Allow use of `java.nio.file.Path` for `readValue()`, `writeValue()`

[XakepSDK]

Version 2.9.5
There is no out of box method to read from Path and write to Path, it will be usefull to make these methods.

[cowtowncoder]

java.nio.Path should be supported: serialization via StringLikeSerializer, and deserialization via FromStringDeserializer.
Do you have a unit test to show this failing?

[XakepSDK]

No, i'm not about serialization/deserialization, i'm about readValue and writeValue methods, there is readValue(File) and writeValue(File, Object), but no readValue(Path), writeValue(Path, Object).
Sorry for wrong info in first comment.

[cowtowncoder]

@XakepSDK Ah! Yes that makes more sense.

Since this is API addition, will need to go in 3.0. But makes sense, the only (?) concern is large number of potential overloads. But I can see whether it should be added to just ObjectReader / ObjectWriter, or for ObjectMapper too.

[michael-o]

I know nothing about the innards of Jackson, but you cannot deserialize Path because it is an interface and you'd need the FileSystem instance for. You cannot even transport between Windows and Un*x.

[cowtowncoder]

@michael-o I think this would not be about deserializing Path instances, but allowing their use as source to read from.

[michael-o]

@cowtowncoder Are you certain? The discussion is about serializers and not JSON readers.

[XakepSDK]

@michael-o cowtowcoder is correct

[michael-o]

You should improve your description to make this clear.

[sdoeringNew]

Is this a big change?

As Path and File are arbitrary interchangeable one method might simply be a delegate to the other method:

public void writeValue(File resultFile, Object value) throws IOException, JsonGenerationException, JsonMappingException {
    this._configAndWriteValue(this._generatorFactory.createGenerator(resultFile, JsonEncoding.UTF8), value);
}

public void writeValue(Path resultPath, Object value) throws IOException, JsonGenerationException, JsonMappingException {
    writeValue(resultPath.toFile(), value);
}

[cowtowncoder]

@sdoeringNew No, it is not a difficult thing to do at all -- the only possible concern is that the API size for ObjectMapper is already rather big. But even there these could be just added for ObjectReader / ObjectWriter.
Originally this was requested when Jackson 2.9 had been released and expectation was that we'd go to 3.0 after 2.9, but situation has changed -- we are developing 2.13 now (3.0 is still work-in-progress, concurrently) -- so this addition could go in 2.13.
I just haven't had time to consider this. But it would be a relatively simple thing for PR, I think, unless I miss something.

[sdoeringNew]

Great. I'd be happy to add the PR. 👍