Spring REST Controller returns JSON with empty data

Question

I have a simple Spring Boot web application. I'm trying to receive some data from server. The Controller returns a collection, but the browser receives empty JSON - the number of curly brackets is equals to the number of objects from server, but its content is empty.

@RestController
public class EmployeeController {

@Autowired
private EmployeeManagerImpl employeeManagerImpl;

    @RequestMapping(path="/employees", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public Iterable<Employee> getAllEmployees() {
        Iterable<Employee> employeesIterable = employeeManagerImpl.getAllEmployees();
        return employeesIterable;
    }
}

The method fires and a browser shows:

Nothing more in the console. Any ideas?

EDIT: Employee.java

@Entity
public class Employee implements Serializable{

    private static final long serialVersionUID = -1723798766434132067L;

    @Id
    @Getter @Setter 
    @GeneratedValue
    private Long id;

    @Getter @Setter
    @Column(name = "first_name")
    private String firstName;

    @Getter @Setter
    @Column(name = "last_name")
    private String lastName;

    @Getter @Setter
    private BigDecimal salary;

    public Employee(){

    }
}

Solution

I think you should use Lombok as class level instead of field level.

@Entity
@Data
@Builder
@NoArgsConstructor
@AllArgsConstructor    
public class Employee implements Serializable {}

This may solve your problem.

Comments

[Dmitry Zagorulkin]

please provide employeesIterable here

[rorschach]

We need to at least see the code for the POJO. It might be that you don't have any serializable fields.

[KayV]

Use ResponseBody with the return type as public @ResponseBody Iterable<Employee> getAllEmployees() {

[rorschach]

@KaranVerma @RestController annotation already takes care of that.

[Radziasss]

As is usually, it started after I asked you there. I removed lombok annotations and added common getters and setters. Now i'm receiving what I wanted. But why it doesn't work with lombok?

[rorschach]

Well, there could be numerous possibilities - most probable is that Lombok is not properly configured. Can you call the getters/setters in your code? After building your app are the getters/setters included in the Employee.class file?

[Radziasss]

Yes, IDE (sts) can see methods, I can call them

[Sanjay Kumar]

Add getter setter in your model / pojo. It will work !

[Chris Neve]

Still getting this issue today. Nothing suggested here worked. Ideas welcome

[Jebil]

basically you need public Getters and Setters in your Entity class. Thats the issue I see here

[Radziasss]

It doesn't change anything. The problem is with lombok annotations - they just doesn't work. But why is that?

[nurgasemetey]

@RestController automatically adds @ResponseBody annotation to all returns.

[nurgasemetey]

Spring Boot uses Jackson by default. The problem he experiences about Lombok not generating getters thus the fields are not serialized because Jackson looks for getters.

[Radziasss]

I didn't know I can use them at class level. Nice, I will use that, but not in this case... nothing has changed.

[Radziasss]

@nurgasemetey that is true. This default configuration you are writting about, HARDI, I get for free thanks to spring boot. There's something wrong with lombok getters, I didn't solve this yet.

[Radziasss]

It worked with Data. Then I switched Data with annotations that it covers: ToString, EqualsAndHashCode, Getter, Setter and RequiredArgsConstructor. It worked. Then I only left Getter and Setter. It also worked... I don't get it at all. There must by something wrong with building project by STS then?

[Pedro Tavares]

Can you build and run from console as it is?

[Yishagerew]

Any solution by now? I just stuck into it.

[alltej]

the @Getter and @Setter can be replaced with single annotation @Data

[Jebil]

basically you need public Getters and Setters in your Entity class. Thats the issue I see here

[Matthias Sommer]

I had the same issue and I resolved it by adding @Getter to my response dto class.