how to configure spring mvc 3 to not return "null" object in json response?

Question

a sample of json response looks like this:

{"publicId":"123","status":null,"partner":null,"description":null}

It would be nice to truncate out all null objects in the response. In this case, the response would become {"publicId":"123"}.

Any advice? Thanks!

P.S: I think I can do that in Jersey. Also I believe they both use Jackson as the JSON processer.

Added Later: My configuration:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">

    <!-- Scans the classpath of this application for @Components to deploy as beans -->
    <context:component-scan base-package="com.SomeCompany.web" />

    <!-- Application Message Bundle -->
    <bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
        <property name="basename" value="/WEB-INF/messages/messages" />
        <property name="cacheSeconds" value="0" />
    </bean>

    <!-- Configures Spring MVC -->
    <import resource="mvc-config.xml" />

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">

    <!-- Configures the @Controller programming model -->
    <mvc:annotation-driven />

    <!-- Forwards requests to the "/" resource to the "welcome" view -->
    <!--<mvc:view-controller path="/" view-name="welcome"/>-->

    <!-- Configures Handler Interceptors -->    
    <mvc:interceptors>
        <!-- Changes the locale when a 'locale' request parameter is sent; e.g. /?locale=de -->
        <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.LocaleChangeInterceptor" />
    </mvc:interceptors>

    <!-- Saves a locale change using a cookie -->
    <bean id="localeResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.CookieLocaleResolver" />

    <!--<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ContentNegotiatingViewResolver">
        <property name="mediaTypes">
            <map>
                <entry key="atom" value="application/atom+xml"/>
                <entry key="html" value="text/html"/>
                <entry key="json" value="application/json"/>
                <entry key="xml" value="text/xml"/>
            </map>
        </property>
        <property name="viewResolvers">
            <list>
                <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
                    <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/"/>
                    <property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>
                </bean>
            </list>
        </property>
        <property name="defaultViews">
            <list>
                <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.json.MappingJacksonJsonView" />
                <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.xml.MarshallingView" >
                    <property name="marshaller">
                        <bean class="org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller" />
                    </property>
                </bean>
            </list>
        </property>
    </bean>
-->
  <!-- Resolves view names to protected .jsp resources within the /WEB-INF/views directory -->
    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/"/>
        <property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>
    </bean>

My code:

@Controller
public class SomeController {
    @RequestMapping(value = "/xyz", method = {RequestMethod.GET, RequestMethod.HEAD},
    headers = {"x-requested-with=XMLHttpRequest","Accept=application/json"}, params = "!closed")
    public @ResponseBody
    List<AbcTO> getStuff(
          .......
    }
}

How are you using Jackson? What do your controllers and config look like? — skaffman
– skaffman, Commented May 18, 2011 at 18:46
I am not using Jackson directly. How Jackson is used is spring-mvc's internal implementation. Basically this JSON thing is given for free in spring-mvc 3. — Bobo
– Bobo, Commented May 18, 2011 at 19:10
Yes, I know that. I asked to see your controllers and config because that determines how Spring uses Jackson. — skaffman
– skaffman, Commented May 18, 2011 at 19:15

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:54:30Z

32

Yes, you can do this for individual classes by annotating them with @JsonSerialize(include=JsonSerialize.Inclusion.NON_NULL) or you can do it across the board by configuring your ObjectMapper, setting the serialization inclusion to JsonSerialize.Inclusion.NON_NULL.

Here is some info from the Jackson FAQ: http://wiki.fasterxml.com/JacksonAnnotationSerializeNulls.

Annotating the classes is straightforward, but configuring the ObjectMapper serialization config slightly trickier. There is some specific info on doing the latter here.

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:54

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answered May 18, 2011 at 19:24

BennyFlint

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3 Comments

Bobo Over a year ago

tried the approach of "configuring the ObjectMapper serialization" based on this stackoverflow.com/questions/4823358/…. Did not work, caused by "Rejected bean name 'jacksonObjectMapper': no URL paths identified".

Alex R Over a year ago

the include attribute is deprecated

Chetan Over a year ago

the above attribute is deprecated

Mário Fernandes · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-03 11:38:05Z

20

Doesn't answer the question but this is the second google result.

If anybody comes here and wants do do it for Spring 4 (as it happened to me), you can use the annotation

@JsonInclude(Include.NON_NULL)

on the returning class.

As mentioned in the comments, and in case anyone is confused, the annotation should be used in the class that will be converted to JSON.

edited Nov 3, 2017 at 11:38

answered Jan 20, 2015 at 14:54

Mário Fernandes

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4 Comments

Alex R Over a year ago

this doesn't work at all, the other answer works well enough

Mário Fernandes Over a year ago

@AlexR Did you read everything or just the snippet? Because you can be sure that it works, it's a jackson annotation that is included in spring 4

Leonardo Beal Over a year ago

I took some time to figure out that this annotation should NOT be used in the controller, but in the class that you want to convert to JSON.

Mário Fernandes Over a year ago

@LeonardoBeal, you are entirely correct, could've been more explicit here

Luís Soares · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-05 11:01:24Z

9

If using Spring Boot for REST, you can do it in application.properties:

spring.jackson.serialization-inclusion=NON_NULL

source

edited May 5, 2016 at 11:01

answered Apr 7, 2016 at 7:03

Luís Soares

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2 Comments

Johannes Flügel Over a year ago

Unfortunately this works only for Spring Boot 1.3. docs.spring.io/spring-boot/docs/1.2.8.RELEASE/reference/… does not contain this line.

Doug Hou Over a year ago

I use spring.jackson.default-property-inclusion=non_absent, with spring boot 1.5.3

Norbert · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-25 18:52:51Z

1

Java configuration for the above. Just place the below in your @Configuration class.

@Bean
public Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder objectMapperBuilder() {
    Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder builder = new Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder();
    builder.serializationInclusion(JsonInclude.Include.NON_NULL);
    return builder;
}

answered Aug 25, 2016 at 18:52

Norbert

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