Spring Boot REST API: How to handle complex JSON structures with Jackson and custom serialization?
I'm confused about I tried several approaches but none seem to work. I've spent hours debugging this and I'm working on a project and hit a roadblock... I'm working on a Spring Boot REST API that needs to return complex JSON responses, specifically for a resource that has nested objects and collections. The issue I'm facing is with serializing a specific class structure using Jackson. I have a model like this: ```java public class User { private Long id; private String name; private List<Address> addresses; // Getters and setters } public class Address { private String street; private String city; // Getters and setters } ``` When I try to return a `User` object from my controller, Jackson serializes it, but it includes all fields, which is fine. However, I need to customize the serialization of the `addresses` field. Specifically, I want to include only the `city` field and exclude the `street` field from the JSON response. I attempted to use the `@JsonView` annotation, but it seems more suited for controlling the fields at the class level rather than at a nested level. Here’s a snippet of what I tried: ```java @JsonView(Views.Public.class) public class Address { @JsonView(Views.Public.class) private String city; private String street; } ``` Then I annotated the controller method: ```java @GetMapping(value = "/users/{id}", produces = MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE) @JsonView(Views.Public.class) public User getUserById(@PathVariable Long id) { return userService.findById(id); } ``` However, the `street` field is still included in the output. I also considered writing a custom serializer for the `Address` class, but I want to avoid excessive boilerplate code if possible. Is there a better approach to achieve this serialization requirement without cluttering my model classes? Any suggestions on best practices in this scenario? Additionally, I'm using Spring Boot 2.6.3 and Jackson 2.12.3. Thank you! I'm working on a CLI tool that needs to handle this. How would you solve this? I'm working on a application that needs to handle this. I'd really appreciate any guidance on this. Thanks for any help you can provide! I'm using Java 3.10 in this project. What am I doing wrong?