Representing JSON in Java in a type-safe way

Question

Is there a good way to represent JSON in Java in a convenient, easy-to-use, type-safe way?

We've been doing it using Maps, Lists, and primitives. This works fine, except that we have to add a lot of checks for missing values.

Jackson has a good way of handling the problem:

JsonNode node;
// returns MissingNode if name not present, no null check required
node.path("name").asText(); 

Jackson's syntax is uncomfortable in other ways, though. Their classes don't implement the Map or List interfaces, and the JsonNode interface isn't modifiable.

Is there a better way?

Answer 1

Just to make sure you are aware of it: Jackson can bind JSON to/from Map s just fine:

Map<String,Object> map = new ObjectMapper().readValue(jsonSource, Map.class);

as well as full POJOs, like others commented:

POJO pojo = new ObjectMapper().readValue(jsonSource, POJO.class);

so that while you can certainly use JsonNode (aka Tree Model), there are alternative approaches that are often more convenient.