org.jabsorb.ng.JSONSerializer.java Source code

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/*
 * jabsorb - a Java to JavaScript Advanced Object Request Broker
 * http://www.jabsorb.org
 *
 * Copyright 2007-2008 The jabsorb team
 *
 * based on original code from
 * JSON-RPC-Java - a JSON-RPC to Java Bridge with dynamic invocation
 *
 * Copyright Metaparadigm Pte. Ltd. 2004.
 * Michael Clark <michael@metaparadigm.com>
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 *
 */

package org.jabsorb.ng;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.NoSuchElementException;
import java.util.Set;

import org.jabsorb.ng.logging.ILogger;
import org.jabsorb.ng.logging.LoggerFactory;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.MarshallException;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.ObjectMatch;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.ProcessedObject;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.Serializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.SerializerState;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.UnmarshallException;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.ArraySerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.BeanSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.BooleanSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.DateSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.DictionarySerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.EnumSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.ListSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.MapSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.NumberSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.PrimitiveSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.RawJSONArraySerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.RawJSONObjectSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.SetSerializer;
import org.jabsorb.ng.serializer.impl.StringSerializer;
import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONException;
import org.json.JSONObject;
import org.json.JSONTokener;

/**
 * This class is the public entry point to the serialization code and provides
 * methods for marshalling Java objects into JSON objects and unmarshalling JSON
 * objects into Java objects.
 */
public class JSONSerializer implements Serializable {

    /**
     * Special token Object to indicate the fact that the given object being
     * marshalled is a duplicate or circular reference and so it should not be
     * placed into the json stream.
     */
    public static final Object CIRC_REF_OR_DUPLICATE = new Object();

    /**
     * The list of class types that are considered primitives that should not be
     * fixed up when fixupDuplicatePrimitives is false.
     */
    protected static Class<?>[] duplicatePrimitiveTypes = { String.class, Integer.class, Boolean.class, Long.class,
            Byte.class, Double.class, Float.class, Short.class, Enum.class };

    /**
     * The logger for this class
     */
    private static final ILogger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(JSONSerializer.class);

    /**
     * Unique serialisation id.
     */
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 2;

    /**
     * Are FixUps are generated to handle circular references found during
     * marshalling? If false, an exception is thrown if a circular reference is
     * found during serialization.
     */
    private boolean fixupCircRefs = false;

    /**
     * Are FixUps are generated for primitive objects (classes of type String,
     * Boolean, Integer, Boolean, Long, Byte, Double, Float and Short) This flag
     * will have no effect if fixupDuplicates is false.
     */
    private boolean fixupDuplicatePrimitives = false;

    /**
     * Are FixUps are generated for duplicate objects found during marshalling?
     * If false, the duplicates are re-serialized.
     */
    private boolean fixupDuplicates = false;

    /**
     * Should serializers defined in this object include the fully qualified
     * class name of objects being serialized? This can be helpful when
     * unmarshalling, though if not needed can be left out in favor of increased
     * performance and smaller size of marshalled String.
     */
    private boolean marshallClassHints = true;

    /**
     * Should attributes will null values still be included in the serialized
     * JSON object.
     */
    private boolean marshallNullAttributes = true;

    /**
     * key: Class, value: Serializer
     */
    private transient Map<Class<?>, Serializer> serializableMap = null;

    /**
     * List for reverse registration order search
     */
    private final List<Serializer> serializerList = new ArrayList<Serializer>();

    /**
     * Key: Serializer
     */
    private final Set<Serializer> serializerSet = new HashSet<Serializer>();

    /**
     * Convert a string in JSON format into Java objects.
     *
     * @param jsonString
     *            The JSON format string.
     * @return An object (or tree of objects) representing the data in the JSON
     *         format string.
     * @throws UnmarshallException
     *             If unmarshalling fails
     */
    public Object fromJSON(final String jsonString) throws UnmarshallException {

        final ClassLoader contextClassLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
        try {
            // Force the class loader
            Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(getClass().getClassLoader());

            final JSONTokener tok = new JSONTokener(jsonString);
            Object json;
            try {
                json = tok.nextValue();
            } catch (final JSONException e) {
                throw new UnmarshallException("couldn't parse JSON", e);
            }
            final SerializerState state = new SerializerState();
            return unmarshall(state, null, json);

