5 Replies Latest reply on Jan 10, 2013 11:23 AM by zlika

Configure RESTeasy to serialize date in JSON as ISO-8601 strings

zlika Dec 12, 2012 7:17 AM

Hi all,

I have a JAX-RS application using JBoss AS 7.1, and I POST/GET JSON and XML objects which include Dates (java.util.Date):

{code}
@XmlRootElement
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessField.FIELD)
public class MyObject implements Serializable
{
    @XmlSchemaType(name = "dateTime")
    private Date date;
    ...
}
{code}

When I use @Produce("application/xml") on the get method, the objets are serialized as XML and the dates are converted into ISO-8601 strings (e.g. "2012-12-10T14:50:12.123+02:00").

However, if I use @Produce("application/json") on the get method, the dates in the JSON objects are timestamps (e.g. "1355147452530") instead of ISO-8601 strings.

I also tried to use a custom JAX-RS provider to do the JSON serialization for Dates

{code}
@Provider
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
public class CustomJsonDateProvider implements MessageBodyWriter<Date>
{
    ...
}
{code}

This provider seems to be registered by RESTeasy on JBoss startup:

{noformat}
    [org.jboss.jaxrs] Adding JAX-RS provider classes: package.CustomJsonDateProvider
    ...
    [org.jboss.resteasy.cdi.CdiInjectorFactory] No CDI beans found for class package.CustomJsonDateProvider. Using default ConstructorInjector.
{noformat}

but it is never used !

How can I do to configure the JAX-RS implementation (RESTEasy) to serialize dates in JSON format as ISO-8601 strings instead of timestamps ?

Thank you for your answers.

1. Re: Configure RESTeasy to serialize date in JSON as ISO-8601 strings

nickarls Dec 12, 2012 7:46 AM (in response to zlika)

Not really an AS question but have you tried something like

@Provider
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
public class JacksonConfig implements ContextResolver<ObjectMapper>
{
   private ObjectMapper objectMapper;


   public JacksonConfig() throws Exception
   {
      this.objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
      this.objectMapper.setDateFormat(new SimpleDateFormat("dd.MM.yyyy"));
      this.objectMapper.configure(SerializationConfig.Feature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS, false);
   }


   public ObjectMapper getContext(Class<?> objectType)
   {
      return objectMapper;
   }
}

public class DateSerializer extends JsonSerializer<Date>
{


   @Override
   public void serialize(Date date, JsonGenerator jgen, SerializerProvider provider) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException
   {
      jgen.writeString(new SimpleDateFormat("dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss").format(date));
   }
}

(with Jackson, that is). Not sure if both classes are required...

The links in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11230954/jax-rs-jackson-json-provider-date-format-issue might also be useful

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2. Re: Configure RESTeasy to serialize date in JSON as ISO-8601 strings

zlika Dec 12, 2012 9:39 AM (in response to nickarls)

Thank you for your answer.
In my Maven pom.xml, I only use the jboss-jaxrs-api_1.1_spec artifact, but I do not specify any explicit JSON library: do you know if, in this case, the default JSON provider is Jettison or Jackson ?
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3. Re: Configure RESTeasy to serialize date in JSON as ISO-8601 strings

nickarls Dec 12, 2012 11:30 AM (in response to zlika)

My uneducated guess would be Jackson
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4. Re: Configure RESTeasy to serialize date in JSON as ISO-8601 strings

sdnakhla Jan 9, 2013 2:27 PM (in response to zlika)

I've been having the exact same problem, but haven't had a chance to test out Nicklas' suggestion. Were you able to get it working via this suggestion?
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5. Re: Configure RESTeasy to serialize date in JSON as ISO-8601 strings

zlika Jan 10, 2013 11:23 AM (in response to sdnakhla)

I solved my problem:
1- I explicitly added resteasy-jackson-provider and jackson-jaxrs dependencies in my pom.xml to activate Jackson as the JSON provider
2- I created the following class to configure date serialization with Jackson:
@Provider
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
public class JacksonConfig implements ContextResolver<ObjectMapper>
{
    private final ObjectMapper;
    public JacksonConfig()
    {
        objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
        objectMapper.configure(SerializationConfig.Feature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS, false);
    }
    @Override
    public ObjectMapper getContext(Class<?> objectType)
    {
        return objectMapper;
    }
}

et voilà ! :-)
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