Databind 2.9.9.2 not working with Spring Boot 2.1 - "No converter found for return value of type: class com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode

[sseide]

We have an Spring boot application that just returns an ObjectMapper Object to build some custom JSON responses. It was working up to jackson-databind 2.9.9.1. Only changing jackson-databind to latest version 2.9.9.2 it throws an NullPointerException during serialization

The following three files contain a minimal Spring boot Application running under OpenJDK 11.0.3

It contains the following version, they only differ at jackson-databind version
jackson-core 2.9.9
spring boot 2.1.6.RELEASE

The test project consist of the following three files - please rename uploaded files accordingly
pom.txt
Application.txt
TestController.txt

pom.xml
src/main/java/jackson/Application.java
src/main/java/jackson/TestController.java

Tested with curl on command line - working version:

$ curl -i http://localhost:8080/test/
HTTP/1.1 200 
Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2019 11:11:53 GMT

{"uuid":"98137bad-4240-4c3f-bd03-51e2ae69e5c2"}

Non-working version with databind 2.9.9.2

$ curl -i http://localhost:8080/test/
HTTP/1.1 500 
Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2019 11:13:57 GMT
Connection: close

{"timestamp":"2019-08-06T11:13:57.253+0000","status":500,"error":"Internal Server Error","message":"No converter found for return value of type: class com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode","path":"/test/"}

The spring boot log from the non-working version is

  .   ____          _            __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )
  '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/
 :: Spring Boot ::        (v2.1.6.RELEASE)

2019-08-06 13:13:50.810  INFO 32432 --- [           main] jackson.Application                      : Starting Application on schleppi with PID 32432 (/home/user/workspaces/jackson-test/target/classes started by user in /home/user/workspaces/jackson-test)
2019-08-06 13:13:50.819  INFO 32432 --- [           main] jackson.Application                      : No active profile set, falling back to default profiles: default
2019-08-06 13:13:51.591  INFO 32432 --- [           main] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer  : Tomcat initialized with port(s): 8080 (http)
2019-08-06 13:13:51.608  INFO 32432 --- [           main] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardService   : Starting service [Tomcat]
2019-08-06 13:13:51.608  INFO 32432 --- [           main] org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine  : Starting Servlet engine: [Apache Tomcat/9.0.21]
2019-08-06 13:13:51.654  INFO 32432 --- [           main] o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/]       : Initializing Spring embedded WebApplicationContext
2019-08-06 13:13:51.654  INFO 32432 --- [           main] o.s.web.context.ContextLoader            : Root WebApplicationContext: initialization completed in 802 ms
2019-08-06 13:13:51.783  INFO 32432 --- [           main] o.s.s.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor  : Initializing ExecutorService 'applicationTaskExecutor'
2019-08-06 13:13:51.896  INFO 32432 --- [           main] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer  : Tomcat started on port(s): 8080 (http) with context path ''
2019-08-06 13:13:51.899  INFO 32432 --- [           main] jackson.Application                      : Started Application in 1.3 seconds (JVM running for 1.707)
2019-08-06 13:13:57.219  INFO 32432 --- [nio-8080-exec-1] o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/]       : Initializing Spring DispatcherServlet 'dispatcherServlet'
2019-08-06 13:13:57.220  INFO 32432 --- [nio-8080-exec-1] o.s.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet        : Initializing Servlet 'dispatcherServlet'
2019-08-06 13:13:57.224  INFO 32432 --- [nio-8080-exec-1] o.s.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet        : Completed initialization in 4 ms
2019-08-06 13:13:57.243  WARN 32432 --- [nio-8080-exec-1] .c.j.MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter : Failed to evaluate Jackson serialization for type [class com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode]: java.lang.NullPointerException
2019-08-06 13:13:57.243  WARN 32432 --- [nio-8080-exec-1] .c.j.MappingJackson2HttpMessageConverter : Failed to evaluate Jackson serialization for type [class com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode]: java.lang.NullPointerException
2019-08-06 13:13:57.247  WARN 32432 --- [nio-8080-exec-1] .w.s.m.s.DefaultHandlerExceptionResolver : Resolved [org.springframework.http.converter.HttpMessageNotWritableException: No converter found for return value of type: class com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode]

Thanks,
Stefan Seide

[cowtowncoder]

I'm pretty sure this is due to #2395, fixed in just released 2.9.9.3 of jackson-databind.

[sseide]

yes, working again with new 2.9.9.3

[cowtowncoder]

@sseide thank you for verifying this, confirming fix works as expected.