        } finally {
            // Reset the context class loader
            Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(contextClassLoader);
        }
    }

    /**
     * Find the corresponding java Class type from json (as represented by a
     * JSONObject or JSONArray,) using the javaClass hinting mechanism.
     * <p/>
     * If the Object is a JSONObject, the simple javaClass property is looked
     * for. If it is a JSONArray then this method is invoked recursively on the
     * first element of the array.
     * <p/>
     * then the Class is returned as an array type for the type of class hinted
     * by the first Object in the array.
     * <p/>
     * If the object is neither a JSONObject or JSONArray, return the Class of
     * the object directly. (this implies a primitive type, such as String,
     * Integer or Boolean)
     *
     * @param o
     *            a JSONObject or JSONArray object to get the Class type from
     *            the javaClass hint.
     * @return the Class of javaClass hint found, or null if the passed in
     *         Object is null, or the Class of the Object passed in, if that
     *         object is not a JSONArray or JSONObject.
     * @throws UnmarshallException
     *             if javaClass hint was not found (except for null case or
     *             primitive object case), or the javaClass hint is not a valid
     *             java class.
     *             <p/>
     *             todo: the name of this method is a bit misleading because it
     *             doesn't actually get the class from todo: the javaClass hint
     *             if the type of Object passed in is not JSONObject|JSONArray.
     */
    private Class<?> getClassFromHint(final Object o) throws UnmarshallException {

        if (o == null) {
            return null;
        }
        if (o instanceof JSONObject) {
            String className = "(unknown)";
            try {
                className = ((JSONObject) o).getString("javaClass");
                return Class.forName(className);
                // return classLoader.loadClass(className);
            } catch (final Exception e) {
                throw new UnmarshallException("Class specified in javaClass hint not found: " + className, e);
            }
        }
        if (o instanceof JSONArray) {
            final JSONArray arr = (JSONArray) o;
            if (arr.length() == 0) {
                // Use an empty list if the type is unknown
                // return ArrayList.class;
                return Object[].class;
                // throw new UnmarshallException("no type for empty array");
            }
            // return type of first element
            Class<?> compClazz;
            try {
                compClazz = getClassFromHint(arr.get(0));
            } catch (final JSONException e) {
                throw (NoSuchElementException) new NoSuchElementException(e.getMessage()).initCause(e);
            }
            try {
                if (compClazz.isArray()) {
                    return Class.forName("[" + compClazz.getName());
                    // return classLoader.loadClass("[" + compClazz.getName());
                }

                return Class.forName("[L" + compClazz.getName() + ";");
                // return classLoader.loadClass("[L" + compClazz.getName() +
                // ";");
            } catch (final ClassNotFoundException e) {
                System.err.println("PROBLEM GETTING ARRAY TYPE:");
                e.printStackTrace();
                System.out.println("Array = " + arr);
                System.out.println("CompoClazz = " + compClazz.getName());
                throw new UnmarshallException("problem getting array type", e);
            }
        }
        return o.getClass();
    }

    /**
     * Get the fixupCircRefs flag. If true, FixUps are generated to handle
     * circular references found during marshalling. If false, an exception is
     * thrown if a circular reference is found during serialization.
     *
     * @return the fixupCircRefs flag.
     */
    public boolean getFixupCircRefs() {

        return fixupCircRefs;
    }

    /**
     * Get the fixupDuplicatePrimitives flag. If true (and fixupDuplicates is
     * also true), FixUps are generated for duplicate primitive objects found
     * during marshalling. If false, the duplicates are re-serialized.
     *
     * @return the fixupDuplicatePrimitives flag.
     */
    public boolean getFixupDuplicatePrimitives() {

        return fixupDuplicatePrimitives;
    }

    /**
     * Get the fixupDuplicates flag. If true, FixUps are generated for duplicate
     * objects found during marshalling. If false, the duplicates are
     * re-serialized.
     *
     * @return the fixupDuplicates flag.
     */
    public boolean getFixupDuplicates() {

        return fixupDuplicates;
    }

    /**
     * Should serializers defined in this object include the fully qualified
     * class name of objects being serialized? This can be helpful when
     * unmarshalling, though if not needed can be left out in favor of increased
     * performance and smaller size of marshalled String. Default is true.
     *
     * @return whether Java Class hints are included in the serialised JSON
     *         objects
     */
    public boolean getMarshallClassHints() {

