Lombok @SuperBuilder example with json annotations

Updated 2018-11-10: Lombok 1.18.4 released

Updated 2020-10-18: Lombok 1.18.16 released

Lombok 1.18.16 contains the new @Jacksonized annotation. With it, you can simply write:

@JsonTypeInfo(use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME, include = JsonTypeInfo.As.EXISTING_PROPERTY, property = "type")
@JsonSubTypes({
  @JsonSubTypes.Type(value = SubA.class),
  @JsonSubTypes.Type(value = AnotherSub.class)
})
@Jacksonized
@SuperBuilder
// more annotations...
public abstract class AbstractA {

    @JsonProperty
    protected final String superProperty;
}

@Jacksonized
@SuperBuilder
@JsonTypeName("SubA")
// more annotations...
public class SubA extends AbstractA {

    @JsonProperty
    private final String fieldA;
}

This will automatically insert all necessary Jackson annotations and do some adjustments to the generated builder. No need to customized anymore.

For earlier Lombok versions between 1.18.4 and 1.18.12, this is the way to go:

For Lombok's @Builder and @SuperBuilder to work with Jackson, you have to add the builder class header manually and place a @JsonPOJOBuilder(withPrefix="") on it. Lombok will then generate only the remainder of the builder class. This is necessary because Jackson's default is that the builder's setter methods have "with" as prefix, but Lombok's builders don't have any prefix (and Lombok is not and will probably never be configurable in this regard).

When @SuperBuilder was introduced in Lombok 1.18.2, it was not customizable (i.e., you could not manually add the builder class header). As a result, using @SuperBuilder with Jackson was not easily possible.

This changed with Lombok 1.18.4 (see this pull request): @SuperBuilder is now (at least partially) customizable, and this allows us to add the annotation. Beware that the code generated by @SuperBuilder is quite complex and heavily loaded with generics. To avoid accidentally messing up the code, you should have a look at the delombok output and copy/paste the class header from there. Here, you need add the builder implementation class header and put the annotation on it:

@JsonPOJOBuilder(withPrefix="")
static final class SubABuilderImpl extends SubABuilder<SubA, SubABuilderImpl> {
}

Note that you have to broaden the visibility of SubABuilderImpl to at least package-private.

The @JsonDeserialize annotation must also refer to the builder implementation class, not the abstract builder:

@JsonDeserialize(builder = SubA.SubABuilderImpl.class)

A working solution in Eclipse, note that the Lombok IntelliJ integration is not supporting all features, therefore the code compiles fine in Eclipse and with javac but IntelliJ thinks it's broken but executes the code without an issue.

public static ObjectMapper createObjectMapper() {

    final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
    mapper.setAnnotationIntrospector(new JacksonAnnotationIntrospector() {

        @Override
        public JsonPOJOBuilder.Value findPOJOBuilderConfig(final AnnotatedClass ac) {
            if (ac.hasAnnotation(JsonPOJOBuilder.class)) {
                return super.findPOJOBuilderConfig(ac);
            }
            return new JsonPOJOBuilder.Value("build", "");
        }
    });

    return mapper;
}

public static void main(final String[] args) throws Exception {
    final ObjectMapper objectMapper = createObjectMapper();

    final String serializedForm = objectMapper.writeValueAsString(SubA.builder().build());
    System.out.println(serializedForm);
    final SubA anA = objectMapper.readValue(serializedForm, SubA.class);
    System.out.println(anA);
}


@Getter
@EqualsAndHashCode(callSuper = true)
@Accessors(fluent = true, chain = true)
@SuperBuilder
@JsonDeserialize(builder = SubA.SubABuilderImpl.class)
@JsonTypeName("SubA")
public static class SubA extends AbstractA {

    @JsonProperty
    private final String fieldA;
}


@JsonTypeInfo(use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME, property = "type")
@JsonSubTypes({
    @JsonSubTypes.Type(value = SubA.class)
})
@Getter
@Accessors(fluent = true, chain = true)
@SuperBuilder
public static abstract class AbstractA {

    @JsonProperty
    protected final String superProperty;
}