Spring Boot 2 WebClient response convert JSON to HashMap

Question

I would like to get a response from WebClient and convert it to just a Map without creating any Class for the response. Is it possible? So I would like something like this below. The code below is not a valid code, it is just an idea of what I want.

public Map<String, String> someFunction() {
    return webClient.post()
            .uri("/some/path")               
            .retrieve()
            .bodyToFlux(HashMap.class)
            .block();

Answer 1

I would first try getting the response object into a String and also make sure I am accepting JSON type in return. Once I get the respone into a String, you can try using fasterxml's jackson databind library which can convert a JSON string into Hashmap.

For example

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
String json = "{\"name\":\"abc\", \"age\":25}";

Map<String, Object> map = new HashMap<String, Object>();

// convert JSON string to Map
map = mapper.readValue(json, new TypeReference<Map<String, String>>(){});

System.out.println(map);

Here is the databind library and core library java docs link

jackson-databind

jackson-core

Answer 2

I solved it like this:

public Map<String, String> someFunction() {
    return webClient.post()
            .uri("/some/path")               
            .retrieve()
            .bodyToFlux(TypedMap.class)
            .block();
}

private static class TypedMap extends HashMap<String, String>{}