        return marshallClassHints;
    }

    /**
     * Returns true if attributes will null values should still be included in
     * the serialized JSON object. Defaults to true. Set to false for
     * performance gains and small JSON serialized size. Useful because null and
     * undefined for JSON object attributes is virtually the same thing.
     *
     * @return boolean value as to whether null attributes will be in the
     *         serialized JSON objects
     */
    public boolean getMarshallNullAttributes() {

        return marshallNullAttributes;
    }

    /**
     * Find the serializer for the given Java type and/or JSON type.
     *
     * @param clazz
     *            The Java class to lookup.
     * @param jsoClazz
     *            The JSON class type to lookup (may be null in the marshalling
     *            case in which case only the class is used to lookup the
     *            serializer).
     * @return The found Serializer for the types specified or null if none
     *         could be found.
     */
    private Serializer getSerializer(final Class<?> clazz, final Class<?> jsoClazz) {

        if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
            log.info("getSerializer", "looking for serializer - java:" + (clazz == null ? "null" : clazz.getName())
                    + " json:" + (jsoClazz == null ? "null" : jsoClazz.getName()));
        }

        synchronized (serializerSet) {
            Serializer s = serializableMap.get(clazz);
            if (s != null && s.canSerialize(clazz, jsoClazz)) {

                if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
                    log.info("getSerializer", "direct match serializer " + s.getClass().getName());
                }
                return s;
            }
            final Iterator<Serializer> i = serializerList.iterator();
            while (i.hasNext()) {
                s = i.next();
                if (s.canSerialize(clazz, jsoClazz)) {
                    if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
                        log.info("getSerializer", "search found serializer " + s.getClass().getName());
                    }
                    return s;
                }
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Determine if this serializer considers the given Object to be a primitive
     * wrapper type Object. This is used to determine which types of Objects
     * should be fixed up as duplicates if the fixupDuplicatePrimitives flag is
     * false.
     *
     * @param o
     *            Object to test for primitive.
     */
    public boolean isPrimitive(final Object o) {

        if (o == null) {
            return true; // extra safety check- null is considered primitive too
        }

        final Class<?> c = o.getClass();

        for (int i = 0, j = duplicatePrimitiveTypes.length; i < j; i++) {
            if (duplicatePrimitiveTypes[i] == c) {
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    /**
     * Marshall java into an equivalent json representation (JSONObject or
     * JSONArray.)
     * <p/>
     * This involves finding the correct Serializer for the class of the given
     * java object and then invoking it to marshall the java object into json.
     * <p/>
     * The Serializer will invoke this method recursively while marshalling
     * complex object graphs.
     *
     * @param state
     *            can be used by the underlying Serializer objects to hold state
     *            while marshalling.
     *
     * @param parent
     *            parent object of the object being converted. this can be null
     *            if it's the root object being converted.
     * @param java
     *            java object to convert into json.
     *
     * @param ref
     *            reference within the parent's point of view of the object
     *            being serialized. this will be a String for JSONObjects and an
     *            Integer for JSONArrays.
     *
     * @return the JSONObject or JSONArray (or primitive object) containing the
     *         json for the marshalled java object or the special token Object,
     *         JSONSerializer.CIRC_REF_OR_DUP to indicate to the caller that the
     *         given Object has already been serialized and so therefore the
     *         result should be ignored.
     *
     * @throws MarshallException
     *             if there is a problem marshalling java to json.
     */
    public Object marshall(final SerializerState state, final Object parent, final Object java, final Object ref)
            throws MarshallException {

        if (java == null) {
            if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
                log.debug("marshall", "marshall null");
            }
            return JSONObject.NULL;
        }

        // check for duplicate objects or circular references
        final ProcessedObject p = state.getProcessedObject(java);

        // if this object hasn't been seen before, mark it as seen and continue
        // forth
        if (p == null) {
            state.push(parent, java, ref);
        } else {
            // todo: make test cases to explicitly handle all 4 combinations of
            // the 2 option
            // todo: settings (both on the client and server)

            // handle throwing of circular reference exception and/or
            // serializing duplicates, depending
            // on the options set in the serializer!
            final boolean foundCircRef = state.isAncestor(p, parent);

            // throw an exception if a circular reference found, and the
            // serializer option is not set to fixup these circular references
            if (!fixupCircRefs && foundCircRef) {
                throw new MarshallException("Circular Reference");
            }

