How to serialize Optional classes with Gson?

Question

I have an object with the following attributes.

private final String messageBundle;
private final List<String> messageParams;
private final String actionBundle;
private final Map<String, String> data;
private final Optional<Pair<Integer,TimeUnit>> ttl;
private final Optional<Integer> badgeNumber;
private final Optional<String> collapseKey;

The object is in a library, i would rather not modify it just for serialization purpose, and would like to avoid the cost of creating another DTO.

How can i serialize / unserialize Optional attributes? Optional doesn't have a default constructor (neither apache commons Pair), but i can't use the InstanceCreator, and don't really understand how to create a TypeAdapter that would simply delegate the serialization to the underlying Optional content.

Answer 1

After several hours of gooling and coding - there is my version:

public class OptionalTypeAdapter<E> extends TypeAdapter<Optional<E>> {

    public static final TypeAdapterFactory FACTORY = new TypeAdapterFactory() {
        @Override
        public <T> TypeAdapter<T> create(Gson gson, TypeToken<T> type) {
            Class<T> rawType = (Class<T>) type.getRawType();
            if (rawType != Optional.class) {
                return null;
            }
            final ParameterizedType parameterizedType = (ParameterizedType) type.getType();
            final Type actualType = parameterizedType.getActualTypeArguments()[0];
            final TypeAdapter<?> adapter = gson.getAdapter(TypeToken.get(actualType));
            return new OptionalTypeAdapter(adapter);
        }
    };
    private final TypeAdapter<E> adapter;

    public OptionalTypeAdapter(TypeAdapter<E> adapter) {

        this.adapter = adapter;
    }

    @Override
    public void write(JsonWriter out, Optional<E> value) throws IOException {
        if(value.isPresent()){
            adapter.write(out, value.get());
        } else {
            out.nullValue();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Optional<E> read(JsonReader in) throws IOException {
        final JsonToken peek = in.peek();
        if(peek != JsonToken.NULL){
            return Optional.ofNullable(adapter.read(in));
        }

        in.nextNull();
        return Optional.empty();
    }

}

You can simple registered it with GsonBuilder like this:

instance.registerTypeAdapterFactory(OptionalTypeAdapter.FACTORY)

Please keep attention that Gson does not set values to your class field if field does not present in json. So you need to set default value Optional.empty() in your entity.

Answer 2

The solution by Ilya ignores type parameters, so it can't really work in the general case. My solution is rather complicated, because of the need to distinguish between null and Optional.absent() -- otherwise you could strip away the encapsulation as a list.

public class GsonOptionalDeserializer<T>
implements JsonSerializer<Optional<T>>, JsonDeserializer<Optional<T>> {

    @Override
    public Optional<T> deserialize(JsonElement json, Type typeOfT, JsonDeserializationContext context)
            throws JsonParseException {
        final JsonArray asJsonArray = json.getAsJsonArray();
        final JsonElement jsonElement = asJsonArray.get(0);
        final T value = context.deserialize(jsonElement, ((ParameterizedType) typeOfT).getActualTypeArguments()[0]);
        return Optional.fromNullable(value);
    }

    @Override
    public JsonElement serialize(Optional<T> src, Type typeOfSrc, JsonSerializationContext context) {
        final JsonElement element = context.serialize(src.orNull());
        final JsonArray result = new JsonArray();
        result.add(element);
        return result;
    }
}

Answer 3

Just as an addition to maaartinus solution, the version without the encapsulating list, where Optional.absent is simply serialized as null:

public class GsonOptionalDeserializer<T> implements JsonSerializer<Optional<T>>, JsonDeserializer<Optional<T>> {
    @Override
    public Optional<T> deserialize(JsonElement json, Type typeOfT, JsonDeserializationContext context)
        throws JsonParseException {
        final T value = context.deserialize(json, ((ParameterizedType) typeOfT).getActualTypeArguments()[0]);
        return Optional.fromNullable(value);
    }

    @Override
    public JsonElement serialize(Optional<T> src, Type typeOfSrc, JsonSerializationContext context) {
        return context.serialize(src.orNull());
    }
}

Answer 4

I'll add to Anton Onikiychuk's answer

@Override
public Optional<E> read(JsonReader in) throws IOException {
    JsonToken peek = in.peek();
    if (peek == JsonToken.NULL) {
        in.nextNull(); // consuming JSON null
        return Optional.empty();
    }

    return Optional.ofNullable(adapter.read(in));
}

Answer 5

I've encountered a similar challenge when trying to create a custom Gson TypeAdapter for optional types like java.util.Optional. Despite searching extensively and reviewing existing answers, I couldn't find a solution that precisely addressed this issue.

However, after thorough experimentation, I've managed to create a custom TypeAdapter that should work for your scenario:

/**
 * TypeAdapter to manage nullable fields with Optional approach
 */
public static class OptionalTypeAdapter<E> implements JsonSerializer<Optional<E>>, JsonDeserializer<Optional<E>> {

    @Override
    public JsonElement serialize(Optional<E> src, Type typeOfSrc, JsonSerializationContext context) {
        if (src.isPresent()) {
            return context.serialize(src.get());
        } else {
            return JsonNull.INSTANCE;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Optional<E> deserialize(JsonElement json, Type typeOfT, JsonDeserializationContext context)
            throws JsonParseException {
        if (json.isJsonNull()) {
            return Optional.empty();
        } else {
            E value = context.deserialize(json, ((ParameterizedType) typeOfT).getActualTypeArguments()[0]);
            return Optional.ofNullable(value);
        }
    }
}

This custom OptionalTypeAdapter should allow Gson to handle optional types appropriately in serialization and deserialization.

Instance a Gson object to handle JSON is now possible through this code:

new GsonBuilder()
.registerTypeAdapter(Optional.class, new OptionalTypeAdapter<>())
.create();