Support Java 8 Datetime in Requests

Describe the problem you’d like to have solved

At the moment, when we try to set a custom List to a user’s user_metadata that contains Objects with a Java 8 Date (an Instant in this case), we get the following error message:

com.auth0.exception.Auth0Exception: Couldn't create the request body.
	at com.auth0.net.ExtendedBaseRequest.createRequest(ExtendedBaseRequest.java:51)
	at com.auth0.net.BaseRequest.execute(BaseRequest.java:33)
Caused by: com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException: Java 8 date/time type `java.time.Instant` not supported by default: add Module "com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype:jackson-datatype-jsr310" to enable handling (through reference chain: com.auth0.json.mgmt.users.User["user_metadata"]->java.util.LinkedHashMap["consents"]->java.util.LinkedList[0]->com.claas.id.backend.backendservice.model.user.Consent["created_at"])
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException.from(InvalidDefinitionException.java:77)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.SerializerProvider.reportBadDefinition(SerializerProvider.java:1300)

We use Spring Boot and have a @Bean declared in our Project with an ObjectMapper that has the JavaTimeModule registered. When using this Bean, the conversion works without problems. But it looks like this library internally instantiates a separate ObjectMapper without module registration which causes this error. If I’m doing something wrong, please correct me

Describe the ideal solution

The ideal solution would be that the Auth0 ObjectMapper searches for Modules: new ObjectMapper()..findAndRegisterModules();

Alternatives and current work-arounds

Currently, we don’t have a work-around other than not using Java 8 Time formats

Additional information, if any

[poovamraj]

Hi @larsf96, I was checking out this issue and unfortunately the SDK doesn’t have the ability to do the customization you require.

Ideally, the CustomRequest being extensible should provide an instance of the body which should be customized in the createRequestBody. But currently, we are not exposing an instance of the body where you can do this.

A better way is to provide a lambda parameter with an instance of the body where you can customize it. This way you wouldn’t need to extend a class unnecessarily.

I am thinking of a syntax like this

ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
objectMapper.findAndRegisterModules();

ManagementAPI mgmt = new ManagementAPI("", "");

User newUser = new User();
Map<String,Object> userMetadata = new LinkedHashMap<>();
userMetadata.put("anyUser", Instant.now());
newUser.setUserMetadata(userMetadata);
CustomRequest<User> customRequest = (CustomRequest<User>) mgmt.users().update("newUser", newUser);
customRequest.customizeRequestBody((body, parameter) -> {
    try {
        return objectMapper.writeValueAsString(body);
    } catch (JsonProcessingException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
    }
}).execute();

I am going to leave this out here to gather some feedback from others and also from my team. If all good, we can integrate this as a solution.

[jimmyjames]

I think enabling richer customization of requests is something we should look into adding, most likely in v2 so we can consider simplifying the request building. Support for java 8 datetime formats is also something we should add in v2.