Jackson annotations give you precise control over how your Java objects map to JSON and back. Rather than relying solely on field names, you can rename properties, ignore specific fields, handle nulls, format dates, and much more — all without writing a single custom serialiser. This guide covers every annotation you will encounter in real projects, with concrete examples for each.

@JsonProperty — Rename a Field in JSON

Use @JsonProperty when the JSON key must differ from the Java field name — for example, when consuming a third-party API that uses snake_case.

public class OrderSummary {
    @JsonProperty("order_id")        // JSON key: order_id
    private Long orderId;

    @JsonProperty("customer_name")   // JSON key: customer_name
    private String customerName;

    // Getters and setters
}

// Serialise
{"order_id":1001,"customer_name":"Alice"}

// Deserialise: JSON with "order_id" maps correctly to the orderId field

Continue reading Jackson Annotations Cheat Sheet: Every Annotation You Need With Examples →

Modern Java — particularly Java 16 through 21 — introduced several language features that change how you model data: Records for immutable value objects, Optional for nullable return types, and Sealed Classes for closed type hierarchies. Each of these interacts with Jackson in ways that require specific setup. This guide shows you exactly what to configure so that Jackson handles all three correctly.

Jackson with Java Records

Java Records are ideal DTOs: they are immutable, concise, and carry their own equals(), hashCode(), and toString() implementations. Jackson 3 supports Records natively with zero additional modules — the canonical constructor is used automatically for deserialisation and record accessor methods replace getters for serialisation.

Define a Record:

// A concise, immutable data transfer object
public record ProductRecord(
    Long   productId,
    String productName,
    double unitPrice
) {}

Continue reading Jackson with Java Records, Optionals, and Sealed Classes (Java 21+) →

Jackson is the most widely used JSON library in the Java ecosystem, and ObjectMapper is its workhorse. Whether you need to convert a Java object into a JSON string, parse a JSON file from disk, or read from an HTTP response body, ObjectMapper handles it all with a clean, consistent API. This guide covers everything you need to use Jackson’s ObjectMapper effectively in real projects.

What Is Jackson ObjectMapper?

ObjectMapper is the central class in Jackson’s data-binding API. It bridges the gap between Java objects (POJOs) and JSON text. Internally it uses a JsonParser for reading and a JsonGenerator for writing, but you rarely interact with those directly — ObjectMapper wraps them behind a higher-level API.

Three key facts to keep in mind:

• Thread-safe after configuration. Create one instance, share it across your application. Recreating it per request is expensive.
• Highly configurable. Date formats, null handling, unknown-property behaviour, and much more are controlled via feature flags.
• Extensible. Custom serialisers, deserialisers, and modules let you handle any type Jackson does not know about out of the box.

Adding Jackson to Your Project

The jackson-databind artifact is all you need. It pulls in jackson-core and jackson-annotations as transitive dependencies.

Continue reading Jackson ObjectMapper: The Complete Guide to Reading and Writing JSON in Java →

Jackson is the de facto standard for JSON processing in Java. It ships as the default JSON library in Spring Boot, is used by thousands of open-source frameworks, and handles everything from trivial string serialisation to streaming gigabyte-sized files. If you write Java and you touch JSON — which is essentially everyone — you will use Jackson. This post gives you the essential foundation: why Jackson dominates, how to set it up, and the one architectural rule that matters most.

Why Jackson, Not Gson?

Both Jackson and Gson are mature, actively maintained libraries. The key differences are:

Feature	Jackson	Gson
Spring Boot integration	Built-in default (zero config)	Requires manual registration
Performance	Faster on most benchmarks, especially large payloads	Competitive on small payloads
Streaming API	Yes — JsonParser / JsonGenerator	No
Java 8+ type support	Via JavaTimeModule, Jdk8Module	Limited, requires custom adapters
Polymorphic types	First-class with @JsonTypeInfo	Requires manual type adapters
Module ecosystem	Large (YAML, XML, CSV, CBOR, etc.)	Minimal

For greenfield projects on Spring Boot or Jakarta EE, Jackson is the correct default choice. Gson remains a reasonable option for Android or lightweight standalone utilities.

Continue reading Jackson 101: The Complete Java JSON Tutorial – Setup, ObjectMapper, and Best Practices →

Jackson is powerful, but some of its older configuration options can open serious security vulnerabilities in your application. The most critical is polymorphic type handling: when configured carelessly, it allows an attacker to supply a JSON payload that causes Jackson to instantiate and invoke arbitrary Java classes on your server — a Remote Code Execution (RCE) vector known as “deserialization gadget attacks.” This guide explains the risk, shows you what to avoid, and demonstrates the safe patterns you should follow in all production code.

