Spring Boot Serializers and Grouping Example

Project Objective

The primary objective of this mini project is to demonstrate how to effectively use serializers and validation groups in a Spring Boot application to handle request and response data. This example serves as a practical guide for implementing these concepts in a way that promotes clean code and maintainability.

Importance of Serializers and Groups

Serializers and groups are essential for:

• Data Binding: Convert JSON to Java objects (DTOs) and vice versa in a way that's secure and avoids common pitfalls.
• Validation: Apply different validation rules to the same object depending on the context of the operation being performed.
• Data Views: Customize the JSON output by serializing only certain fields of an object based on the operation, which is crucial for API development.

Key Components

• DTOs (Data Transfer Objects): We use FilterRequestDTO and FilterResponseDTO to encapsulate incoming and outgoing data.
• Validation Groups: Interfaces such as BasicInfo, AdvancedInfo, and FullInfo are used to define groups for conditional validation.
• View Groups: Interfaces like BasicView, AdvancedView, and FullView are used with @JsonView to control which fields get serialized for the response.
• Controller: The FilterController class demonstrates the endpoints that process requests and generate responses using the defined groups.

Core Concepts

• Serializers: Handle the conversion between objects and their serialized form (e.g., JSON) while considering aspects like format and field inclusion/exclusion.
• Validation Groups: Allow specifying subsets of constraints for different processing scenarios, helping to reuse model classes for various use cases.
• View Groups: Facilitate selective JSON serialization to tailor responses according to different API view requirements.

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository.
2. Open the project in your IDE as a Maven project.
3. Ensure Java 17 or newer is installed.
4. Run SerializerApplication.java to start the application.
5. Use a tool like Postman to test the /api/filters/basic, /api/filters/advanced, and /api/filters/full endpoints.

This project is designed to be a learning resource for managing complex data structures in Spring Boot applications. It is especially useful for developers looking to understand and implement serialization and grouping strategies in their APIs.

Testing

This project includes unit tests for its endpoints, ensuring that the serializers and groups are working as expected.

Running the Tests

To run the tests, you can use the following command in the root directory of the project:

./mvnw test