Using Gson with Interface Types

Question

I am working on some server code, where the client sends requests in form of JSON. My problem is, there are a number of possible requests, all varying in small implementatio

Answer 1

Polymorphic mapping of the type described is not available in Gson without some level of custom coding. There is an extension type adapter available as an extra that provides a bulk of the functionality you are looking for, with the caveat that the polymorphic sub-types need to be declared to the adapter ahead of time. Here is an example of its use:

public interface Response {}

public interface Request {
    public Response process();
}

public class LoginRequest implements Request {
    private String userName;
    private String password;

    // Constructors, getters/setters, overrides
}

public class PingRequest implements Request {
    private String host;
    private Integer attempts;

    // Constructors, getters/setters, overrides
}

public class RequestTest {

    @Test
    public void testPolymorphicSerializeDeserializeWithGSON() throws Exception {
        final TypeToken> requestListTypeToken = new TypeToken>() {
        };

        final RuntimeTypeAdapterFactory typeFactory = RuntimeTypeAdapterFactory
                .of(Request.class, "type")
                .registerSubtype(LoginRequest.class)
                .registerSubtype(PingRequest.class);

        final Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().registerTypeAdapterFactory(
                typeFactory).create();

        final List requestList = Arrays.asList(new LoginRequest(
                "bob.villa", "passw0rd"), new LoginRequest("nantucket.jones",
                "crabdip"), new PingRequest("example.com", 5));

        final String serialized = gson.toJson(requestList,
                requestListTypeToken.getType());
        System.out.println("Original List: " + requestList);
        System.out.println("Serialized JSON: " + serialized);

        final List deserializedRequestList = gson.fromJson(serialized,
                requestListTypeToken.getType());

        System.out.println("Deserialized list: " + deserializedRequestList);
    }
}

Note that you don't actually need to define the type property on the individual Java objects - it exists only in the JSON.