If you want an empty String representing the whole object to be treated as null, you can enable the ACCEPT_EMPTY_STRING_AS_NULL_OBJECT Jackson deserialization feature, disabled by default.
You can include it when configuring your ObjectMapper:
public ObjectMapper getObjectMapper() {
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.registerModule(new JavaTimeModule());
mapper.configure(SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS, false);
mapper.configure(DeserializationFeature.FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES, false);
mapper.setSerializationInclusion(Include.NON_NULL);
// Enable ACCEPT_EMPTY_STRING_AS_NULL_OBJECT deserialization feature
mapper.enable(DeserializationFeature.ACCEPT_EMPTY_STRING_AS_NULL_OBJECT);
return mapper;
}
As abovementioned, it is useful when you want to treat an empty String representing the whole object as null; however, it will not work for individual properties of type String: in the later case you can safely use your custom deserializer, so, the solution is in fact a mix of both approaches, use the ACCEPT_EMPTY_STRING_AS_NULL_OBJECT deserialization feature to deal with the whole object, and your custom deserializer for handling individual String properties.
Please, see this and this other related SO questions.
You can improve your custom User deserializer as well. Please, consider for example (I refactored the name to UserDeserializer for clarity):
import java.io.IOException;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Map;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonAlias;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonDeserializer;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
public class UserDeserializer extends JsonDeserializer<User> {
@Override
public User deserialize(JsonParser jsonParser, DeserializationContext deserializationContext) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
JsonNode node = jsonParser.readValueAsTree();
Iterator<String> fieldNames = node.fieldNames();
// Process Jackson annotations looking for aliases
Map<String, String> fieldAliases = this.getAliases();
User user = new User();
boolean anyNonNull = false;
// Iterate over every field. The deserialization process assume simple properties
while(fieldNames.hasNext()) {
String fieldName = fieldNames.next();
JsonNode fieldValue = node.get(fieldName);
String fieldValueTextRepresentation = fieldValue.asText();
if (fieldValueTextRepresentation != null && !fieldValueTextRepresentation.trim().isEmpty()) {
// Check if the field is aliased
String actualFieldName = fieldAliases.get(fieldName);
if (actualFieldName == null) {
actualFieldName = fieldName;
}
this.setFieldValue(user, actualFieldName, fieldValueTextRepresentation);
anyNonNull = true;
}
}
return anyNonNull ? user : null;
}
// Set field value via Reflection
private void setFieldValue(User user, String fieldName, String fieldValueTextRepresentation) {
try {
Field field = User.class.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
Object fieldValue = null;
Class clazz = field.getType();
// Handle each class type: probably this code can be improved, but it is extensible and adaptable,
// you can include as many cases as you need.
if (clazz.isAssignableFrom(String.class)) {
fieldValue = fieldValueTextRepresentation;
} else if (clazz.isAssignableFrom(LocalDate.class)) {
// Adjust the date pattern as required
// For example, if you are receiving the information
// like this: year-month-day, as in the provided example,
// you can use the following pattern
fieldValue = LocalDate.parse(fieldValueTextRepresentation, DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd"));
} else if (clazz.isAssignableFrom(Integer.class)) {
fieldValue = Integer.parseInt(fieldValueTextRepresentation);
}
field.setAccessible(true);
field.set(user, fieldValue);
} catch (Exception e) {
// Handle the problem as appropriate
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
/* Look for Jackson aliases */
private Map<String, String> getAliases() {
Map<String, String> fieldAliases = new HashMap<>();
Field[] fields = User.class.getDeclaredFields();
for (Field field: fields) {
Annotation annotation = field.getAnnotation(JsonAlias.class);
if (annotation != null) {
String fieldName = field.getName();
JsonAlias jsonAliasAnnotation = (JsonAlias) annotation;
String[] aliases = jsonAliasAnnotation.value();
for (String alias: aliases) {
fieldAliases.put(alias, fieldName);
}
}
}
return fieldAliases;
}
}
With this serializer in place, given a User class similar to:
import java.time.LocalDate;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonAlias;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.annotation.JsonDeserialize;
@JsonDeserialize(using = UserDeserializer.class)
public class User {
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
private Integer age;
private String address;
@JsonAlias("dateofbirth")
private LocalDate dateOfBirth;
// Setters and getters omitted for brevity
@Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (this == o) return true;
if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) return false;
User user = (User) o;
if (firstName != null ? !firstName.equals(user.firstName) : user.firstName != null) return false;
if (lastName != null ? !lastName.equals(user.lastName) : user.lastName != null) return false;
if (age != null ? !age.equals(user.age) : user.age != null) return false;
if (address != null ? !address.equals(user.address) : user.address != null) return false;
return dateOfBirth != null ? dateOfBirth.equals(user.dateOfBirth) : user.dateOfBirth == null;
}
@Override
public int hashCode() {
int result = firstName != null ? firstName.hashCode() : 0;
result = 31 * result + (lastName != null ? lastName.hashCode() : 0);
result = 31 * result + (age != null ? age.hashCode() : 0);
result = 31 * result + (address != null ? address.hashCode() : 0);
result = 31 * result + (dateOfBirth != null ? dateOfBirth.hashCode() : 0);
return result;
}
And the following JSON (I changed to name of the dateofbirth field just for testing aliases):
{"firstName":"John","age":40,"dateofbirth":"1978-03-16"}
You should obtain the appropriate results, consider the following test:
public static void main(String... args) throws JsonProcessingException {
User user = new User();
user.setFirstName("John");
user.setAge(40);
user.setDateOfBirth(LocalDate.of(1978, Month.MARCH, 16));
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.setSerializationInclusion(JsonInclude.Include.NON_NULL);
String json = "{\"firstName\":\"John\",\"age\":40,\"dateofbirth\":\"1978-03-16\"}";
User reconstructed = mapper.readValue(json, User.class);
System.out.println(user.equals(reconstructed));
}
Finally, please, be aware that in order to allow your @KafkaListener to handle null values, you must use the @Payload annotation with required = false, something like:
public class KafkaConsumer {
@Autowired
private UserRepository userRepository;
@KafkaListener(topics = "${spring.kafka.topic.name}")
public void listen(@Payload(required = false) User user) {
// Handle null value
if (user == null) {
// Consider logging the event
// logger.debug("Null message received");
System.out.println("Null message received");
return;
}
// Continue as usual
User user = new User(user);
UserRepository.save(user.getName(), user);
}
}
See the relevant Spring Kafka documentation and this Github issue and the related commit. This SO question could be relevant as well.
