HttpMediaTypeNotAcceptableException: Could not find acceptable representation spring mvc 4.1.5 with com.fasterxml 2.5.1

Question

Help - what else can I do to fix this error? org.springframework.web.HttpMediaTypeNotAcceptableException:: Could not find acceptable representation.

I think my project is configured properly to handle json restful requests. In the past several days, I have read and applied various suggestions to no avail. Are there any more ideas on what else I should be doing differently?

I am using Spring MVC 4.1.5 and com.fasterxml 2.5.1.

A portion of my pom.xml

 <dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-annotations</artifactId>
    <version>2.5.1</version>
    <type>bundle</type>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
    <version>2.5.1</version>
    <type>bundle</type>
 </dependency>
 <dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
    <version>2.5.1</version>
    <type>bundle</type>
 </dependency>

Here is my part of my web.xml

<!-- Creates the Spring Container shared by all Servlets and Filters -->
<listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>

<!-- Processes application requests -->
<servlet>
    <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>
            /WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml
        </param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>appServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Here is part of my servlet-context.xml

<!-- Enables the Spring MVC @Controller programming model -->
<annotation-driven />

<!-- Handles HTTP GET requests for /resources/** by efficiently serving up static resources in the ${webappRoot}/resources directory -->
<resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/" />

<!-- Resolves views selected for rendering by @Controllers to .jsp resources in the /WEB-INF/views directory -->
<beans:bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
    <beans:property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/" />
    <beans:property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
</beans:bean>

<context:component-scan base-package="com.losgatos">
    <context:include-filter type="annotation" expression="org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ControllerAdvice" />
</context:component-scan>   

Here is my controller

package com.losgatos.controllers;

import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

import com.losgatos.User;

@RestController
@RequestMapping( "user" )
public class UserController { 

    @RequestMapping( value = "data", produces="application/json" )
    public User getUser(){
        return new User();
    }   
}

Here is the User User POJO

package com.losgatos;

import java.util.EnumSet;

public class User {

    public User(){
        id = 0;
        age = 22;
        name = "Titus Feng"; 
        alias = "tornado tie";
        roles = EnumSet.of( Role.NORMAL, Role.NEW );
    }

    private int id, age;
    private String name, alias;
    private EnumSet<Role> roles;

    //added getters and setters here

    public enum Role{
        NEW, NORMAL, ADMIN, MEMBER, DORMANT 
    }   
}

Answer 1

In your spring context configuration file(dispatcher-servlet.xml) you have:

<context:component-scan base-package="com.losgatos">
    <context:include-filter type="annotation" expression="org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ControllerAdvice" />
</context:component-scan>

and your controller is annotated with:

@RestController
@RequestMapping( "user" )
public class UserController { 
...
}

your controller class will not be loaded to container at all. BTW as per your exception message:

I am getting the error

org.springframework.web.HttpMediaTypeNotAcceptableException:: Could not find acceptable representation.

This exception raises when you have not registered the following in context file:

• <mvc:annotation-driven /> (you have not registered on your context file)
• If required JAR's are not present on classpath, (you already have it)
• When ENUM is used, annotate your ENUM class with @JsonFormat(shape= JsonFormat.Shape.OBJECT)

EDIT: tested working fine for me, with Spring 4.0.1.RELEASE and below single JSON dependency:

com.fasterxml.jackson.core jackson-databind 2.4.3

and controller class:

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/u")
public class UserRestController {

    @RequestMapping( value = "/data", produces="application/json" )
    public RestUser getUser(){
        return new RestUser();
    } 
}

got:

{"id":0,"age":22,"name":"Titus Feng","alias":"tornado tie","roles":["NEW","NORMAL"]}

Suggestion, change this:

<context:component-scan base-package="com.losgatos">
    <context:include-filter type="annotation" expression="org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ControllerAdvice" />
</context:component-scan>

to:

<context:component-scan base-package="com.losgatos">
    <context:include-filter type="annotation" expression="org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController" />
</context:component-scan>