            // if its a duplicate only, and we aren't fixing up duplicates or if
            // it is a primitive, and fixing up of primitives is not allowed
            // then
            // re-serialize the object into the json.
            if (!foundCircRef && (!fixupDuplicates || (!fixupDuplicatePrimitives && isPrimitive(java)))) {
                // todo: if a duplicate is being reserialized... it will
                // overwrite the original location of the
                // todo: first one found... need to think about the
                // ramifications of this -- optimally, circ refs found
                // todo: underneath duplicates need to point to the "original"
                // one found, but they also need to be fixed
                // todo: up to the correct location, of course.
                state.push(parent, java, ref);
            } else {
                // generate a fix up entry for the duplicate/circular reference
                state.addFixUp(p.getLocation(), ref);
                return CIRC_REF_OR_DUPLICATE;
            }
        }

        try {
            if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
                log.debug("marshall", "marshall class " + java.getClass().getName());
            }
            final Serializer s = getSerializer(java.getClass(), null);
            if (s != null) {
                return s.marshall(state, parent, java);
            }
            throw new MarshallException("can't marshall " + java.getClass().getName());
        } finally {
            state.pop();
        }
    }

    /**
     * Reads an object, serialising each This is used by the java serialization
     * logic.
     *
     * @param in
     *            The stream to take an object to serialise
     * @throws java.io.IOException
     *             if the object can't be read from the stream
     * @throws ClassNotFoundException
     *             If a class cannot be found for the object to be read
     *
     * @see java.io.Serializable
     */
    private void readObject(final ObjectInputStream in) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {

        in.defaultReadObject();
        serializableMap = new HashMap<Class<?>, Serializer>();
        final Iterator<Serializer> i = serializerList.iterator();
        while (i.hasNext()) {
            final Serializer s = i.next();
            final Class<?> classes[] = s.getSerializableClasses();
            for (int j = 0; j < classes.length; j++) {
                serializableMap.put(classes[j], s);
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * Register all of the provided standard serializers.
     *
     * @throws Exception
     *             If a serialiser has already been registered for a class.
     *
     *             TODO: Should this be thrown: This can only happen if there is
     *             an internal problem with the code
     */
    public void registerDefaultSerializers() throws Exception {

        // the order of registration is important:
        // when trying to marshall java objects into json, first,
        // a direct match (by Class) is looked for in the serializeableMap
        // if a direct match is not found, all serializers are
        // searched in the reverse order that they were registered here (via the
        // serializerList)
        // for the first serializer that canSerialize the java class type.

        registerSerializer(new RawJSONArraySerializer());
        registerSerializer(new RawJSONObjectSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new BeanSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new EnumSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new ArraySerializer());
        registerSerializer(new DictionarySerializer());
        registerSerializer(new MapSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new SetSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new ListSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new DateSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new StringSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new NumberSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new BooleanSerializer());
        registerSerializer(new PrimitiveSerializer());
    }

    /**
     * Register a new type specific serializer. The order of registration is
     * important. More specific serializers should be added after less specific
     * serializers. This is because when the JSONSerializer is trying to find a
     * serializer, if it can't find the serializer by a direct match, it will
     * search for a serializer in the reverse order that they were registered.
     *
     * @param s
     *            A class implementing the Serializer interface (usually derived
     *            from AbstractSerializer).
     *
     * @throws Exception
     *             If a serialiser has already been registered for a class.
     */
    public void registerSerializer(final Serializer s) throws Exception {

        final Class<?> classes[] = s.getSerializableClasses();
        Serializer exists;
        synchronized (serializerSet) {
            if (serializableMap == null) {
                serializableMap = new HashMap<Class<?>, Serializer>();
            }
            for (int i = 0; i < classes.length; i++) {
                exists = serializableMap.get(classes[i]);
                if (exists != null && exists.getClass() != s.getClass()) {
                    throw new Exception("different serializer already registered for " + classes[i].getName());
                }
            }
            if (!serializerSet.contains(s)) {
                if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
                    log.debug("registerSerializer", "registered serializer " + s.getClass().getName());
                }
                s.setOwner(this);
                serializerSet.add(s);
                serializerList.add(0, s);
                for (int j = 0; j < classes.length; j++) {
                    serializableMap.put(classes[j], s);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * Set the fixupCircRefs flag. If true, FixUps are generated to handle
     * circular references found during marshalling. If false, an exception is
     * thrown if a circular reference is found during serialization.
     *
     * @param fixupCircRefs
     *            the fixupCircRefs flag.
     */
    public void setFixupCircRefs(final boolean fixupCircRefs) {

