EXTERNAL_PROPERTY adds property multiple times and in multiple places

[thatsnotright]

I created an example of what I think the bug is here:

https://github.com/thatsnotright/jackson-bug

What I want is a class called Widget that has a WidgetConfig property. This WidgetConfig is, by default, extensible to any JSON properties which are added. However there are certain cases where I need a very specific set of properties extracted, but the others I do not care about.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the use of EXTERNAL_PROPERTY.

Thanks,
Rob

[cowtowncoder]

Ok, I'll have a look when I get a chance. Only one question question: is this with 2.2 (2.2.0 or 2.2.1)?

[thatsnotright]

2.2.1

[cowtowncoder]

Looking at code, I don't see anything obviously wrong. Combination of type info and additional POJO property could be related issues; or perhaps use of any setter/getter. But none of that should automatically cause issues...

[cowtowncoder]

Alas, while the fix would be conceptually simple here:

when constructing `TypeSerializer` for `EXTERNAL_PROPERTY`, see if an existing property exists for parent POJO Type serializer; if so, either mark it as no-op, or perhaps even just return `null` for serialization

actual implementation requires big changes to internal plumbing; probably mostly in BeanSerializerFactory, method _constructWriter() and/or findPropertyTypeSerializer().

And that seems like it needs to wait until 2.6 is released.

[cowtowncoder]

One additional note: the way BeanSerializerFactory work is sub-optimal. Instead of being stateless, passing (too) many arguments around, should really have a stateful builder that collects information.
This is done at earlier point, with POJOPropertiesCollector, but factories are leftovers from Jackson 1.0 or so.

[cowtowncoder]

Amusing how things work. I was ready to postpone, but then figured out different angle for solving the issue, and that works. So fix is in master, to be included in the official 2.6, one of oldest squashed bugs.