How Do I Override A Java Map When Converting A JSON To Java Object Using GSON?

I have a JSON string which looks like this: { 'status': 'status', 'date': '01/10/2019', 'alerts': { 'labels': { 'field1': 'value1', 'field2': 'value2',

Solution 1:

There isnt really much you can do here. Even if you extended HashMap, the problem is that when the JSON is de-serialized, it doesn't call native methods. What you COULD do is the following, but it is rather cumbersome:

import java.util.HashMap;

public class HashMapCaseInsensitive extends HashMap<String, String> {

    private boolean convertedToLower = false;

    @Override
    public String put(String key, String value) {
        if(!convertedToLower){
            convertToLower();
        }
        return super.put(key.toLowerCase(), value);
    }

    @Override
    public String get(Object key) {
        if(!convertedToLower){
            convertToLower();
        }
        return super.get(key.toString().toLowerCase());
    }

    private void convertToLower(){
        for(String key : this.keySet()){
            String data = this.get(key);
            this.remove(key);
            this.put(key.toLowerCase(), data);
        }
        convertedToLower = true;
    }

}

Solution 2:

You can write your own MapTypeAdapterFactory which creates Map always with lowered keys. Our adapter will be based on com.google.gson.internal.bind.MapTypeAdapterFactory. We can not extend it because it is final but our Map is very simple so let's copy only important code:

class LowercaseMapTypeAdapterFactory implements TypeAdapterFactory {

    @Override
    public <T> TypeAdapter<T> create(Gson gson, TypeToken<T> type) {
        TypeAdapter<String> stringAdapter = gson.getAdapter(TypeToken.get(String.class));

        return new TypeAdapter<T>() {
            @Override
            public void write(JsonWriter out, T value) { }

            @Override
            public T read(JsonReader in) throws IOException {
                JsonToken peek = in.peek();
                if (peek == JsonToken.NULL) {
                    in.nextNull();
                    return null;
                }

                Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<>();

                in.beginObject();
                while (in.hasNext()) {
                    JsonReaderInternalAccess.INSTANCE.promoteNameToValue(in);
                    String key = stringAdapter.read(in).toLowerCase();
                    String value = stringAdapter.read(in);
                    String replaced = map.put(key, value);
                    if (replaced != null) {
                        throw new JsonSyntaxException("duplicate key: " + key);
                    }
                }
                in.endObject();

                return (T) map;
            }
        };
    }
}

Now, we need to inform that our Map should be deserialised with our adapter:

class Alerts {

    @JsonAdapter(value = LowercaseMapTypeAdapterFactory.class)
    private Map<String, String> labels;

    private String otherInfo;

    // getters, setters, toString
}

Assume that our JSON payload looks like below:

{
  "status": "status",
  "date": "01/10/2019",
  "alerts": {
    "labels": {
      "Field1": "value1",
      "fIEld2": "value2",
      "fielD3": "value3",
      "FIELD100": "value100"
    },
    "otherInfo": "other stuff"
  },
  "description": "some description"
}

Example usage:

import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;
import com.google.gson.JsonSyntaxException;
import com.google.gson.TypeAdapter;
import com.google.gson.TypeAdapterFactory;
import com.google.gson.annotations.JsonAdapter;
import com.google.gson.internal.JsonReaderInternalAccess;
import com.google.gson.reflect.TypeToken;
import com.google.gson.stream.JsonReader;
import com.google.gson.stream.JsonToken;
import com.google.gson.stream.JsonWriter;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class GsonApp {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        File jsonFile = new File("./resource/test.json").getAbsoluteFile();
        Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().create();

        Status status = gson.fromJson(new FileReader(jsonFile), Status.class);

        System.out.println(status.getAlerts());
    }
}

Above code prints:

Alerts{labels={field1=value1, field100=value100, field3=value3, field2=value2}, otherInfo='other stuff'}

This is really tricky solution and it should be used carefully. Do not use this adapter with much complex Map-es. From other side, OOP prefers much simple solutions. For example, create decorator for a Map like below:

class Labels {

    private final Map<String, String> map;

    public Labels(Map<String, String> map) {
        Objects.requireNonNull(map);
        this.map = new HashMap<>();
        map.forEach((k, v) -> this.map.put(k.toLowerCase(), v));
    }

    public String getValue(String label) {
        return this.map.get(label.toLowerCase());
    }

    // toString
}

Add new method to Alerts class:

public Map<String, String> toLabels() {
    return new Labels(labels);
}

Example usage:

status.getAlerts().toLabels()

Which gives you a very flexible and secure behaviour.

Solution 3:

Though this is not a very generic solution, however, I think this will serve your purpose.

I would like to suggest you create an adapter for Gson which can convert the map values for you. The adapter might look like the following.

import com.google.gson.JsonDeserializationContext;
import com.google.gson.JsonDeserializer;
import com.google.gson.JsonElement;
import com.google.gson.JsonParseException;

import java.lang.reflect.Type;

final class GSONAdapter implements JsonDeserializer<String> {

    private static final GSONAdapter instance = new GSONAdapter();

    static GSONAdapter instance() {
        return instance;
    }

    @Override
    public String deserialize(JsonElement jsonElement, Type type,
                              JsonDeserializationContext jsonDeserializationContext) throws JsonParseException {

        // Here I am taking the elements which are starting with field
        // and then returning the lowercase version
        // so that the labels map is created this way
        if (jsonElement.getAsString().toLowerCase().startsWith("field"))
            return jsonElement.getAsString().toLowerCase();
        else return jsonElement.getAsString();
    }
}

Now just add the GsonBuilder to your Gson using the adapter and then try to parse the JSON. You should get all the values in the lower case as you wanted for the labels.

Please note that I am just taking the field variables in my concern and hence this is not a generic solution which will work for every key. However, if your keys have any specific format, this can be easily applied.

Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
        .registerTypeAdapter(String.class, GSONAdapter.instance())
        .create();

Status status = gson.fromJson(statusJSONString, Status.class);
Alerts alerts = status.getAlerts();

Hope that solves your problem.