How to ignore a specific field while parsing a JSON into map

Question

I want to parse the below JSON into POJO. I am using jackson to parse the json.

{
  "totalSize": 4,
  "done": true,
  "records": [
    {
      "attributes": {
        "type": "oppor",
        "url": "/service/oppor/456"
      },
      "AccountId": "123",
      "Id": "456",
      "ProposalID": "103"
    }
  ]
}

In the above JSON, the fields "totalSize", "done", "records" and "attributes" are known fields. Whereas, "AccountId", "Id" and "ProposalID" are unknown fields. And in the above JSON, I don't need "attributes" to be part of my bean object.

And here is equivalent bean class for my JSON

public class Result {
    private int totalSize;
    private boolean done;
    private List<Map<String, String>> records;

    public int getTotalSize() {
        return totalSize;
    }

    public void setTotalSize(int totalSize) {
        this.totalSize = totalSize;
    }

    public boolean isDone() {
        return done;
    }

    public void setDone(boolean done) {
        this.done = done;
    }

    public List<Map<String,String>> getRecords() {
        return records;
    }

    public void setRecords(List<Map<String, String>> records) {
        this.records = records;
    }

}

Hence there are unknown fields in the records element I just used List to get the results element in bean. Here in this Map, I don't want the field "attributes". How can I ignore this while parsing? And below is the exception that I am getting as attributes is not a string element.

com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException: Can not deserialize instance of java.lang.String out of START_OBJECT token
 at [Source: [B@66fdec9; line: 1, column: 40] (through reference chain: com.sample.json.Result["records"])
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException.from(JsonMappingException.java:164)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.mappingException(DeserializationContext.java:691)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.StringDeserializer.deserialize(StringDeserializer.java:46)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.StringDeserializer.deserialize(StringDeserializer.java:11)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.MapDeserializer._readAndBindStringMap(MapDeserializer.java:430)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.MapDeserializer.deserialize(MapDeserializer.java:312)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.MapDeserializer.deserialize(MapDeserializer.java:26)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.CollectionDeserializer.deserialize(CollectionDeserializer.java:227)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.CollectionDeserializer.deserialize(CollectionDeserializer.java:204)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.CollectionDeserializer.deserialize(CollectionDeserializer.java:23)

Answer 1

If you have specific fields you don't want to map, u can use @JsonIgnore annotation over the field name

public class MyJsonObj{
@JsonProperty("name")
String fieldName    

@JsonIgnore
String fieldNameIgnored;
}

If you want to ignore all the fields not mentioned in your POJO, you can use @JsonIgnoreProperties annotation over class

@JsonIgnoreProperties(ignoreUnknown = true)
public class MyJsonObj{
strong text
}

Answer 2

UPDATE 2015/08/29:

As you have commented that

I achieved dynamic field support by parsing the JSON into map. Ignoring bad JSON element is what pending

I suggest that you should process original JSONObject to remove the "attributes" element from it.

Original JSONObject, for example:

{
  "totalSize": 4,
  "done": true,
  "records": [
    {
      "attributes": {
        "type": "oppor",
        "url": "/service/oppor/456"
      },
      "AccountId": "123",
      "Id": "456",
      "ProposalID": "103"
    }
  ]
}

After process, new JSONObject will be like the following:

{
    "records": {
        "AccountId": "123",
        "Id": "456",
        "ProposalID": "103"
    },
    "totalSize": 4,
    "done": true
}

Use the code as the following:

        JSONObject jsonObject;
        try {            
            jsonObject = new JSONObject(jsonString1);
            JSONArray jsonArray = new JSONArray(jsonObject.get("records").toString());            
            JSONObject jsonObject1 = jsonArray.getJSONObject(0);
            jsonObject1.remove("attributes");
            jsonObject.put("records", jsonObject1);
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

Then, use your own code that achieved dynamic field support by parsing the JSON into map.

