How to make a fieldName to fieldValue map deserializing a json string

I have a class having trivial string typed fields and one map only:

class MyClass {
  @SerializedName("handle");
  String nickName;
  Map randomDetails;
} 

My requirement is to create a map of fieldName to fieldValue (Map) but the fieldNames should be the same as @SerializedName rather than Myclass's field name. I realize that for a complex type like MyClass I m开发者_StackOverfloway have to do some low-level deserialization myself. Has anyone come across this?

If you use a library, you shouldn't need to do any low-level work.

I haven't used it (yet) but Jackson looks like it'll do what you need.

It would be especially easy if you're not required to use that @SerializedName annotation, as Jackson provides a suite of its own annotations which do exactly what you need - (see the @JsonProperty annotation).

If you use the Jackson Tree Model mode of operation, you should get something like the map-based results you're looking for.

(I think I understand that the question concerns how to use Gson to deserialize a JSON map structure to a Java Map.)

Gson currently needs a little bit more type information about the Map than the Java class structure in the original question provides. Instead of declaring that randomDetails is a plain old Map, let Gson know that it's a Map<String, String>. Then, the following example JSON and simple deserialization code runs as expected.

input.json Contents:

{
  "handle":"the handle",
  "random_details":{"one":1,"too":"B","3":false,"for":5.32}
}

Foo.java:

import java.io.FileReader;
import java.util.Map;

import com.google.gson.FieldNamingPolicy;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;
import com.google.gson.annotations.SerializedName;

public class Foo
{
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
  {
    GsonBuilder gsonBuilder = new GsonBuilder();
    gsonBuilder.setFieldNamingPolicy(FieldNamingPolicy.LOWER_CASE_WITH_UNDERSCORES);
    Gson gson = gsonBuilder.create();
    MyClass myObject = gson.fromJson(new FileReader("input.json"), MyClass.class);
    System.out.println(gson.toJson(myObject));
  }
}

class MyClass
{
  @SerializedName("handle")
  String nickName;
  Map<String, String> randomDetails;
}

Note that this converts all values in the Map into Strings. If you wanted something more generic, like a Map<String, Object>, or if randomDetails must be a plain old Map without additional type information, then it's necessary to implement custom deserialization processing, as described in the user guide. (This is a situation where Gson unfortunately does not currently automatically generate Java values of String or primitive type from JSON primitives, if the declared Java type is simply Object. Thus it's necessary to implement the custom deserialization.)

Here's one such example.

import java.io.FileReader;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;

import com.google.gson.FieldNamingPolicy;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;
import com.google.gson.JsonDeserializationContext;
import com.google.gson.JsonDeserializer;
import com.google.gson.JsonElement;
import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
import com.google.gson.JsonParseException;
import com.google.gson.JsonPrimitive;
import com.google.gson.annotations.SerializedName;

public class Foo
{
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
  {
    GsonBuilder gsonBuilder = new GsonBuilder();
    gsonBuilder.setFieldNamingPolicy(FieldNamingPolicy.LOWER_CASE_WITH_UNDERSCORES);
    gsonBuilder.registerTypeAdapter(MyClass.class, new MyClassDeserializer());
    Gson gson = gsonBuilder.create();
    MyClass myObject = gson.fromJson(new FileReader("input.json"), MyClass.class);
    System.out.println(gson.toJson(myObject));
  }
}

class MyClassDeserializer implements JsonDeserializer<MyClass>
{
  @Override
  public MyClass deserialize(JsonElement json, Type typeOfT, JsonDeserializationContext context)
      throws JsonParseException
  {
    JsonObject object = json.getAsJsonObject();
    String nickName = object.get("handle").getAsString();
    Set<Map.Entry<String, JsonElement>> mapEntries = object.get("random_details").getAsJsonObject().entrySet();
    Map randomDetails = new HashMap(mapEntries.size());
    for (Map.Entry<String, JsonElement> mapEntry : mapEntries)
    {
      String key = mapEntry.getKey();
      Object value;
      JsonPrimitive jsonPrimitive = mapEntry.getValue().getAsJsonPrimitive();
      if (jsonPrimitive.isNumber()) value = jsonPrimitive.getAsNumber();
      else if (jsonPrimitive.isBoolean()) value = jsonPrimitive.getAsBoolean();
      else value = jsonPrimitive.getAsString();
      randomDetails.put(key, value);
    }
    MyClass myObject = new MyClass();
    myObject.nickName = nickName;
    myObject.randomDetails = randomDetails;
    return myObject;
  }
}

class MyClass
{
  @SerializedName("handle")
  String nickName;
  Map randomDetails;
}