SDN4 - Neo4j OGM + Jackson 2.0 - neo4j

Question

I am trying to use Jackson 2.x annotations on a Spring Data Neo4j 4.0.0RC1 entity but am seeing failures in my application context starting. I have two #NodeEntities that implement an interface and I've annotated the interface as such:
#JsonTypeInfo(use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME, include = JsonTypeInfo.As.PROPERTY, property = "type")
#JsonSubTypes({
#Type(value = SimpleNode.class, name="simple"),
#Type(value = OtherNode.class, name="other")
})
public interface Node {
}
I believe this is correct usage but when I start my application, the Spring context fails to load due to a problem creating the Neo4j session factory.
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'getSessionFactory' defined in class path resource [com/example/TestApplication$Neo4jConfig.class]: Bean instantiation via factory method failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.neo4j.ogm.session.SessionFactory]: Factory method 'getSessionFactory' threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.ClassFormatError: Invalid annotation element type tag: 0x0
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(ConstructorResolver.java:599) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1119) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBeanInstance(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1014) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:504) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:476) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:303) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:230) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:299) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassEnhancer$BeanMethodInterceptor.intercept(ConfigurationClassEnhancer.java:322) ~[spring-context-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at com.example.TestApplication$Neo4jConfig$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$e5734e5.getSessionFactory(<generated>) ~[spring-core-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:na]
at org.springframework.data.neo4j.config.Neo4jConfiguration.getSession(Neo4jConfiguration.java:49) ~[spring-data-neo4j-4.0.0.RC1.jar:na]
at com.example.TestApplication$Neo4jConfig$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$e5734e5.CGLIB$getSession$12(<generated>) ~[spring-core-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:na]
at com.example.TestApplication$Neo4jConfig$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$e5734e5$$FastClassBySpringCGLIB$$a7919784.invoke(<generated>) ~[spring-core-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:na]
at org.springframework.cglib.proxy.MethodProxy.invokeSuper(MethodProxy.java:228) ~[spring-core-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassEnhancer$BeanMethodInterceptor.intercept(ConfigurationClassEnhancer.java:309) ~[spring-context-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at com.example.TestApplication$Neo4jConfig$$EnhancerBySpringCGLIB$$e5734e5.getSession(<generated>) ~[spring-core-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:na]
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[na:1.8.0_45]
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[na:1.8.0_45]
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[na:1.8.0_45]
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497) ~[na:1.8.0_45]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:162) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
... 94 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.neo4j.ogm.session.SessionFactory]: Factory method 'getSessionFactory' threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.ClassFormatError: Invalid annotation element type tag: 0x0
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:189) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(ConstructorResolver.java:588) ~[spring-beans-4.1.6.RELEASE.jar:4.1.6.RELEASE]
... 115 common frames omitted
When playing around with my config I was able to determine that the OGM code (version 1.1.0) seems to choke on the #JsonSubTypes. This error also occurs if I replace my interface with an abstract class. Lastly, I noticed in org.neo4j.ogm.metadata.info.AnnotationsInfo constructor (line 89) that there is a TODO that says // todo: maybe register just the annotations we're interested in.
My questions are:
Is there an elegant workaround? I'm of the opinion that polymorphic deserialization is not an entirely uncommon use case?
Is my usage of the Jackson annotations correct?

Answer 1

This is most likely the issue fixed in https://jira.spring.io/browse/DATAGRAPH-674
It'll be available in neo4j-ogm 1.1.1 but till that's released, you can use a snapshot version 1.1.1-SNAPSHOT
You'll need to also include the snapshot repository-
<repository>
<id>neo4j-snapshots</id>
<url>http://m2.neo4j.org/content/repositories/snapshots</url>
<snapshots>
<enabled>true</enabled>
</snapshots>
</repository>