Jackson AntPath Property Filter

A Jackson Filter matching the path of the current value to serialize against the AntPathMatcher. The inclusion / exclusion works similar to the ant file include / exclude functionality. Ant / Maven users should mostly be aware of how this works.

Requirements

• Java 5
• Jackson 2.5.0+ (2.5.0.RELEASE and its dependencies included)

Installation

For Maven and Maven-compatible dependency managers

Add a dependency to your project with the following co-ordinates:

• GroupId: ch.mfrey.jackson
• ArtifactId: jackson-antpathfilter
• Version: ${jackson-antpathfilter.version}

<dependency>
	<groupId>ch.mfrey.jackson</groupId>
	<artifactId>jackson-antpathfilter</artifactId>
	<version>${jackson-antpathfilter.version}</version>
</dependency>

Usage

String[] filter = new String[] {"*", "*.*", "-not.that.path"};

ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
objectMapper.addMixIn(Object.class, AntPathFilterMixin.class);

FilterProvider filterProvider = new SimpleFilterProvider().addFilter("antPathFilter", new AntPathPropertyFilter(filter));
objectMapper.setFilters(filterProvider);

objectMapper.writeValueAsString(someObject);

Spring Integration

For those using this together with Spring it is easy to create a helper class to configure the objectMapper only once and avoid boilerplate code in each Controller.

<!-- Needed so that Controllers can return a JSON ResponseBody directly as a String result (produced by Jackson2Helper) -->
<bean class = "org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter">
    <property name="messageConverters">
        <array>
            <bean class = "org.springframework.http.converter.StringHttpMessageConverter">
                <property name="supportedMediaTypes" value="application/json; charset=UTF-8" />
            </bean>
        </array>
    </property>
</bean>

@Component
public class Jackson2Helper {

    private final ObjectMapper objectMapper;

    public Jackson2Helper() {
        super();
        objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
        objectMapper.addMixIn(Object.class, AntPathFilterMixin.class);
    }
    
   public String writeFiltered(final Object value, final String... filters) {
        try {
            objectMapper.setFilters(new SimpleFilterProvider().addFilter("antPathFilter", new AntPathPropertyFilter(properties)));
            return objectMapper.writeValueAsString(someObject);
        } catch (IOException ioe) {
            throw new HttpMessageNotWritableException("Could not write object filtered.", ioe);
        }
    }
}

@Controller
@RequestMapping(value = "/someObject")
public class SomeController {
    @Autowired
    private Jackson2Helper jackson2Helper;

    @RequestMapping
    @ResponseBody
    public String getSomeObject() {
        return jackson2Helper.writeFiltered(someObject, "*", "*.*", "-not.that.path");
    }
}

= Inclusion:

"*", "**", "*.*", "someproperty.someNesterProperty.*",

= Exclusion:

"-property", "-**.someExpensiveMethod";

Examples (from the Unit Tests)

Data

{
  "address": {
    "streetName":"At my place",
    "streetNumber":"1"
  },
  "email":"[email protected]",
  "firstName":"Martin",
  "lastName":"Frey",
  "manager":{
    "address":null,
    "email":"[email protected]",
    "firstName":"John",
    "lastName":"Doe",
    "manager":null
  }
}
    

Filter: **,
Result: {"address":{"streetName":"At my place","streetNumber":"1"},"email":"[email protected]","firstName":"Martin","lastName":"Frey","manager":{"address":null,"email":"[email protected]","firstName":"John","lastName":"Doe","manager":null}}

Filter: firstName,
Result: {"firstName":"Martin"}

Filter: **,-manager,
Result: {"address":{"streetName":"At my place","streetNumber":"1"},"email":"[email protected]","firstName":"Martin","lastName":"Frey"}

Filter: manager,manager.firstName,manager.lastName,
Result: {"manager":{"firstName":"John","lastName":"Doe"}}

Filter: *,address.*,manager.firstName,
Result: {"address":{"streetName":"At my place","streetNumber":"1"},"email":"[email protected]","firstName":"Martin","lastName":"Frey","manager":{"firstName":"John"}}

Filter: **,-manager,-**.streetNumber,
Result: {"address":{"streetName":"At my place"},"email":"[email protected]","firstName":"Martin","lastName":"Frey"}