Java – Gson: How to exclude specific fields from Serialization without annotations

gsonjavajsonserialization

I'm trying to learn Gson and I'm struggling with field exclusion. Here are my classes

public class Student {    
  private Long                id;
  private String              firstName        = "Philip";
  private String              middleName       = "J.";
  private String              initials         = "P.F";
  private String              lastName         = "Fry";
  private Country             country;
  private Country             countryOfBirth;
}

public class Country {    
  private Long                id;
  private String              name;
  private Object              other;
}

I can use the GsonBuilder and add an ExclusionStrategy for a field name like firstName or country but I can't seem to manage to exclude properties of certain fields like country.name.

Using the method public boolean shouldSkipField(FieldAttributes fa), FieldAttributes doesn't contain enough information to match the field with a filter like country.name.

P.S: I want to avoid annotations since I want to improve on this and use RegEx to filter fields out.

Edit: I'm trying to see if it's possible to emulate the behavior of Struts2 JSON plugin

using Gson

<interceptor-ref name="json">
  <param name="enableSMD">true</param>
  <param name="excludeProperties">
    login.password,
    studentList.*\.sin
  </param>
</interceptor-ref>

Edit:
I reopened the question with the following addition:

I added a second field with the same type to futher clarify this problem. Basically I want to exclude country.name but not countrOfBirth.name. I also don't want to exclude Country as a type.
So the types are the same it's the actual place in the object graph that I want to pinpoint and exclude.

Best Answer

Any fields you don't want serialized in general you should use the "transient" modifier, and this also applies to json serializers (at least it does to a few that I have used, including gson).

If you don't want name to show up in the serialized json give it a transient keyword, eg:

private transient String name;

Related Solutions

Java – How to test a class that has private methods, fields or inner classes

Update:

Some 10 years later perhaps the best way to test a private method, or any inaccessible member, is via @Jailbreak from the Manifold framework.
@Jailbreak Foo foo = new Foo();
// Direct, *type-safe* access to *all* foo's members
foo.privateMethod(x, y, z);
foo.privateField = value;
This way your code remains type-safe and readable. No design compromises, no overexposing methods and fields for the sake of tests.

If you have somewhat of a legacy Java application, and you're not allowed to change the visibility of your methods, the best way to test private methods is to use reflection.

Internally we're using helpers to get/set private and private static variables as well as invoke private and private static methods. The following patterns will let you do pretty much anything related to the private methods and fields. Of course, you can't change private static final variables through reflection.

Method method = TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses);
method.setAccessible(true);
return method.invoke(targetObject, argObjects);

And for fields:

Field field = TargetClass.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
field.setAccessible(true);
field.set(object, value);

Notes:
1. TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses) lets you look into private methods. The same thing applies for getDeclaredField.
2. The setAccessible(true) is required to play around with privates.

Java – How to call one constructor from another in Java

Yes, it is possible:

public class Foo {
    private int x;

    public Foo() {
        this(1);
    }

    public Foo(int x) {
        this.x = x;
    }
}

To chain to a particular superclass constructor instead of one in the same class, use super instead of this. Note that you can only chain to one constructor, and it has to be the first statement in your constructor body.

See also this related question, which is about C# but where the same principles apply.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Java – How to test a class that has private methods, fields or inner classes

Java – How to call one constructor from another in Java

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