Checklist
- pubspec.yaml includes 3 packages:
dependencies:
json_annotation: ^4.8.1
dev_dependencies:
build_runner: ^2.4.7
json_serializable: ^6.7.1
- you've run
flutter pub get
- if you get errors about versions at this stage, try older versions of json_serializable, json_annotation, build_runner
- note the Min Dart SDK listed on those linked pages
- your pubspec.yaml
environment:
sdk: ">=a.bb.c < x.y.z"
, your a.bb.c
version must be >=
than the Min Dart SDK listed on pub.dev for the package
- if your Dart version is lower, try an older version of the json package which matches or is below your Dart version
- your class files are underneath /lib or /bin
- can be subdirectories under those
- json_serializable won't search every directory for files to generate.
- added import for json_annotation:
import 'package:json_annotation/json_annotation.dart';
- you've added a
part
directive after import
statements
- your
part
file is named after your class filename (not the Class name itself), with a g
added
- e.g. for
CacheItem
class with ...
cache-item.dart
class filename ...
part 'cache-item.g.dart';
gets corresponding part
directive.
- the
part
directive is not named after your actual Class, but the class file name.
- if Android Studio Dart Analyzer continues to give errors about missing
.g.dart
file after you're sure the file has been generated & named correctly, shut down Android Studio and restart it (analyzer sometimes goes insane & this may fix it. Restarting just the analyzer may not work.)
- you've added
@JsonSerializable()
above the class name
- you've created a default constructor for your class.
- It can be empty, have optional named parameters, or positional parameters.
- As long as your class fields are accessible (either through constructor or public setters & getters), json_serializable can handle it. (i.e. don't have only _private properties and an empty constructor)
- you've written two methods calling private stub methods:
- a factory
fromJson
method
- e.g.:
factory CacheItem.fromJson(Map<String,dynamic> json) => _CacheItemFromJson(json)
- a
toJson
method
- e.g.:
Map<String,dynamic> toJson() => _$CacheItemToJson(this)
- stub methods are private (start with
_
underscore)
- $tub methods have the
$
- stub methods have proper CaSe (i.e. Pascal Case)
- stub
factory
supplies (Map<String,dynamic> json)
as argument
- stub
toJson()
returns Map<String,dynamic>
When all that is complete, try running the generator from the command line or terminal in the project root directory...
In Flutter:
flutter pub run build_runner build
In pure Dart, this depends on your version, but one of these should work:
dart run build_runner build
pub run build_runner build
dart pub run build_runner build
If all goes well, click around in your project file explorer or Reload from disk
and new files should show up such as cache-item.g.dart
for the above example.
Common Errors
Bad state: Unexpected diagnostics:
Seeing this output when running the build_runner is likely a problem with flutter and json_annotation
depending on an incompatible version of analyzer
. This happens with json_serializable
versions prior to 3.5 requiring a dependency_override of analyzer to 0.39.14 or 0.39.17.
Your first move should be to try the latest version of json_serilizable from pub.dev which apparently doesn't have this dependency problem.
If you can't upgrade json_serializable you can try placing the override lines underneath dev_dependences
:
dev_dependencies:
build_runner: ^1.9.0
flutter_test:
sdk: flutter
json_serializable: 3.3.0
test: ^1.14.3
dependency_overrides:
analyzer: '0.39.14'
[SEVERE] Nothing can be built, yet a build was requested.
This error can happen when performing a flutter pub run build_runner build
when we've added dependency in pubspec.yaml for json_annotation
but are missing a dependency/dev_dependency for json_serializable
:
dependencies:
flutter:
sdk: flutter
get:
json_annotation: ^4.3.0
some_other_packages:
Make sure you've got json_serializable
package added as either a dependency or dev_dependency:
dependencies:
flutter:
sdk: flutter
get:
json_annotation: ^4.3.0
dev_dependencies:
build_runner: ^2.1.4
flutter_test:
sdk: flutter
json_serializable: ^6.0.1 #// ← do not forget
test:
[SEVERE] Conflicting outputs were detected
pub finished with exit code 78
The full error is:
[SEVERE] Conflicting outputs were detected and the build
is unable to prompt for permission to remove them.
These outputs must be removed manually or the build
can be run with `--delete-conflicting-outputs`.
The outputs are: lib/some_generated_file.g.dart
pub finished with exit code 78
If one of the generated files could not be overwritten automatically, you'll get this error.
The fix is to re-run the same build command but with the added optional argument:
flutter pub run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs
This will (hopefully) allow previously generated .g.dart files to be deleted and rewritten.
Could not generate
fromJsoncode for
someField.
