Jackson - @JsonTypeInfo property is being mapped as null?

Question

Say I have the following JSON:

{  
    "id":"decaa828741611e58bcffeff819cdc9f",
    "statement":"question statement",
    "exercise_type":"QUESTION"
}

then, based on the exercise_type field, I want to instantiate different objects instances (subclasses of ExerciseResponseDTO). In order to do that, I tried creating this mix in:

@JsonTypeInfo(  
    use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME,  
    include = JsonTypeInfo.As.PROPERTY,  
    property = "exercise_type")  
@JsonSubTypes({  
    @Type(value = ExerciseChoiceResponseDTO.class, name = "CHOICE"),  
    @Type(value = ExerciseQuestionResponseDTO.class, name = "QUESTION")})  
public abstract class ExerciseMixIn  
{}  

public abstract class ExerciseResponseDTO {

    private String id;
    private String statement;
    @JsonProperty(value = "exercise_type") private String exerciseType;
    
    // Getters and setters 
}

public class ExerciseQuestionResponseDTO
    extends ExerciseResponseDTO {}

public class ExerciseChoiceResponseDTO
    extends ExerciseResponseDTO {}

and then the mapper ObjectMapper as follows

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.addMixIn(ExerciseResponseDTO.class, ExerciseMixIn.class);

but for some reason, this test fails:

ExerciseResponseDTO exercise = mapper.readValue(serviceResponse, ExerciseResponseDTO.class)
Assert.assertTrue(exercise.getClass() == ExerciseQuestionResponseDTO.class);    // OK
Assert.assertEquals("decaa828741611e58bcffeff819cdc9f" exercise.getId());       // OK
Assert.assertEquals("question statement", exercise.getStatement());             // OK
Assert.assertEquals("QUESTION", exercise.getExerciseType());                    // FAIL. Expected: "QUESTION", actual: null

seems like there's an issue specifically with the exercise_type attribute that's not being mapped for some reason, since all the other fields are being mapped just fine. Any idea what could it be causing this?

score 175 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 23 '22 at 21:16

175

Finally, I've found the solution in the API Doc

Note on visibility of type identifier: by default, deserialization (use during reading of JSON) of type identifier is completely handled by Jackson, and is not passed to deserializers. However, if so desired, it is possible to define property visible = true in which case property will be passed as-is to deserializers (and set via setter or field) on deserialization.

So the solution was simply adding the 'visible' attribute as follows

@JsonTypeInfo(  
    use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME,  
    include = JsonTypeInfo.As.PROPERTY,  
    property = "exercise_type",
    visible = true)  
@JsonSubTypes({  
    @Type(value = ExerciseChoiceResponseDTO.class, name = "CHOICE"),  
    @Type(value = ExerciseQuestionResponseDTO.class, name = "QUESTION")})  
public abstract class ExerciseMixIn  
{}

edited Dec 23 '22 at 21:16

starball

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answered Nov 09 '15 at 14:48

jscherman

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9

I hope God will reward you and give you everything you need :)))) I searched a few hours for this. – Alex Feb 16 '22 at 17:22
not working, that's the default implementation generated by openapi-generator, but when serialized to json when calling my REST controller, my field is always "null". – Saad Benbouzid Apr 09 '22 at 15:28
cool. same for EXISTING_PROPERTY – Kampaii May 26 '22 at 10:04
debugged all the library to find it's the `visibile` property that causing it. Simple google search led me to here. – Ayhan APAYDIN Mar 21 '23 at 19:41

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 04 '18 at 06:28

As per @jscherman answer by setting, 'visible' true in JsonTypeInfo will help in accessing exercise_type as a field.

If you use the same class to serialize also then resulting JSON will have exercise_type appear twice. So it's better to also update include to JsonTypeInfo.As.EXISTING_PROPERTY

And it's also worth looking at all other options for include.

Jackson - @JsonTypeInfo property is being mapped as null?

2 Answers2

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