        this.fixupCircRefs = fixupCircRefs;
    }

    /**
     * Set the fixupDuplicatePrimitives flag. If true (and fixupDuplicates is
     * also true), FixUps are generated for duplicate primitive objects found
     * during marshalling. If false, the duplicates are re-serialized.
     *
     * @param fixupDuplicatePrimitives
     *            the fixupDuplicatePrimitives flag.
     */
    public void setFixupDuplicatePrimitives(final boolean fixupDuplicatePrimitives) {

        this.fixupDuplicatePrimitives = fixupDuplicatePrimitives;
    }

    /**
     * Set the fixupDuplicates flag. If true, FixUps are generated for duplicate
     * objects found during marshalling. If false, the duplicates are
     * re-serialized.
     *
     * @param fixupDuplicates
     *            the fixupDuplicates flag.
     */
    public void setFixupDuplicates(final boolean fixupDuplicates) {

        this.fixupDuplicates = fixupDuplicates;
    }

    /**
     * Should serializers defined in this object include the fully qualified
     * class name of objects being serialized? This can be helpful when
     * unmarshalling, though if not needed can be left out in favor of increased
     * performance and smaller size of marshalled String. Default is true.
     *
     * @param marshallClassHints
     *            flag to enable/disable inclusion of Java class hints in the
     *            serialized JSON objects
     */
    public void setMarshallClassHints(final boolean marshallClassHints) {

        this.marshallClassHints = marshallClassHints;
    }

    /**
     * Returns true if attributes will null values should still be included in
     * the serialized JSON object. Defaults to true. Set to false for
     * performance gains and small JSON serialized size. Useful because null and
     * undefined for JSON object attributes is virtually the same thing.
     *
     * @param marshallNullAttributes
     *            flag to enable/disable marshalling of null attributes in the
     *            serialized JSON objects
     */
    public void setMarshallNullAttributes(final boolean marshallNullAttributes) {

        this.marshallNullAttributes = marshallNullAttributes;
    }

    /**
     * Convert a Java objects (or tree of Java objects) into a string in JSON
     * format. Note that this method will remove any circular references /
     * duplicates and not handle the potential fixups that could be generated.
     * (unless duplicates/circular references are turned off.
     *
     * todo: have some way to transmit the fixups back to the caller of this
     * method.
     *
     * @param obj
     *            the object to be converted to JSON.
     * @return the JSON format string representing the data in the the Java
     *         object.
     * @throws MarshallException
     *             If marshalling fails.
     */
    public String toJSON(final Object obj) throws MarshallException {

        final SerializerState state = new SerializerState();

        // todo: what do we do about fix ups here?
        final Object json = marshall(state, null, obj, "result");

        // todo: fixups will be in state.getFixUps() if someone wants to do
        // something with them...
        return json.toString();
    }

    /**
     * <p>
     * Determine if a given JSON object matches a given class type, and to what
     * degree it matches. An ObjectMatch instance is returned which contains a
     * number indicating the number of fields that did not match. Therefore when
     * a given parameter could potentially match in more that one way, this is a
     * metric to compare these ObjectMatches to determine which one matches more
     * closely.
     * </p>
     * <p>
     * This is only used when there are overloaded method names that are being
     * called from JSON-RPC to determine which call signature the method call
     * matches most closely and therefore which method is the intended target
     * method to call.
     * </p>
     *
     * @param state
     *            used by the underlying Serializer objects to hold state while
     *            unmarshalling for detecting circular references and
     *            duplicates.
     *
     * @param clazz
     *            optional java class to unmarshall to- if set to null then it
     *            will be looked for via the javaClass hinting mechanism.
     *
     * @param json
     *            JSONObject or JSONArray or primitive Object wrapper that
     *            contains the json to unmarshall.
     *
     * @return an ObjectMatch indicating the degree to which the object matched
     *         the class,
     * @throws UnmarshallException
     *             if getClassFromHint() fails
     */
    public ObjectMatch tryUnmarshall(final SerializerState state, Class<?> clazz, final Object json)
            throws UnmarshallException {

