Java JSON Library Choice

Author: Bryce Willey

We need some library that will help us parse JSON in Java, as docassemble communicates it's current state through JSON.

Not considered: Rolling our own JSON parser, because that's silly

Considered Alternatives

• GSON
• Jackson JSON

Decision Outcome

Jackson JSON * The primary desire was to reduce the number of libraries we were using: no real need for JSON * The code did need to be refactored to use proper deserializers and serializers anyway, and making that jump as well as the switch from GSON to Jackson was really easy

Pros and Cons of the Alternatives

GSON

• + I (brycew) have used it before
• + (At some point) most of the code was already using this
• - The existing code is a bit hacky, and not amenable to refactoring or updates

Jackson

• + Slightly faster than GSON (from what I've seen, don't have the links any more)
• + Already used in CXF/Spring behind the scenes when reading server queries to endpoints