InvalidDefinitionException in case of deserialization xml to data class with @JacksonXmlText annotation

Data class example:

@JacksonXmlRootElement(localName = "sms")
@JsonIgnoreProperties(ignoreUnknown = true)
data class Sms(
        @set:JacksonXmlProperty(localName = "Phone", isAttribute = true)
        var phone: String?,

        @JacksonXmlText
        var text: String? = ""
)

Corresponding xml:

<sms Phone="435242423412" Id="43234324">Lorem ipsum</sms>

Deserialization causes such output:

Exception in thread "main" com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException: Invalid definition for property `` (of type `proton72.github.com.Sms`): Could not find creator property with name '' (known Creator properties: [Phone, text])
 at [Source: (StringReader); line: 1, column: 1]
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException.from(InvalidDefinitionException.java:62)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.reportBadPropertyDefinition(DeserializationContext.java:1446)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerFactory.addBeanProps(BeanDeserializerFactory.java:567)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerFactory.buildBeanDeserializer(BeanDeserializerFactory.java:227)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerFactory.createBeanDeserializer(BeanDeserializerFactory.java:137)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.DeserializerCache._createDeserializer2(DeserializerCache.java:411)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.DeserializerCache._createDeserializer(DeserializerCache.java:349)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.DeserializerCache._createAndCache2(DeserializerCache.java:264)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.DeserializerCache._createAndCacheValueDeserializer(DeserializerCache.java:244)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.DeserializerCache.findValueDeserializer(DeserializerCache.java:142)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.findRootValueDeserializer(DeserializationContext.java:477)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._findRootDeserializer(ObjectMapper.java:4178)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._readMapAndClose(ObjectMapper.java:3997)

Reproduced on jackson-dataformat-xml and jackson-module-kotlin 2.9.4 both.

[TWiStErRob]

Outdated, I recommend to use setXMLTextElementName.

Based on the above discovery here’s another workaround (instead of using JsonNode):

data class Attribute(
	@JacksonXmlProperty(isAttribute = true)
	val code: String
) {
	@JacksonXmlText
	lateinit var title: String private set

	override fun toString() = "$code->$title"
}

Feed(attributes=[private->Private Event, public->Public Event])

Note: this is not a solution as the field will be writable (var, private set helps a bit, but still), will have no construct-time validation that the field is set (lateinit), and the field will not play in data class operations like equals, toString, and others (it’s not in the primary constructor)!

[ctruchi]

I just found someone on kotlin slack (named Stephan Schroeder) providing a solution :

You need a mapper like this :

XmlMapper(JacksonXmlModule()
        .apply {
            setXMLTextElementName("text")
        })

and annotate your field like this:

data class Attribute(
	@JacksonXmlProperty(isAttribute = true)
	val code: String,

        @JsonProperty("text")
	@JacksonXmlText
	val title: String?
)

This works for me with jackson 2.10.1. Slack user claims it works with jackson 2.9.9