How to serialize Joda DateTime with Jackson JSON processor?

Solution 1:

This has become very easy with Jackson 2.0 and the Joda module.

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.registerModule(new JodaModule());

Maven dependency:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype</groupId>
  <artifactId>jackson-datatype-joda</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.1</version>
</dependency>  

Code and documentation: https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-datatype-joda

Binaries: http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/fasterxml/jackson/datatype/jackson-datatype-joda/

Solution 2:

In the object you're mapping:

@JsonSerialize(using = CustomDateSerializer.class)
public DateTime getDate() { ... }

In CustomDateSerializer:

public class CustomDateSerializer extends JsonSerializer<DateTime> {

    private static DateTimeFormatter formatter = 
        DateTimeFormat.forPattern("dd-MM-yyyy");

    @Override
    public void serialize(DateTime value, JsonGenerator gen, 
                          SerializerProvider arg2)
        throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {

        gen.writeString(formatter.print(value));
    }
}

Solution 3:

As @Kimble has said, with Jackson 2, using the default formatting is very easy; simply register JodaModule on your ObjectMapper.

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.registerModule(new JodaModule());

For custom serialization/de-serialization of DateTime, you need to implement your own StdScalarSerializer and StdScalarDeserializer; it's pretty convoluted, but anyway.

For example, here's a DateTime serializer that uses the ISODateFormat with the UTC time zone:

public class DateTimeSerializer extends StdScalarSerializer<DateTime> {

    public DateTimeSerializer() {
        super(DateTime.class);
    }

    @Override
    public void serialize(DateTime dateTime,
                          JsonGenerator jsonGenerator,
                          SerializerProvider provider) throws IOException, JsonGenerationException {
        String dateTimeAsString = ISODateTimeFormat.withZoneUTC().print(dateTime);
        jsonGenerator.writeString(dateTimeAsString);
    }
}

And the corresponding de-serializer:

public class DateTimeDesrializer extends StdScalarDeserializer<DateTime> {

    public DateTimeDesrializer() {
        super(DateTime.class);
    }

    @Override
    public DateTime deserialize(JsonParser jsonParser,
                                DeserializationContext deserializationContext) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
        try {
            JsonToken currentToken = jsonParser.getCurrentToken();
            if (currentToken == JsonToken.VALUE_STRING) {
                String dateTimeAsString = jsonParser.getText().trim();
                return ISODateTimeFormat.withZoneUTC().parseDateTime(dateTimeAsString);
            }
        } finally {
            throw deserializationContext.mappingException(getValueClass());
        }
    }

Then tie these together with a module:

public class DateTimeModule extends SimpleModule {

    public DateTimeModule() {
        super();
        addSerializer(DateTime.class, new DateTimeSerializer());
        addDeserializer(DateTime.class, new DateTimeDeserializer());
    }
}

Then register the module on your ObjectMapper:

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.registerModule(new DateTimeModule());