Serialize JsonNode to a very specific JSON format in Jackson

Question

I have JsonNode result that I want to print out. So far, I am using:

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.enable(SerializationFeatur         


        

Answer 1

You can customize how Jackson will indent the output. There are different ways to achieve it, according to the Jackson version you are using.

Jackson 2.5 and newer versions

Do the following:

DefaultPrettyPrinter printer = new DefaultPrettyPrinter();
Indenter indenter = new DefaultIndenter();
printer.indentObjectsWith(indenter); // Indent JSON objects
printer.indentArraysWith(indenter);  // Indent JSON arrays

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.writer(printer).writeValue(new FileOutputStream(outputFile), node);

By default, 2 spaces will be used. For a different number of spaces, use the DefaultIndenter constructor that receives a string to indent levels and the line separator:

Indenter indenter = new DefaultIndenter("      ", DefaultIndenter.SYS_LF);

Jackson 2.4 and older versions

Do the following:

DefaultPrettyPrinter printer = new DefaultPrettyPrinter();
Indenter indenter = new Lf2SpacesIndenter();
printer.indentObjectsWith(indenter); // Indent JSON objects
printer.indentArraysWith(indenter);  // Indent JSON arrays

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.writer(printer).writeValue(new FileOutputStream(outputFile), node);

The Lf2SpacesIndenter is limited to 2 spaces and you cannot change it.

If you need a different number of spaces, you need to write your custom implementation. Here's one that uses the same code as the DefaultIndenter introduced in Jackson 2.5:

/**
 * Default linefeed-based indenter.
 */
public class CustomSpaceIndenter extends DefaultPrettyPrinter.NopIndenter {

    public final static String SYS_LF;
    static {
        String lf;
        try {
            lf = System.getProperty("line.separator");
        } catch (Throwable t) {
            lf = "\n"; // fallback when security manager denies access
        }
        SYS_LF = lf;
    }

    public static final CustomSpaceIndenter SYSTEM_LINEFEED_INSTANCE = 
            new CustomSpaceIndenter("  ", SYS_LF);

    /**
     * We expect to rarely get indentation deeper than this number of levels,
     * and try not to pre-generate more indentations than needed.
     */
    private final static int INDENT_LEVELS = 16;
    private final char[] indents;
    private final int charsPerLevel;
    private final String eol;

    /**
     * Indent with two spaces and the system's default line feed
     */
    public CustomSpaceIndenter() {
        this("  ", SYS_LF);
    }

    /**
     * Create an indenter which uses the indent string to indent one level
     *  and the eol string to separate lines.
     */
    public CustomSpaceIndenter(String indent, String eol)  {
        charsPerLevel = indent.length();
        indents = new char[indent.length() * INDENT_LEVELS];
        int offset = 0;
        for (int i=0; i 0) { // should we err on negative values (as there's some flaw?)
            level *= charsPerLevel;
            while (level > indents.length) { // unlike to happen but just in case
                jg.writeRaw(indents, 0, indents.length); 
                level -= indents.length;
            }
            jg.writeRaw(indents, 0, level);
        }
    }
}

It can be used as following:

Indenter indenter = new CustomSpaceIndenter("      ", CustomSpaceIndenter.SYS_LF);