Module com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation
Package com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation

Annotation Interface JsonBackReference

@Target({ANNOTATION_TYPE,FIELD,METHOD}) @Retention(RUNTIME) public @interface JsonBackReference
Annotation used to indicate that associated property is part of two-way linkage between fields; and that its role is "child" (or "back") link. Value type of the property must be a bean: it can not be a Collection, Map, Array or enumeration. Linkage is handled such that the property annotated with this annotation is not serialized; and during deserialization, its value is set to instance that has the "managed" (forward) link.

All references have logical name to allow handling multiple linkages; typical case would be that where nodes have both parent/child and sibling linkages. If so, pairs of references should be named differently. It is an error for a class to have multiple back references with same name, even if types pointed are different.

Note: only methods and fields can be annotated with this annotation: constructor arguments should NOT be annotated, as they can not be either managed or back references.

  • Optional Element Summary

    Optional Elements
    Modifier and Type
    Optional Element
    Description
    String
    value
    Logical name for the reference property pair; used to link managed and back references.

  • Element Details

    • value

      String value
      Logical name for the reference property pair; used to link managed and back references. Default name can be used if there is just single reference pair (for example, node class that just has parent/child linkage, consisting of one managed reference and matching back reference)
      Returns:
      Logical name for the reference pair
      Default:
      "defaultReference"