What is Jackson?

Jackson is "the Java JSON library" or "the best JSON parser for Java". Or simply as "JSON for Java".

More than that, Jackson is a suite of data-processing tools for Java (and the JVM platform), including the flagship streaming JSON parser / generator library, matching data-binding library (POJOs to and from JSON) and additional data format modules to process data encoded in Avro, BSON, CBOR, CSV, Smile, (Java) Properties, Protobuf, TOML, XML or YAML; and even the large set of data format modules to support data types of widely used data types such as Guava, Joda, PCollections and many, many more (see below).

Jackson provides 3 options to process JSON messages:

• Streaming API - Reads and writes JSON content as discrete events. JsonParser reads the data whereas JsonGenerator writes the data. It is most powerful approach among the three and is of lowest overhead and fastest in read/write opreations. It is Analogus to Stax parser for XML.
• Tree Model - Prepares a in-memory tree representation of the JSON document. ObjectMapper build tree of JsonNode nodes. It is most flexible approach. It is analogus to DOM parser for XML.
• Data Binding - Converts JSON to and from POJO (Plain Old Java Object) using property accessor or using annotations.

Releases of Jackson:

Package   Version   JDK   FYI   Date
-------   -------   ---   ---   ----------
Jackson    2.14.0     8   src   2022-11-05
Jackson    2.13.1     7         2021-12-19
Jackson    2.12.4     6   src   2021-07-06
Jackson    2.10.5     6         2020-07-21
Jackson     2.2.3     6   bin   2013-08-22
Jackson    1.9.13               2011-10-04

For more information, see Jackson GitHub Website.

⇒ Jackson Core Source Code

⇐ Downloading and Reviewing jackson-*.jar

⇑ Downloading and Reviewing jackson-*.jar

⇑⇑ Jackson - Java JSON library