How do I convert a LinkedTreeMap to gson JsonObject

Question

For a java data handler, I send properly formatted JSON, but a combination of Spring, Java deciding how to cast what it sees, and frameworks I really shouldn't go changing mangle that JSON so that once I can see it, it's turned into a LinkedTreeMap, and I need to transform it into a JsonObject. This is not to serialize/de-serialize JSON into java objects, it's "final form" is a gson JsonObject, and it needs to be able to handle literally any valid JSON.

{
"key":"value",
"object": {
    "array":[
        "value1", 
        "please work"
        ]
    }
}

is the sample I've been using, once I see it, it's a LinkedTreeMap that .toString() s to

{key=value, object={array=[value1, please work]}}

where you can replace "=" with ":", but that doesn't have the internal quotes for the

new JsonParser().parse(gson.toJson(STRING)).getAsJsonObject()

strategy.

Is there a more direct way to convert LinkedTreeMap to JsonObject, or a library to add the internal quotes to the string, or even a way to turn a sting into a JsonObject that doesn't need the internal quotes?

Solution

You'd typically have to serialize the object to JSON, then parse that JSON back into a JsonObject. Fortunately, Gson provides a toJsonTree method that kind of skips the parsing.

LinkedTreeMap<?,?> yourMap = ...;
JsonObject jsonObject = gson.toJsonTree(yourMap).getAsJsonObject();

Note that, if you can, just deserialize the JSON directly to a JsonObject with

gson.fromJson(theJson, JsonObject.class);