Allow use of `java.nio.file.Path` for `readValue()`, `writeValue()`

Version 2.9.5 There is no out of box method to read from Path and write to Path, it will be usefull to make these methods.

[michaelhixson]

Ideally the new methods would not use Path#toFile() because that method throws UnsupportedOperationException if the path is not on the default file system. Examples of non-default file systems include zip file systems and in-memory file systems.

I maintain an application that uses Jackson to interact with both of those types of file systems. If you added methods that accept Path objects but invoke toFile() on them, I wouldn’t be able to use any of those methods.

I’d think it would be better if the Path-accepting methods delegate to {Input,Output}Stream-accepting ones. For example:

public void writeValue(Path resultPath, Object value) throws IOException, JsonGenerationException, JsonMappingException {
    try (OutputStream out = Files.newOutputStream(resultPath)) {
        writeValue(out, value);
    }
}

[sdoeringNew]

I’ve started with 3.0 and added pull requests for jackson-core and jackson-databind.

I’m unsure about adding it to 2.13, though. It would be a half-heartedly support for Path after the JDK has the nio-package (“new” IO) for ten years now. This issue had the 3.0-label three years and it still can be 3.0. 😏

But if you say so I’ll add it “workaround-ish” to 2.13.