Jackson: XML to Map with List deserialization

Question

Is there a way to deserialize the following xml into Map holding List of items using Jackson?

    12345678
    <         


        

Answer 1

This is a known jackson-dataformat-xml bug filed under issue 205. In a nutshell, duplicated elements in the XML get swallowed by the current UntypedObjectDeserializer implementation. Fortunately, the author (João Paulo Varandas) of the report also provided a temporary fix in the form a custom UntypedObjectDeserializer implementation. Below I share my interpretation of the fix:

import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParser;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonToken;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.std.UntypedObjectDeserializer;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.module.SimpleModule;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.xml.XmlMapper;

import javax.annotation.Nullable;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.*;

public enum JacksonDataformatXmlIssue205Fix {;

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        String xml = "\n" +
                "\n" +
                "    1\n" +
                "    2\n" +
                "    3\n" +
                "";
        SimpleModule module = new SimpleModule().addDeserializer(Object.class, Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer.getInstance());
        XmlMapper xmlMapper = (XmlMapper) new XmlMapper().registerModule(module);
        Object object = xmlMapper.readValue(xml, Object.class);
        System.out.println(object);     // {item=[{id=1}, {id=2}, {id=3}]}
    }

    @SuppressWarnings({ "deprecation", "serial" })
    public static class Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer extends UntypedObjectDeserializer {

        private static final Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer INSTANCE = new Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer();

        private Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer() {}

        public static Issue205FixedUntypedObjectDeserializer getInstance() {
            return INSTANCE;
        }

        @Override
        @SuppressWarnings({ "unchecked", "rawtypes" })
        protected Object mapObject(JsonParser parser, DeserializationContext context) throws IOException {

            // Read the first key.
            @Nullable String firstKey;
            JsonToken token = parser.getCurrentToken();
            if (token == JsonToken.START_OBJECT) {
                firstKey = parser.nextFieldName();
            } else if (token == JsonToken.FIELD_NAME) {
                firstKey = parser.getCurrentName();
            } else {
                if (token != JsonToken.END_OBJECT) {
                    throw context.mappingException(handledType(), parser.getCurrentToken());
                }
                return Collections.emptyMap();
            }

            // Populate entries.
            Map valueByKey = new LinkedHashMap<>();
            String nextKey = firstKey;
            do {

                // Read the next value.
                parser.nextToken();
                Object nextValue = deserialize(parser, context);

                // Key conflict? Combine existing and current entries into a list.
                if (valueByKey.containsKey(nextKey)) {
                    Object existingValue = valueByKey.get(nextKey);
                    if (existingValue instanceof List) {
                        List