[FIXED] Serializing with Jackson (JSON) - getting "No serializer found"?

Issue

I get the an exception when trying to serialize a very simple object using Jackson. The error:

org.codehaus.jackson.map.JsonMappingException: No serializer found for class MyPackage.TestA and no properties discovered to create BeanSerializer (to avoid exception, disable SerializationConfig.Feature.FAIL_ON_EMPTY_BEANS) )

Below is the simple class and code to serialize.

Can anyone tell my why I get this error?

public class TestA {
    String SomeString = "asd";
}

TestA testA = new TestA();
ObjectMapper om = new ObjectMapper();
try {
    String testAString = om.writeValueAsString(testA); // error here!

    TestA newTestA = om.readValue(testAString, TestA.class);
} catch (JsonGenerationException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
} catch (JsonMappingException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
}

Solution

As already described, the default configuration of an ObjectMapper instance is to only access properties that are public fields or have public getters/setters. An alternative to changing the class definition to make a field public or to provide a public getter/setter is to specify (to the underlying VisibilityChecker) a different property visibility rule. Jackson 1.9 provides the ObjectMapper.setVisibility() convenience method for doing so. For the example in the original question, I'd likely configure this as

myObjectMapper.setVisibility(JsonMethod.FIELD, Visibility.ANY);

For Jackson >2.0:

myObjectMapper.setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.FIELD, Visibility.ANY);

For more information and details on related configuration options, I recommend reviewing the JavaDocs on ObjectMapper.setVisibility().

Answered By - Programmer Bruce
Answer Checked By - Clifford M. (JavaFixing Volunteer)