If you're json serializing a class that contains someField
which is a Type for another custom class you've created, have you @JsonSerializable()
that other custom class?
@JsonSerializable(explicitToJson: true)
class BuildingStatus {
final Building building; // another custom class
BuildingStatus(Building building);
factory BuildingStatus.fromJson(Map<String,dynamic> json) => _$BuildingStatusFromJson(json);
Map<String,dynamic> toJson() => _$BuildingStatusToJson(this);
}
/// This guy needs serialization too.
@JsonSerializable()
class Building {
final String name;
const Building(this.name);
factory Building.fromJson(Map<String,dynamic> json) => _$BuildingFromJson(json);
Map<String,dynamic> toJson() => _$BuildingToJson(this);
}
Without serializing the nested Building
class, we'd see an error when running build_runner like:
Could not generate `fromJson` code for `building` because of type `Building`.
Instance of 'SomeNestedClass'
If we have nested serializable classes, we generally want the serialization to occur recursively. i.e. the nested classes are also serialized.
To do that we would annotate our containing class with explicitToJson: true
like:
@JsonSerializable(explicitToJson: true)
So when we toJson()
our BuildingStatus
instance, instead of getting:
{"building": Instance of 'Building'}
... we would get:
{"building": {"name": "Empire State"}}
Notes
Subclass / Parent Class
If your class is a child of a parent class and you want to Serialize fields/properties of child only, you can annotate only the subclass. The parent class fields will automatically be found and included in the generated class files for the subclass.
If you want to be able to serialize/deserialize both parent and child separately, go ahead and annotate the base / parent classes with @JsonSerializable
as well.
e.g. filename account.dart
import 'package:json_annotation/json_annotation.dart';
part 'account.g.dart';
class AccountBase {
int? created;
String? username;
String? password;
}
@JsonSerializable()
class Account extends AccountBase {
int? id;
Account();
factory Account.fromJson(Map<String,dynamic> json) => _$AccountFromJson(json);
Map<String,dynamic> toJson() => _$AccountToJson(this);
}
Produces:
// GENERATED CODE - DO NOT MODIFY BY HAND
part of 'account.dart';
// **************************************************************************
// JsonSerializableGenerator
// **************************************************************************
Account _$AccountFromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) => Account()
..created = json['created'] as int?
..username = json['username'] as String?
..password = json['password'] as String?
..id = json['id'] as int?;
Map<String, dynamic> _$AccountToJson(Account instance) => <String, dynamic>{
'created': instance.created,
'username': instance.username,
'password': instance.password,
'id': instance.id,
};
Reference & Docs
Example
import 'package:json_annotation/json_annotation.dart';
part 'cache-item.g.dart';
@JsonSerializable()
class CacheItem {
int created;
String keywords;
String response;
CacheItem(this.created, this.keywords, this.response);
factory CacheItem.fromJson(Map<String,dynamic> json) => _$CacheItemFromJson(json);
Map<String,dynamic> toJson() => _$CacheItemToJson(this);
}
Output
// GENERATED CODE - DO NOT MODIFY BY HAND
part of 'cache-item.dart';
// **************************************************************************
// JsonSerializableGenerator
// **************************************************************************
CacheItem _$CacheItemFromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) => CacheItem(
json['created'] as int,
json['keywords'] as String,
json['response'] as String,
);
Map<String, dynamic> _$CacheItemToJson(CacheItem instance) => <String, dynamic>{
'created': instance.created,
'keywords': instance.keywords,
'response': instance.response,
};
Example Constructor Variant
This example is the same as above except the constructor is missing some fields and has response
as optional.
It's fine.
The generator will just use the public (implicit) setters after instantiating the object to assign the values.
import 'package:json_annotation/json_annotation.dart';
part 'cache-item.g.dart';
@JsonSerializable()
class CacheItem {
int? created;
String? keywords;
String? response;
CacheItem({this.response});
factory CacheItem.fromJson(Map<String,dynamic> json) => _$CacheItemFromJson(json);
Map<String,dynamic> toJson() => _$CacheItemToJson(this);
}
Output
// GENERATED CODE - DO NOT MODIFY BY HAND
part of 'cache-item.dart';
// **************************************************************************
// JsonSerializableGenerator
// **************************************************************************
CacheItem _$CacheItemFromJson(Map<String, dynamic> json) => CacheItem(
response: json['response'] as String?,
)
..created = json['created'] as int?
..keywords = json['keywords'] as String?;
Map<String, dynamic> _$CacheItemToJson(CacheItem instance) => <String, dynamic>{
'created': instance.created,
'keywords': instance.keywords,
'response': instance.response,
};