How can i customize the dafault behavior of jackson when returning a ResponseEntity<> with PagedResources<>? - spring

Question

Im using spring boot on my proyect. Basically, all i want is to include inline entities in a response of a GET method while still using the advantages of spring-hateoas (_embedded and links).
Having this class:
#Entity
#Table(name = "sub_specialty", schema = "public", catalog = "icorelab")
public class SubSpecialty {
private Integer id;
private String name;
private Boolean active;
private Date createdAt;
private Date deletedAt;
private Specialty specialty;
private String description;
#ManyToOne
#JoinColumn(name = "specialty_id", referencedColumnName = "id", nullable = false)
public Specialty getSpecialtyBySpecialtyId() {
return specialty;
}
I set up repository with PagingAndSorting capabilities, also it extends CustomRepository to provide custom methods. This repository uses a projection so an iternal entity gets serialized as mentioned here
https://docs.spring.io/spring-data/rest/docs/current/reference/html/#projections-excerpts.excerpts
#RepositoryRestResource(collectionResourceRel = "sub_specialties", path = "sub_specialties",
excerptProjection = InlineSpecialty.class)
public interface SubSpecialtyRepository extends PagingAndSortingRepository<SubSpecialty, Integer>,SubSpecialtyRepositoryCustom {
The in a controller, i return the response by using Page and PageResourcesAssembler
Page<SubSpecialty> page = subSpecialtyRepository.filter(name,description,active,specialty,limit,offset,pageable.getSort());
PagedResources<SubSpecialty> pagedResources = pagedResourcesAssembler.toResource(page,subSpecialtyResourceAssembler);
HttpHeaders headers = PaginationUtil.generatePaginationHttpHeaders(page, "/sub_specialties/filter", offset, limit);
ResponseEntity<?> response = new ResponseEntity<>(pagedResources, headers, HttpStatus.OK);
return response;
The problem is that the message does not include Specialty info, just the link
{
"_embedded": {
"sub_specialties": [
{
"id": 107,
"name": "PHARMACOLOGY",
"active": false,
"createdAt": "2017-09-30",
"deletedAt": null,
"description": null,
"_links": {
"self": {
"href": "http://localhost:8080/sub_specialties/107{?projection}",
"templated": true
},
"subSpecialty": {
"href": "http://localhost:8080/sub_specialties/107{?projection}",
"templated": true
},
"specialty": {
"href": "http://localhost:8080/specialties/16"
}
}
},
{
"id": 104,
"name": "PHARMACOLOGY",
"active": false,
"createdAt": "2017-09-30",
"deletedAt": null,
"description": null,
"_links": {
"self": {
"href": "http://localhost:8080/sub_specialties/104{?projection}",
"templated": true
},
"subSpecialty": {
"href": "http://localhost:8080/sub_specialties/104{?projection}",
"templated": true
},
"specialty": {
"href": "http://localhost:8080/specialties/16"
}
}
}
]
},
"_links": {
"self": {
"href": "http://localhost:8080/sub_specialties/filter?page=0&size=20"
}
},
"page": {
"size": 20,
"totalElements": 2,
"totalPages": 1,
"number": 0
}
}
Is there anyway to achieve this? I thought i could use an annotation on the entity domain class or a custom jackson serializer.The Specialty entity is included in the response, however is not included in the message that receives the client. I suppose there is some default configuration for jackson that detects a repository of type Specialty, and the just includes the link in the response.