JobStep JacksonExecutionContextStringSerializer error in Spring Batch 6.x

[andrianov17]

Bug description
After upgrade to Spring Batch 6.0.1 and using new org.springframework.batch.core.repository.dao.JacksonExecutionContextStringSerializer, JobStep fails upon step execution context deserialization:

Caused by: com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException: Problem deserializing 'setterless' property ("identifyingParameters"): no way to handle typed deser with setterless yet
 at [Source: REDACTED (`StreamReadFeature.INCLUDE_SOURCE_IN_LOCATION` disabled); line: 1, column: 935] (through reference chain: java.util.HashMap["org.springframework.batch.core.step.job.JobStep.JOB_PARAMETERS"]->org.springframework.batch.core.job.parameters.JobParameters["identifyingParameters"])
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException.from(InvalidDefinitionException.java:67)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.reportBadDefinition(DeserializationContext.java:1943)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.impl.SetterlessProperty.deserializeAndSet(SetterlessProperty.java:117)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:265)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer._deserializeUsingPropertyBased(BeanDeserializer.java:466)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializerBase.deserializeFromObjectUsingNonDefault(BeanDeserializerBase.java:1499)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserializeFromObject(BeanDeserializer.java:340)
	at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.BeanDeserializer.deserialize(BeanDeserializer.java:177)

This happens because as opposed to Jackson2ExecutionContextStringSerializer, JacksonExecutionContextStringSerializer serializes every org.springframework.batch.core.job.parameters.JobParameters public getter, including isEmpty() and getIdentifyingParameters().

This is serialized step execution context:

{
	"org.springframework.batch.core.step.job.JobStep.JOB_PARAMETERS": [
		"org.springframework.batch.core.job.parameters.JobParameters",
		{
			"parameters": [
				"java.util.Collections$UnmodifiableSet",
				[
					{
						"name": "queueItemId",
						"value": "280941",
						"type": "java.lang.String",
						"identifying": false
					},
					{
						"name": "execType",
						"value": "MANUAL",
						"type": "java.lang.String",
						"identifying": false
					},
					{
						"name": "jsr_batch_run_id",
						"value": [
							"java.lang.Long",
							3580
						],
						"type": "java.lang.Long",
						"identifying": true
					},
					{
						"name": "user",
						"value": "system",
						"type": "java.lang.String",
						"identifying": false
					}
				]
			],
			"empty": false,
			"identifyingParameters": [
				"java.util.ImmutableCollections$SetN",
				[
					{
						"name": "jsr_batch_run_id",
						"value": [
							"java.lang.Long",
							3580
						],
						"type": "java.lang.Long",
						"identifying": true
					}
				]
			]
		}
	],
	"batch.version": "6.0.1",
	"batch.stepType": "..."
}

Please also note that as opposed to Spring Batch 5.x, serialized context doesn't have @Class fields:

{
	"@class": "java.util.HashMap",
	"childJobExecId": [
		"java.lang.Long",
		3480
	],
	"org.springframework.batch.core.step.job.JobStep.JOB_PARAMETERS": {
		"@class": "org.springframework.batch.core.JobParameters",
		"parameters": {
			"@class": "java.util.Collections$UnmodifiableMap",
			"queueItemId": {
...
	"batch.version": "5.2.3"
}

Environment
Spring Batch 6.0.1, SQL Server 2022

Steps to reproduce

• Have a job with JobStep
• Run the job with some parameters
• Get Spring Batch job execution by job exec iD for just executed job - exception is thrown

Expected behavior
When job execution is get by job execution ID, all step execution contexts are deserialized with no exceptions.

Minimal Complete Reproducible example
The example is pretty basic - see Steps to reproduce above

[quaff]

@andrianov17 The test https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-batch/pull/5193/changes#diff-3c26fc0fa4dbe4528bba91150cb18f92cf9333d8bf9d764f0e0baf4475c11009 is passed with JacksonExecutionContextStringSerializer without any modification.

[andrianov17]

@quaff Could you please double check that no noise like 'empty' and 'identifyingParameters' fields is serialized in the JSON? In the meantime, I'll review serializer used in deserializing in our code.

[quaff]

Jackson2ExecutionContextStringSerializer produce:

{
  "@class": "java.util.HashMap",
  "jobParameters": {
    "@class": "org.springframework.batch.core.job.parameters.JobParameters",
    "parameters": [
      "java.util.Collections$UnmodifiableSet",
      [
        {
          "name": "date",
          "value": [
            2025,
            12,
            31
          ],
          "type": "java.time.LocalDate",
          "identifying": true
        },
        {
          "name": "foo",
          "value": "bar",
          "type": "java.lang.String",
          "identifying": false
        }
      ]
    ]
  }
}

---

JacksonExecutionContextStringSerializer produce:

{
  "jobParameters": [
    "org.springframework.batch.core.job.parameters.JobParameters",
    {
      "parameters": [
        "java.util.Collections$UnmodifiableSet",
        [
          {
            "name": "date",
            "value": [
              "java.time.LocalDate",
              "2025-12-31"
            ],
            "type": "java.time.LocalDate",
            "identifying": true
          },
          {
            "name": "foo",
            "value": "bar",
            "type": "java.lang.String",
            "identifying": false
          }
        ]
      ],
      "empty": false,
      "identifyingParameters": [
        "java.util.ImmutableCollections$Set12",
        [
          {
            "name": "date",
            "value": [
              "java.time.LocalDate",
              "2025-12-31"
            ],
            "type": "java.time.LocalDate",
            "identifying": true
          }
        ]
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Currently they are not compatible, please make sure you are using the same implementation for both serialization and deserialization.

[andrianov17]

@quaff Confirmed - original exception was caused by old deserializer, not JacksonExecutionContextStringSerializer. So, the issue can be closed.

Thank you for the serialization double check!

Just last question regarding this issue - could those redundant 'empty' and 'identifyingParameters' be suppressed during serialization? They don't bring any value, just take extra space and pollute the context.

Looks like you've already addressed it in your pull request for #5191.

Thank you!

[quaff]

Just last question regarding this issue - could those redundant 'empty' and 'identifyingParameters' be suppressed during serialization?

I updated the PR to handle this.