Returning JSON as Response Spring Boot

Question

I am trying to get rest response as json instead I am getting as string.

Controller

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api/")
public class someController{

  @Autowired
  private SomeService someService;

  @GetMapping("/getsome")
  public Iterable<SomeModel> getData(){
    return someService.getData();
  }
}

Service

@Autowired
private SomeRepo someRepo;

public Iterable<someModel> getData(){
  return someRepo.findAll();
}

Repository

public interface SomeRepo extends CrudRepository<SomeModel,Integer>{

}

Models

@Entity
@Table(name="some_table")
public class SomeModel{

  @Id
  @Column(name="p_col", nullable=false)
  private Integer id;
  @Column(name="s_col")
  private String name
  @Column(name="t_col")
  private String json;   // this column contains json data

  //constructors, getters and setters
}

when I run localhost:8080/api/getsome I am getting:

[
 {
    "p_col":1,
    "s_col":"someName",
    "t_col":" 
{\r\n\t"school_name\":\"someSchool\",\t\r\n\t"grade\":"A\",\r\n\t\"class\": 
 [{\"course\":"abc",\t"course_name\":\"def" }]}"
  }
]

Field t_col is returning string instead of json. How do I get json objects in response?

As for the database, the three columns are int, varchar and varchar.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks !!

Answer 1

You need to define your json attribute as JsonNode so jackson can read it back and forrward, but mark is as @Transient so JPA does not try to store it on database.

Then you can code getter/setter for JPA, where you translate from JsonNode to String back and forward. You define a getter getJsonString that translate JsonNode json to String. That one can be mapped to a table column, like 'json_string', then you define a setter where you receive the String from JPA and parse it to JsonNode that will be avaialable for jackson, jackson then will translate it to a json object not a string as you mention.

@Entity
@Table(name = "model")
public class SomeModel {

  private Long id;
  private String col1;

  //  Attribute for Jackson 
  @Transient
  private JsonNode json;

  @Id
  @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
  public Long getId() {
    return id;
  }

  @Column(name ="col1")
  public String getCol1() {
    return col1;
  }

  // Getter and setter for name

  @Transient
  public JsonNode getJson() {
    return json;
  }

  public void setJson(JsonNode json) {
    this.json = json;
  }

  // Getter and Setter for JPA use
  @Column(name ="jsonString")
  public String getJsonString() {
    return this.json.toString();
  }

  public void setJsonString(String jsonString) {
    // parse from String to JsonNode object
    ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
    try {
      this.json = mapper.readTree(jsonString);
    } catch (Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

Notice, @Column are defined at gettters because we need to indicate JPA to use getJsonString and JPA requires consistency so all column's getters must be mark with @Columns.