Spring - Return Raw JSON without double serialization - json

Question

I know there are other posts similar to this, but I haven't found any that help me find a solution for this particular case.
I am trying to return a HashMap<String, Object> from my Controller.
The Object part is a JSON string, but its being double serialized and not returned as a raw JSON string, thus not ending up with extra quotations and escape characters.
Controller function:
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET, produces = MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
public HashMap<String, Object> heartbeat(){
String streamInfo = service.getStreamInfo();
String streamCursorInfo = service.getStreamCursorInfo();
String topicInfo = service.getTopicInfo();
String greeting = "This is a sample app for using Spring Boot with MapR Streams.";
HashMap<String, Object> results = new HashMap();
results.put("greeting", greeting);
results.put("streamInfo", streamInfo);
results.put("streamCursorInfo", streamCursorInfo);
results.put("topicInfo", topicInfo);
return results;
}
Service function:
private String performCURL(String[] command){
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
try{
ProcessBuilder processBuilder = new ProcessBuilder(command);
Process p = processBuilder.start();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
String line = null;
while((line = reader.readLine()) != null){
stringBuilder.append(line);
}
}
catch(Exception e){
LOGGER.error(ExceptionUtils.getRootCauseMessage(e));
}
return stringBuilder.toString();
}
The cURL command I run already returns a raw JSON string. So im just trying to add it to the HashMap to be returned in the heartbeat response.
But every time I run this, my output looks like:
{
"greeting": "This is a sample app for using Spring Boot with MapR Streams.",
"streamCursorInfo": "{\"timestamp\":1538676344564,\"timeofday\":\"2018-10-04 02:05:44.564 GMT-0400 PM\",\"status\":\"OK\",\"total\":1,\"data\":[{\"consumergroup\":\"MapRDBConsumerGroup\",\"topic\":\"weightTags\",\"partitionid\":\"0\",\"produceroffset\":\"44707\",\"committedoffset\":\"10001\",\"producertimestamp\":\"2018-10-03T05:57:27.128-0400 PM\",\"consumertimestamp\":\"2018-09-21T12:35:51.654-0400 PM\",\"consumerlagmillis\":\"1056095474\"}]}",
...
}
If i return only the single string, such as streamInfo then it works fine and doesnt add the extra quotes and escape chars.
Can anyone explain what im missing or need to do to prevent this double serialization?

Answer 1

Instead of returning a HashMap, create an object like this:
public class HeartbeatResult {
private String greeting;
... //other fields here
#JsonRawValue
private String streamCursorInfo;
... //getters and setters here (or make the object immutable by having just a constructor and getters)
}
With #JsonRawValue Jackson will serialize the string as is. See https://www.baeldung.com/jackson-annotations for more info.

Answer 2

streamCursorInfo is a string, not an object => the serialization will escape the " character.
If you are able to return the object containing the data, it will work out of the box. If what you have is just a String, I suggest to serialize it to JsonNode and add it in your response
ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
JsonNode streamCursorInfo = objectMapper.readTree(service.getStreamInfo())
results.put("streamCursorInfo", streamCursorInfo);