How to create dynamically acceptable JSON in RESTful web services? - json

Question

Below is my JSON file :
Input JSON:
{
"name": "Tamiliniyan",
"address": {
"street": "My street",
"city": "Texas"
}
}
Controller class:
#RestController
#RequestMapping(value = "/customer")
public class CustomerController {
#Autowired
private WelcomeService customerService;
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public void addCustomer(#RequestBody Customer customer) {
return customerService.addTranslation(customer);
}
}
POJO:
public class Customer
{
private Address address;
private String name;
public Address getAddress ()
{
return address;
}
public void setAddress (Address address)
{
this.address = address;
}
public String getName ()
{
return name;
}
public void setName (String name)
{
this.name = name;
}
}
public class Address
{
private String street;
private String city;
public String getStreet ()
{
return street;
}
public void setStreet (String street)
{
this.street = street;
}
public String getCity ()
{
return city;
}
public void setCity (String city)
{
this.city = city;
}
}
Now I have to dynamically add city or zipcode. How to do it? Basically Client system can pass any new additional JSON field with current structure (like city or zipcode). CustomerController class should able to parse it. What is better approach to handle dynamic JSON element in restful services?

Answer 1

In my opinion, the easiest and most performant way of handling JSON within Java using Spring when you don't know the final structure of your JSON is to use Map(s).
You could add something like this to your POJO:
public class Customer {
private Address address;
private String name;
private Map<String, ?> additionalFields;
public Address getAddress() {
return address;
}
public void setAddress(Address address) {
this.address = address;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public Map<String, ?> getAdditionalFields() {
return additionalFields;
}
public void setAdditionalFields(Map<String, ?> additionalFields) {
this.additionalFields = additionalFields;
}
}
If you then post something like this:
{
"name": "Tamiliniyan",
"address": {
"street": "My street",
"city": "Texas"
},
"additionalFields": {
"nested1":{
"zip-code": "00055"
}
}
}
This is what you get when Spring processes it:
In order to retrieve data you could then use methods like:
customer.getAdditionalFields().containsKey("nested1")
customer.getAdditionalFields().get("nested1")
Another approach would be to add whatever fields you need to your Class and then ignore empty fields in you Jackson configuration