Convert nested JSON to nested Java object using gson TypeAdapter

I use a TypeAdapterFactory for this kind of thing. It allows passing the gson instance to the TypeAdapter instance.

(In the example below, I left in passing "rawType" to the TypeAdapter instance, since its often useful. Pull that out if not needed.)

Example TypeAdapterFactory:

public class ContactTypeAdapterFactory implements TypeAdapterFactory {

    // Add @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") as needed.

    @Override
    public <T> TypeAdapter<T> create(Gson gson, TypeToken<T> typeToken) {
        final Class<? super T> rawClass = typeToken.getRawType();
        if (Employee.class.isAssignableFrom(rawClass)) {
            // Return EmployeeAdapter for Employee class
            return EmployeeAdapter.get(rawClass, gson);
        }
        if (Address.class.isAssignableFrom(rawClass)) {
            // Return AddressAdapter for Address class
            return AddressAdapter.get(rawClass, gson);
        }
        return null; // let Gson find somebody else
    }

    private static final class EmployeeAdapter<T> extends TypeAdapter<T> {

        private final Gson gson;
        private final Class<? super T> rawClass;  // Not used in this example

        private EmployeeAdapter(Class<? super T> rawClass, Gson gson) {
            this.rawClass = rawClass;
            this.gson = gson;
        }

        private static <T> TypeAdapter<T> get(Class<? super T> rawClass, Gson gson) {
            // Wrap TypeAdapter in nullSafe so we don't need to do null checks
            return new EmployeeAdapter<>(rawClass, gson).nullSafe();
        }

        @Override
        public void write(JsonWriter out, T value)
                throws IOException {

            // We should only ever be here for Employee types
            // Cast value to Employee
            Employee record = (Employee)value;

            // Output start of JSON object
            out.beginObject();

            // Output key / value pairs
            out.name("name");
            gson.getAdapter(String.class).write(out, record.getName());
            // [...]
            out.name("address");
            gson.getAdapter(Address.class).write(out, record.getAddress());

            // Output end of JSON object
            out.endObject();
        }

        @Override
        public T read(JsonReader in)
                throws IOException {

            String fieldName;

            // Create an empty Employee object
            Employee record = new Employee();

            // Consume start of JSON object
            in.beginObject();

            // Iterate each key/value pair in the json object
            while (in.hasNext()) {
                fieldName = in.nextName();
                switch (fieldName) {
                    case "name":
                        record.setName(gson.getAdapter(String.class).read(in));
                        break;
                    // [...] 
                    case "address":
                        record.setAddress(gson.getAdapter(Address.class).read(in));
                        break;
                    default:
                        // Skip any values we don't support
                        in.skipValue();
                }
            }
            // Consume end of JSON object
            in.endObject();

            // Return new Object
            return (T)record;
        }

    }

    private static final class AddressAdapter<T> extends TypeAdapter<T> {

        private final Gson gson;
        private final Class<? super T> rawClass; // Not used in this example

        private AddressAdapter(Class<? super T> rawClass, Gson gson) {
            this.rawClass = rawClass;
            this.gson = gson;
        }

        private static <T> TypeAdapter<T> get(Class<? super T> rawClass, Gson gson) {
            // Wrap TypeAdapter in nullSafe so we don't need to do null checks
            return new AddressAdapter<>(rawClass, gson).nullSafe();
        }

        @Override
        public void write(JsonWriter out, T value)
                throws IOException {

            // We should only ever be here for Address types
            // Cast value to Address
            Address record = (Address)value;

            // Output start of JSON object
            out.beginObject();

            // Output key / value pairs
            out.name("address");
            gson.getAdapter(String.class).write(out, record.getName());
            // [...]
            out.name("country");
            gson.getAdapter(String.class).write(out, record.getCountry());

            // Output end of JSON object
            out.endObject();
        }

        @Override
        public T read(JsonReader in)
                throws IOException {

            String fieldName;

            Address record = new Address();
            in.beginObject();
            // Iterate each parameter in the json object
            while (in.hasNext()) {
                fieldName = in.nextName();
                switch (fieldName) {
                    case "address":
                        record.setAddress(gson.getAdapter(String.class).read(in));
                        break;
                    // [...]    
                    case "country":
                        record.setCountry(gson.getAdapter(String.class).read(in));
                        break;
                    default:
                        in.skipValue();
                }
            }
            in.endObject();
            return (T)record;

        }

    }

}

Use:

Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
    .registerTypeAdapterFactory(new ContactTypeAdapterFactory())
    .create();
Employee employee = gson.fromJson(jsonString, Employee.class);

I had the same issue and found a suitable solution for me.

You can get a new TypeAdapter<T> instance with help of a Gson object and its method getAdapter(Class<T> type).

So your provided example would look like this:

Java Beans:

//Employee object class
@JsonAdapter(EmployeeAdapter.class)
public class Employee {

  private int id;
  private String name;
  private String emailId;
  private Address address;
  ..
}

//Address object class
@JsonAdapter(AddressAdapter.class)
public class Address {

  private String address;
  private String district;
  private String city;
  private String region;
  private String postalCode;
  private String country;
  ..
}

Type Adapters:

public class EmployeeAdapter extends TypeAdapter<Employee> {
  @Override
  public void write(JsonWriter out, Employee employee) throws IOException {
    //
  }

  @Override
  public Employee read(JsonReader jsonReader) throws IOException {
    Employee employee = new Employee();

    jsonReader.beginObject();
    //read your Employee fields

    TypeAdapter<Address> addressAdapter = new Gson().getAdapter(Address.class);
    employee.setAddress(addressAdapter.read(jsonReader);

    return employee;
  }
}

public class AddressAdapter extends TypeAdapter<Address> {
  @Override
  public void write(JsonWriter out, Address address) throws IOException {
    //
  }

  @Override
  public Address read(JsonReader jsonReader) throws IOException {
    Address address = new Address();
    //read your Address fields
    return address;
  }
}

With this solution you have the benefits of a loosely coupled code, because of the only dependency in the Beans JsonAdapter annotation.
Addtional you split the read / write logic for each Bean to its own TypeAdapter.

You can create a new instance of AddressAdapter encapsulated in EmployeeAdapter. Please go through following example.

public class EmployeeAdapter extends TypeAdapter<Employee> {
    //private instance of address adapter
    private AddressAdapter addressAdapter = new AddressAdapter();

    @Override
    public void write(JsonWriter out, Employee employee) throws IOException {
        //TODO: do your stuff to Employee class

        //manually do it to Address class
        addressAdapter.write(out, employee.getAddress());
    }

    @Override
    public Employee read(JsonReader jsonReader) throws IOException {
        //your new instance of employee
        Employee employee = new Employee();

        //TODO: read logic for employee class using AddressAdapter for address json

        //read from Address class
        Address address = addressAdapter.read(jsonReader);//you may need only portion of address available, simply grab that string as same as other properties if needed
        employee.setAddress(address);
    }
}