The Risk: enableDefaultTyping and Gadget Attacks

Jackson historically provided a method called enableDefaultTyping() that automatically embedded and honoured Java class names in serialised JSON. This means an attacker who can send JSON to your application could supply a class name of their choosing as the type discriminator, causing Jackson to instantiate that class during deserialisation.

The attack exploits classes already on the JVM classpath that have side effects in their constructors or setters — so-called “gadget classes.” Common culprits include JDBC drivers, logging libraries, and many Apache Commons classes.

Never use this in production:

// DANGEROUS — do not use in any application that receives untrusted JSON
mapper.enableDefaultTyping(); // Deprecated and removed in Jackson 2.16
mapper.enableDefaultTyping(ObjectMapper.DefaultTyping.NON_FINAL); // Also dangerous

Both of these methods were deprecated in Jackson 2.10 and completely removed in Jackson 3.x. If you encounter them in a codebase being migrated to Jackson 3, treat it as a blocker — the code will not compile and the security risk must be remediated before upgrading.

Continue reading Jackson Security Best Practices: Defending Against Deserialization Gadget Attacks →

For most applications, ObjectMapper.readValue() and writeValueAsString() are all you need. But when JSON files reach hundreds of megabytes, or when you need to work with dynamic JSON whose schema you do not know at compile time, Jackson offers two lower-level APIs that give you full control: the Streaming API (JsonParser / JsonGenerator) and the Tree Model (JsonNode). This guide explains when to use each and shows practical examples for both.

The Streaming API: Parsing Gigabyte-Sized JSON Files

The Streaming API processes JSON one token at a time. It never loads the entire document into memory, making it the only practical choice for very large files. The trade-off is verbosity — you must walk the token stream yourself.

Reading a Large JSON Array with JsonParser

Suppose you have a file with millions of log entries and you only need to extract records that match a filter condition:

JsonFactory jsonFactory = new JsonFactory();
int errorCount = 0;

try (JsonParser parser = jsonFactory.createParser(new File("large-logs.json"))) {

    // Confirm the root is an array
    if (parser.nextToken() != JsonToken.START_ARRAY) {
        throw new IllegalStateException("Expected a JSON array at the root");
    }

    // Walk each element in the array
    while (parser.nextToken() != JsonToken.END_ARRAY) {

        String logLevel = null;
        String logMessage = null;

        // Walk each field inside the current object
        while (parser.nextToken() != JsonToken.END_OBJECT) {
            String fieldName = parser.getCurrentName();
            parser.nextToken(); // Move to field value

            if ("level".equals(fieldName)) {
                logLevel = parser.getText();
            } else if ("message".equals(fieldName)) {
                logMessage = parser.getText();
            }
            // All other fields are skipped automatically
        }

        if ("ERROR".equals(logLevel)) {
            System.out.println("ERROR: " + logMessage);
            errorCount++;
        }
    }
}
System.out.println("Total errors found: " + errorCount);

Continue reading Jackson Streaming API and JsonNode Tree Model: High-Performance JSON Processing in Java →

Polymorphic deserialisation is the technique of deserialising a JSON payload into one of several possible concrete subtypes based on information embedded in the JSON itself. It is essential whenever your API works with inheritance hierarchies — event systems, payment processors, notification pipelines, or any domain where a list of heterogeneous objects needs to round-trip through JSON. Jackson handles this cleanly with @JsonTypeInfo and @JsonSubTypes.

The Problem: Deserialising an Abstract Type

Consider an API that returns a list of payment methods. Some are credit cards, others are bank transfers. Both share a common base, but each has its own fields. Without polymorphic support, Jackson cannot decide which concrete class to instantiate when it sees a generic PaymentMethod type.

Setting Up the Hierarchy with @JsonTypeInfo and @JsonSubTypes

Annotate the base class (or interface) with @JsonTypeInfo to tell Jackson where the type discriminator lives in the JSON, and with @JsonSubTypes to register the permitted subtypes:

@JsonTypeInfo(
    use      = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME,    // Use a logical name as the discriminator
    include  = JsonTypeInfo.As.PROPERTY, // Embed it as a field in the JSON object
    property = "paymentType"             // The JSON key that carries the type name
)
@JsonSubTypes({
    @JsonSubTypes.Type(value = CreditCardPayment.class, name = "credit_card"),
    @JsonSubTypes.Type(value = BankTransferPayment.class, name = "bank_transfer")
})
public abstract class PaymentMethod {
    private Long   paymentId;
    private double amountDue;
    // Getters and setters
}

Continue reading Jackson Polymorphic Deserialisation: Handling Inheritance Hierarchies with @JsonTypeInfo →