Rendering JSON with Play! and Scala - json

Question

I have a simple question regarding rendering JSON object from a Scala class. Why do I have to implemet deserializer ( read, write ).
I have the following case class:
case class User(firstname:String, lastname:String, age:Int)
And in my controller:
val milo:User = new User("Sam","Fisher",23);
Json.toJson(milo);
I get compilation error: No Json deserializer found for type models.User. Try to implement an implicit Writes or Format for this type.
In my previous project I had to implement a reader,writer object in the class for it to work and I find it very annoying.
object UserWebsite {
implicit object UserWebsiteReads extends Format[UserWebsite] {
def reads(json: JsValue) = UserWebsite(
(json \ "email").as[String],
(json \ "url").as[String],
(json \ "imageurl").as[String])
def writes(ts: UserWebsite) = JsObject(Seq(
"email" -> JsString(ts.email),
"url" -> JsString(ts.url),
"imageurl" -> JsString(ts.imageurl)))
}
}

Answer 1

I really recommend to upgrade to play 2.1-RC1 because here, JSON writers/readers are very simple to be defined (more details here)
But in order to help you to avoid some errors, I will give you a hint with imports:
- use these imports only! (notice that json.Reads is not included)
import play.api.libs.json._
import play.api.libs.functional.syntax._
import play.api.libs.json.Writes._
and you only have to write this code for write/read your class to/from Json (of course you will have User instead of Address:
implicit val addressWrites = Json.writes[Address]
implicit val addressReads = Json.reads[Address]
Now, they will be used automatically:
Example of write:
Ok(Json.toJson(entities.map(s => Json.toJson(s))))
Example of read(I put my example of doing POST for creating an entity by reading json from body) please notice addressReads used here
def create = Action(parse.json) { request =>
request.body.validate(addressReads).map { entity =>
Addresses.insert(entity)
Ok(RestResponses.toJson(RestResponse(OK, "Succesfully created a new entity.")))
}.recover { Result =>
BadRequest(RestResponses.toJson(RestResponse(BAD_REQUEST, "Unable to transform JSON body to entity.")))
}
}
In conclusion, they tried (and succeded) to make things very simple regarding JSON.

Answer 2

If you are using play 2.0.x you can do
import com.codahale.jerkson.Json._
generate(milo)
generate uses reflection to do it.
In play 2.1 you can use Json.writes to create a macro for that implicit object you had to create. No runtime reflection needed!
import play.api.libs.json._
import play.api.libs.functional.syntax._
implicit val userWrites = Json.writes[User]
Json.toJson(milo)

Answer 3

I have been using jerkson (which basically is wrapper to jackson) in my project to convert objects to json string.
The simplest way to do that is:
import com.codehale.jerkson.Json._
...
generate(milo)
...
If you need to configure the ObjectMapper (e.g. adding custom serializer/deserializer, configuring output format, etc.), you can do it by creating object which extends com.codehale.jerkson.Json class.
package utils
import org.codehaus.jackson.map._
import org.codehaus.jackson.{Version, JsonGenerator, JsonParser}
import com.codahale.jerkson.Json
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.module.SimpleModule
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.annotate.JsonSerialize
object CustomJson extends Json {
val module = new SimpleModule("CustomSerializer", Version.unknownVersion())
// --- (SERIALIZERS) ---
// Example:
// module.addSerializer(classOf[Enumeration#Value], EnumerationSerializer)
// --- (DESERIALIZERS) ---
// Example:
// module.addDeserializer(classOf[MyEnumType], new EnumerationDeserializer[MyEnumType](MyEnumTypes))
mapper.setSerializationInclusion(JsonSerialize.Inclusion.NON_NULL)
mapper.setSerializationConfig(mapper.getSerializationConfig.without(SerializationConfig.Feature.WRITE_NULL_MAP_VALUES))
mapper.registerModule(module)
}
To use it in your codes:
import utils.CustomJson._
...
generate(milo)
...

Answer 4

In fact, this is very simple. Firstly import:
import play.api.libs.json._
Thanks to the fact, that User is a case class you can automatically create Json writes using Json.writes[]:
val milo:User = new User("Millad","Dagdoni",23)
implicit val userImplicitWrites = Json.writes[User]
Json.toJson(milo)
I haven't found it in the docs, but here is the link to the api: http://www.playframework.com/documentation/2.2.x/api/scala/index.html#play.api.libs.json.Json$

Answer 5

In your case, I'd use the JSON.format macro.
import play.api.libs.json._
implicit val userFormat = Json.format[User]
val milo = new User("Sam", "Fisher", 23)
val json = Json.toJson(milo)