Which Jackson converter to use to marshall a java DataHandler class to json?

Question

I have made a spring (I am using spring-web 3) rest service. I have this jackson converter configured in my rest-servlet.xml:

<bean id="jackson2Converter" class="org.springframework.http.converter.json.MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter">
        <property name="objectMapper" ref="jackson2ObjectMapper" />
        <property name="supportedMediaTypes" value="application/json" />
    </bean>

From inside my controller class I am about to return a Response object containing among other things a javax.activation.Datahandler back to the client.

This datahandler contains a Base64 representation of a binary pdf file. When I manually null out this datahandler field, the response is successfully marshalled to json and I successfully can see the body response in my test tool, Postman.

When I do NOT, that is, return it with the datahandler field (containing Base64 representation of the pdf), my service fails with the following stack trace:

---

2017-12-20 07:51:27,028 ERROR [RestResponseEntityExceptionHandler] cannot do this
java.io.IOException: cannot do this
    at javax.mail.util.ByteArrayDataSource.getOutputStream(ByteArrayDataSource.java:169)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.BeanPropertyWriter.serializeAsField(BeanPropertyWriter.java:536)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.std.BeanSerializerBase.serializeFields(BeanSerializerBase.java:663)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.BeanSerializer.serialize(BeanSerializer.java:156)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.BeanPropertyWriter.serializeAsField(BeanPropertyWriter.java:575)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.std.BeanSerializerBase.serializeFields(BeanSerializerBase.java:663)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.BeanSerializer.serialize(BeanSerializer.java:156)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.BeanPropertyWriter.serializeAsField(BeanPropertyWriter.java:575)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.std.BeanSerializerBase.serializeFields(BeanSerializerBase.java:663)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.BeanSerializer.serialize(BeanSerializer.java:156)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.BeanPropertyWriter.serializeAsField(BeanPropertyWriter.java:575)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.std.BeanSerializerBase.serializeFields(BeanSerializerBase.java:663)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.BeanSerializer.serialize(BeanSerializer.java:156)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ser.DefaultSerializerProvider.serializeValue(DefaultSerializerProvider.java:129)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.writeValue(ObjectMapper.java:2238)
    at org.springframework.http.converter.json.MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter.writeInternal(MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter.java:194)
    at org.springframework.http.converter.AbstractHttpMessageConverter.write(AbstractHttpMessageConverter.java:179)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.AbstractMessageConverterMethodProcessor.writeWithMessageConverters(AbstractMessageConverterMethodProcessor.java:148)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.AbstractMessageConverterMethodProcessor.writeWithMessageConverters(AbstractMessageConverterMethodProcessor.java:90)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestResponseBodyMethodProcessor.handleReturnValue(RequestResponseBodyMethodProcessor.java:189)
    at org.springframework.web.method.support.HandlerMethodReturnValueHandlerComposite.handleReturnValue(HandlerMethodReturnValueHandlerComposite.java:69)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.invokeAndHandle(ServletInvocableHandlerMethod.java:122)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.invokeHandleMethod(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:745)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.handleInternal(RequestMappingHandlerAdapter.java:686)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.handle(AbstractHandlerMethodAdapter.java:80)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:925)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:856)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:936)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doPost(FrameworkServlet.java:838)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:648)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:812)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:291)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at no.gjensidige.earkiv.api.logging.LoggingFilter.doFilter(LoggingFilter.java:83)
    at no.gjensidige.earkiv.api.logging.LoggingFilter.doFilter(LoggingFilter.java:72)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at no.gjensidige.security.spnego.SpnegoServletFilter.filterAsAnonymous(SpnegoServletFilter.java:138)
    at no.gjensidige.security.spnego.SpnegoServletFilter.doFilter(SpnegoServletFilter.java:75)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.filters.CorsFilter.handleNonCORS(CorsFilter.java:436)
    at org.apache.catalina.filters.CorsFilter.doFilter(CorsFilter.java:177)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:239)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:201)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:106)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:614)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:142)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.StuckThreadDetectionValve.invoke(StuckThreadDetectionValve.java:208)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:616)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:88)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:518)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1091)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:673)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1500)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1456)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

---

Can anyone point me in the direction of which jackson converter to use to be be able to marshall this datahandler class correctly ?

Answer 1

It is not possible. javax.activation.Datahandler has references to streams and factories which is not serializable.

Instead create a custom POJO class - Data TransferObject, store all necessary info from javax.activation.Datahandler to the DTO object and pass it in response.

In you case don't sent the instance but base64 encoded string instead.