How to send Java collections containing subclasses to spring controller - spring

Question

I'm trying to send collections to my spring MVC controller:
#RequestMapping("/postUsers.do")
public #ResponseBody ResponseDTO postUsers(#ModelAttribute("mapperList") MapperList mapperList) {
//prints {"users":null}
System.out.println(new ObjectMapper().writeValueAsString(mapperList));
return new ResponseDTO();
}
this is the code posting my users :
public ResponseDTO postUsers(ArrayList<User> users) {
ResponseDTO serverResponse = null;
URL url = new URL(urlString);
HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
connection.setDoOutput(true);
connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=UTF-8");
connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
// prints {"users":[{"property1":"x","property1":y}]}
System.out.println(objectMapper.writeValueAsString(new MapperList(users)));
objectMapper.writeValue(connection.getOutputStream(), objectMapper.writeValueAsString(new MapperList(users)));
//blabla ...
}
and this is the object containing my list :
public class MapperList implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 8561295813487706798L;
private ArrayList<User> users;
public MapperList() {}
public MapperList(ArrayList<User> users) {
this.setUsers(users);
}
public ArrayList<User> getUsers() {
return users;
}
public void setUsers(ArrayList<User> users) {
this.users = users;
}
}
and this is the users type to post:
public abstract class User implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = -1811485256250922102L;
private String property1;
private String property2;
public User() {}
public User(String prop1, String prop2) {
// set properties
}
// getters and setters
}
the problem is, when I output the value of the users's array before to post it to the controller, I got the following json value :
{"users":[{"property1":"x","property1":y}]}
but in the controller, when I print what I get from the request body, I only get :
{"users":null}
I also tryed with the annotation #RequestBody instead of #ModelAttribute("mapperList") and a JSONException is displayed :
*A JSONObject text must begin with '{' at 1 [character 2 line 1]\r\n*
My array list of users contains only one user that should be displayed. I don't understand why this doesn't work...
Thanks for any help !

Answer 1

You can chnage your MapperList class definition as public class MapperList extends ArrayList<User>{ ..} you dont need to define any instance variable like private ArrayList users inside MapperList class. Use #Requestbody annotation. You will be able to use MapperList as a ArrayList

Answer 2

Try to use:
public class MapperList{
private List<User> users;
//setter and getter
//toString
}
public class User{
private String property1;
private String property2;
//getter + setter
}
json:
{"users":[{"property1":"x", "property2":"y"}]}
in controller use #RequestBody. In that case Jackson will map your json to ArrayList of users.
#ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.OK)
#RequestMapping("/postUsers.do")
public #ResponseBody ResponseDTO postUsers(#RequestBody MapperList users) {
System.out.println(users);
return null;
}
no need to get objectMapper in that case. Don't forget to set content-type in request header to application/json. It required by Spring to handle #RequestBody processing.
If not working try to change MapperList:
List<User> users = new ArrayList<User>();

Answer 3

On the server side keep the #RequestBody annotation:
public #ResponseBody ResponseDTO postUsers(#RequestBody MapperList mapperList)
...
But this line causes problems:
objectMapper.writeValue(
connection.getOutputStream(),
objectMapper.writeValueAsString(new MapperList(users))
);
First it converts the object to JSON and then again uses objectMapper to JSON-encode the string into output stream. Try the following instead:
connection.getOutputStream().write(
objectMapper.writeValueAsString(new MapperList(users))
.getBytes("UTF-8")
);
or directly output to stream:
objectMapper.writeValue(
connection.getOutputStream(),
new MapperList(users))
);

Answer 4

Zbynek gave me part of the answer. Indeed
objectMapper.writeValue(
connection.getOutputStream(),
objectMapper.writeValueAsString(new MapperList(users))
);
doesn't work properly in my case
But moreover, my User class was an abstract class, with many type of User as subclasses. so the #RequestBody annotation couldn't work without specified the object type in the Json.
I used the following annotations on User class to make it working :
#JsonTypeInfo(use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME, include = JsonTypeInfo.As.PROPERTY, property = "type")
#JsonSubTypes({
#JsonSubTypes.Type(value = SubClassA.class, name = "a"),
#JsonSubTypes.Type(value = SubClassB.class, name = "b")
})
Thanks a lot for all your answers.