        // check for duplicate objects or circular references
        ProcessedObject p = state.getProcessedObject(json);

        // if this object hasn't been seen before, mark it as seen and continue
        // forth

        if (p == null) {
            p = state.store(json);
        } else {
            // get original serialized version
            // to recreate circular reference / duplicate object on the java
            // side
            return (ObjectMatch) p.getSerialized();
        }

        /*
         * If we have a JSON object class hint that is a sub class of the
         * signature 'clazz', then override 'clazz' with the hint class.
         */
        if (clazz != null && json instanceof JSONObject && ((JSONObject) json).has("javaClass")
                && clazz.isAssignableFrom(getClassFromHint(json))) {
            clazz = getClassFromHint(json);
        }

        if (clazz == null) {
            clazz = getClassFromHint(json);
        }
        if (clazz == null) {
            throw new UnmarshallException("no class hint");
        }
        if (json == null || json == JSONObject.NULL) {
            if (!clazz.isPrimitive()) {
                return ObjectMatch.NULL;
            }

            throw new UnmarshallException("can't assign null primitive");

        }
        final Serializer s = getSerializer(clazz, json.getClass());
        if (s != null) {
            return s.tryUnmarshall(state, clazz, json);
        }
        // As a last resort, we check if the object is in fact an instance of
        // the
        // desired class. This will typically happen when the parameter is of
        // type java.lang.Object and the passed object is a String or an Integer
        // that is passed verbatim by JSON
        if (clazz.isInstance(json)) {
            return ObjectMatch.SIMILAR;
        }

        throw new UnmarshallException("no match");
    }

    /**
     * Unmarshall json into an equivalent java object.
     * <p/>
     * This involves finding the correct Serializer to use and then delegating
     * to that Serializer to unmarshall for us. This method will be invoked
     * recursively as Serializers unmarshall complex object graphs.
     *
     * @param state
     *            used by the underlying Serializer objects to hold state while
     *            unmarshalling for detecting circular references and
     *            duplicates.
     *
     * @param clazz
     *            optional java class to unmarshall to- if set to null then it
     *            will be looked for via the javaClass hinting mechanism.
     *
     * @param json
     *            JSONObject or JSONArray or primitive Object wrapper that
     *            contains the json to unmarshall.
     *
     * @return the java object representing the json that was unmarshalled.
     *
     * @throws UnmarshallException
     *             if there is a problem unmarshalling json to java.
     */
    public Object unmarshall(final SerializerState state, Class<?> clazz, final Object json)
            throws UnmarshallException {

        // check for duplicate objects or circular references
        ProcessedObject p = state.getProcessedObject(json);

        // if this object hasn't been seen before, mark it as seen and continue
        // forth

        if (p == null) {
            p = state.store(json);
        } else {
            // get original serialized version
            // to recreate circular reference / duplicate object on the java
            // side
            return p.getSerialized();
        }

        // If we have a JSON object class hint that is a sub class of the
        // signature 'clazz', then override 'clazz' with the hint class.
        if (clazz != null && json instanceof JSONObject && ((JSONObject) json).has("javaClass")
                && clazz.isAssignableFrom(getClassFromHint(json))) {
            clazz = getClassFromHint(json);
        }

        // if no clazz type was passed in, look for the javaClass hint
        if (clazz == null) {
            clazz = getClassFromHint(json);
        }

        if (clazz == null) {
            throw new UnmarshallException("no class hint");
        }
        if (JSONObject.NULL.equals(json)) {
            if (!clazz.isPrimitive()) {
                return null;
            }

            throw new UnmarshallException("can't assign null primitive");
        }
        final Class<?> jsonClass = json.getClass();
        final Serializer s = getSerializer(clazz, jsonClass);
        if (s != null) {
            return s.unmarshall(state, clazz, json);
        }

        // As a last resort, we check if the object is in fact an instance of
        // the
        // desired class. This will typically happen when the parameter is of
        // type java.lang.Object and the passed object is a String or an Integer
        // that is passed verbatim by JSON
        if (clazz.isInstance(json)) {
            return json;
        }

        throw new UnmarshallException("no serializer found that can unmarshall "
                + (jsonClass != null ? jsonClass.getName() : "null") + " to " + clazz.getName());
    }
}