How to solve the recursion problem during object serialization/deserialization in Spring Boot?

[GM7Avila]

Body

I'm facing an issue with recursion during object serialization/deserialization in my Spring Boot application. Whenever I try to serialize or deserialize objects that have circular references, I encounter a recursion problem, leading to stack overflow errors or infinite loops.

Any advice, code snippets, or pointers to relevant documentation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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[ViniciusMarins]

To avoid recursion problems during serialization/deserialization of objects in Spring Boot, you can use annotations like @JsonIgnore or @JsonManagedReference and @JsonBackReference to control the serialization of relationships between objects. This helps to prevent infinite loops during serialization. Additionally, you may consider using DTOs (Data Transfer Objects) to represent the data being serialized instead of directly using your domain entities. This allows for more granular control over which data is sent through the API.

Example:

public class Exercise {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    @Column(name = "id")
    private Integer id;

    @NotNull(message = "The name field is required")
    @Column(name="name", length = 60, nullable = false, unique = true)
    private String name;

    @Column(name="description", columnDefinition = "TEXT")
    private String description;

    @Column(name="link_tutorial", columnDefinition = "TEXT")
    private String link_tutorial;

    @OneToMany(mappedBy = "exercise", cascade = CascadeType.ALL, orphanRemoval = true, fetch = FetchType.LAZY)
    @JsonBackReference
    private List<WorkoutExercise> workout_exercises;
}