean myBean = new ObjectMapper().readValue(json, MyBean.class);
    System.out.println(myBean.getTime());
}

yields

{"epochTime":1506432517242}
2017-09-26T13:28:37.242Z

Answer 6

Update: Leaving this answer for historical reasons, but I don't recommend it. Please see the accepted answer above.

Tell Jackson to map using your custom [de]serialization classes:

@JsonSerialize(using = LocalDateTimeSerializer.class)
@JsonDeserialize(using = LocalDateTimeDeserializer.class)
private LocalDateTime ignoreUntil;

provide custom classes:

public class LocalDateTimeSerializer extends JsonSerializer<LocalDateTime> {
    @Override
    public void serialize(LocalDateTime arg0, JsonGenerator arg1, SerializerProvider arg2) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
        arg1.writeString(arg0.toString());
    }
}

public class LocalDateTimeDeserializer extends JsonDeserializer<LocalDateTime> {
    @Override
    public LocalDateTime deserialize(JsonParser arg0, DeserializationContext arg1) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
        return LocalDateTime.parse(arg0.getText());
    }
}

random fact: if i nest above classes and don't make them static, the error message is weird: org.springframework.web.HttpMediaTypeNotSupportedException: Content type 'application/json;charset=UTF-8' not supported