@JsonIdentityInfo is used when objects have parent child relationship. @JsonIdentityInfo is used to indicate that object identity will be used during serialization/de-serialization.
import java.io.IOException; import java.text.ParseException; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.List; import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonIdentityInfo; import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.ObjectIdGenerators; import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper; public class JacksonTester { public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException, ParseException{ ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper(); Student student = new Student(1,13, "Mark"); Book book1 = new Book(1,"Learn HTML", student); Book book2 = new Book(2,"Learn JAVA", student); student.addBook(book1); student.addBook(book2); String jsonString = mapper .writerWithDefaultPrettyPrinter() .writeValueAsString(book1); System.out.println(jsonString); } } @JsonIdentityInfo( generator = ObjectIdGenerators.PropertyGenerator.class, property = "id") class Student { public int id; public int rollNo; public String name; public List<Book> books; Student(int id, int rollNo, String name){ this.id = id; this.rollNo = rollNo; this.name = name; this.books = new ArrayList<Book>(); } public void addBook(Book book){ books.add(book); } } @JsonIdentityInfo( generator = ObjectIdGenerators.PropertyGenerator.class, property = "id") class Book{ public int id; public String name; Book(int id, String name, Student owner){ this.id = id; this.name = name; this.owner = owner; } public Student owner; }
{ "id" : 1, "name" : "Learn HTML", "owner" : { "id" : 1, "rollNo" : 13, "name" : "Mark", "books" : [ 1, { "id" : 2, "name" : "Learn JAVA", "owner" : 1 } ] } }