END OF UPDATE 2015/08/29

I suggest that you use Gson and transient in this case

Like this

        String jsonString1 = "{\n" +
                "  \"totalSize\": 4,\n" +
                "  \"done\": true,\n" +
                "  \"records\": [\n" +
                "    {\n" +
                "      \"attributes\": {\n" +
                "        \"type\": \"oppor\",\n" +
                "        \"url\": \"/service/oppor/456\"\n" +
                "      },\n" +
                "      \"AccountId\": \"123\",\n" +
                "      \"Id\": \"456\",\n" +
                "      \"ProposalID\": \"103\"\n" +
                "    }\n" +
                "  ]\n" +
                "}";

        Gson gson = new Gson();
        Result result1 = gson.fromJson(jsonString1, Result.class);

Your classes, pay attention to transient:

public class Result {
    private int totalSize;
    private boolean done;
    private List<Record> records;
}

public class Record {
    private transient Map<String, String> attributes;
    private int AccountId;
    private int Id;
    private int ProposalID;
}

You will get the result:

P/S: I tested in Android Studio :)

UPDATE:

      String jsonString1 = "{\n" +
                "  \"totalSize\": 4,\n" +
                "  \"done\": true,\n" +
                "  \"records\": [\n" +
                "    {\n" +
                "      \"attributes\": {\n" +
                "        \"type\": \"oppor\",\n" +
                "        \"url\": \"/service/oppor/456\"\n" +
                "      },\n" +
                "      \"AccountId\": \"123\",\n" +
                "      \"Id\": \"456\",\n" +
                "      \"ProposalID\": \"103\"\n" +
                "    }\n" +
                "  ]\n" +
                "}";
        Gson gson = new Gson();
        Object object = gson.fromJson(jsonString1, Object.class);
        Map<String, String> stringMap = (Map<String, String>) object;
        Result myResult = new Result();
        Iterator entries = stringMap.entrySet().iterator();
        while (entries.hasNext()) {
            Map.Entry entry = (Map.Entry) entries.next();
            String key = entry.getKey().toString();
            String value = entry.getValue().toString();
            switch (key) {
                case "totalSize":
                    myResult.totalSize = (int) Double.parseDouble(entry.getValue().toString());
                    break;
                case "done":
                    myResult.done = Boolean.valueOf(entry.getValue().toString());
                    break;
                case "records":
                    try{
                        Object object1 = entry.getValue();
                        List<Object> objectList = (List<Object>) object1;
                        Map<String, Object> stringMap2 = (Map<String, Object>) objectList.get(0);
                        Map<String, String> recordMap = new HashMap<>();
                        Iterator entries2 = stringMap2.entrySet().iterator();
                        while (entries2.hasNext()) {
                            Map.Entry entry2 = (Map.Entry) entries2.next();
                            String key2 = entry2.getKey().toString();
                            String value2 = entry2.getValue().toString();
                            if (!"attributes".equals(key2)) {
                                recordMap.put(key2, value2);
                            }
                            entries2.remove();
                        }
                        myResult.records = recordMap;
                    } catch (Exception e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                    break;
            }
            entries.remove();
        }

Classes:

public class Result {
    private int totalSize;
    private boolean done;
    private Map<String, String> records;        
}

Debug result:

Answer 3

I would suggest to use [Google gson API][1]'s @Expose annotation. (if that is allowed in your environment).

You can simply annotate the fields(with @Expose) which are required in your generated json file, and leave it other fields. And during generating json, use API method, excludeFieldsWithoutExposeAnnotation.

Sample example can be seen here.

Note : In your example, treat your Result as Main POJO, and records is another POJO which has attributes,accountId etc fields. Then there is has-a relationship (Java composition) between them.

And after that, you can invoke Json to pojo conversion like below--

com.google.gson.Gson gson = new com.google.gson.GsonBuilder()
                    .excludeFieldsWithoutExposeAnnotation().create();

 Result result= gson.fromJson(yourjsonString, Result.class);

Answer 4

1) Create a Record class object

2) Add @JsonIgnore Annotation on fields you won't

public class Result {
    private int totalSize;
    private boolean done;
    private Record records;

[..]

}


public class Record {
    @JsonIgnore
    private Map<String, String> attributes;
    private int accountID;
    private int id;
    private int approvalID;

[..]

}

Answer 5

Create a new POJO class for attributes,

public class Result {
    private int totalSize;
    private boolean done;
    private List<Attributes> records;

    // Your Getters & Setters
}

public class Attributes{
    List<Map<String,String>> attributes;
    // Add other variables if necessary like AccountId, etc.,

    // Your Getters & Setters
}