Kotshi

An annotations processor that generates Moshi adapters from immutable Kotlin data classes.

Moshi's default reflective adapters assume your classes are compiled from Java code which causes problem for Kotlin data classes.

There is a reflective adapter for Kotlin but that requires the kotlin reflection library which adds a lot of methods and increase the binary size which in a constrained environment such as Android is something is not preferable.

This is where Kotshi comes in, it generates fast and optimized adapters for your Kotlin data classes, just as if you'd hand written them yourself. It will automatically regenerate the adapters when you modify your class.

It's made to work with Kotlin data classes with minimal setup, through there are limitations. Most of the limitations will be addressed when the support for Kotlin annotation processors improves.

Usage

First you must annotate your Kotlin data classes with the @JsonSerializable annotation:

@JsonSerializable
data class Person(
    val name: String,
    val email: String?,
    // This property uses a custom getter name which requires two annotations.
    @get:JvmName("hasVerifiedAccount") @Getter("hasVerifiedAccount")
    val hasVerifiedAccount: Boolean,
    // This property has a different name in the Json than here so @Json must be applied.
    @Json(name = "created_at")
    val signUpDate: Date,
    // This field has a json qualifier applied, the generated adapter will request an adapter with the qualifier.
    @NullIfEmpty
    val jobTitle: String?
)

Then create a class that will be your factory:

@KotshiJsonAdapterFactory
abstract class ApplicationJsonAdapterFactory : JsonAdapter.Factory {
    companion object {
        val INSTANCE: ApplicationJsonAdapterFactory = KotshiApplicationJsonAdapterFactory()
    }
}

Lastly just add the factory to your Moshi instance and you're all set:

val moshi = Moshi.Builder()
    .add(ApplicationJsonAdapterFactory.INSTANCE)
    .build()

By default adapters aren't requested for primitive types (even boxed primitive types) since it is worse for performance and most people will not have custom adapters anyway. If you need to use custom adapters you can enable it per module be passing the useAdaptersForPrimitives to @KotshiJsonAdapterFactory or on a per adapter by passing the same argument to @JsonSerializable (the default is to follow the module wide setting).

Annotations

@GetterName must be used when overriding the default getter name using @get:JvmName("...").
@JsonSerializable is the annotation used to generate JsonAdapter's. Should only be placed on Kotlin data classes.
@KotshiConstructor should be used when there are multiple constructors in the class. Place it on the primary constructor.
@KotshiJsonAdapterFactory makes Kotshi generate a JsonAdapter factory. Should be placed on an abstract class that implements JsonAdapter.Factory.
@JsonDefaultValue used for enabling default values (see below)
@JsonDefaultValueString used for specifying default values for String properties inline
@JsonDefaultValueBoolean used for specifying default values for Boolean properties inline
@JsonDefaultValueByte used for specifying default values for Byte properties inline
@JsonDefaultValueChar used for specifying default values for Char properties inline
@JsonDefaultValueShort used for specifying default values for Short properties inline
@JsonDefaultValueInt used for specifying default values for Int properties inline
@JsonDefaultValueLong used for specifying default values for Long properties inline
@JsonDefaultValueFloat used for specifying default values for Float properties inline
@JsonDefaultValueDouble used for specifying default values for Double properties inline

Default values

You can use default values by first annotating a function, field, constructor or enum type with the annotation @JsonDefaultValue. This will be the provider of the default value.

You then annotate a parameter of the same type (or a supertype) with the same annotation.

If you need to have multiple default values of the same type you can create a custom default value annotation by annotating it with @JsonDefaultValue.

If you don't want to define default value providers for primitive and string properties you can use the specialized default value annotations (@JsonDefaultValueString, @JsonDefaultValueInt etc).

@Target(AnnotationTarget.VALUE_PARAMETER,
        AnnotationTarget.FUNCTION,
        AnnotationTarget.CONSTRUCTOR,
        AnnotationTarget.FIELD,
        AnnotationTarget.PROPERTY_GETTER)
@MustBeDocumented
@Retention(AnnotationRetention.SOURCE)
@JsonDefaultValue // Makes this annotation a custom default value annotation
annotation class StringWithNA

@JsonSerializable
data class MyClass(
    @JsonDefaultValue
    val name: String,
    @StringWithNA
    val address: String,
    @JsonDefaultValueInt(-1)
    val age: Int
) {
    companion object {
        @JsonDefaultValue
        @JvmField
        val defaultString = ""

        @StringWithNA
        fun defaultStringWithNA() = "N/A"
    }
}

The default value provider is allowed to return null but only if it's annotated with @Nullable.

Limitations

Currently KAPT does not allow processing Kotlin files directly but rather the generated stubs. This has some downsides since some Kotlin features are not available in Java.

Another limitation is that custom getter names for the JVM cannot be accessed from the constructor parameter which requires you to annotate the parameter with @Getter. This limitation will be removed when the library starts generating Kotlin code.

Kotlin does not carry over annotations made to enum constants so you cannot annotate an enum constant with @JsonDefaultValue. This issue will hopefully be resolved in Kotlin 1.2.20.

Even though Kotlin nor Moshi prevents having mutable objects Kotshi tries to enforce that for the reason of promoting a good design as well as avoiding complexity in the generated code. This means that all the properties that you want serialized must be declared in the primary constructor of the class. This means that var properties declared outside the constructor will not be serialized.

Download

compile 'se.ansman.kotshi:api:0.3.0-beta2'
kapt 'se.ansman.kotshi:compiler:0.3.0-beta2'

Snapshots of the development version are available in Sonatype's snapshots repository.

License

Copyright 2017 Nicklas Ansman Giertz.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.