How to solve circular reference in json serializer caused by Many TO Many hibernate bidirectional mapping?

You can use @JsonIgnoreProperties("someField") on one of the sides of the relations (the annotation is class-level). Or @JsonIgnore

As @Bozho have answered to use @JsonIgnoreProperties, try this, it worked for me.

Below are my models with @JsonIgnoreProperties:

@Entitypublic class Employee implements Serializable{    @ManyToMany(fetch=`enter code here`FetchType.LAZY)    @JoinTable(name="edm_emp_dept_mappg",         joinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="emp_id", referencedColumnName="id")},        inverseJoinColumns={@JoinColumn(name="dept_id", referencedColumnName="id")})    @JsonIgnoreProperties(value="employee")    Set<Department> department = new HashSet<Department>();}@Entitypublic class Department implements Serializable {    @ManyToMany(fetch=FetchType.LAZY, mappedBy="department")    @JsonIgnoreProperties(value="department")    Set<Employee> employee = new HashSet<Employee>();}

In value attribute of @JsonIgnoreProperties, we need to provide the collection type property of counter(related) model.

You can also use Dozer mapping to convert a POJO to a Map and exclude fields. For example if we have two classes PojoA and PojoB having bi-directional relationships, we define mapping like this

<mapping map-id="mapA" map-null="false">  <class-a>com.example.PojoA</class-a>  <class-b>java.util.Map</class-b>  <field>    <a>fieldA</a>    <b>this</b>  </field>    <field map-id="mapB">      <a>pojoB</a>      <b>this</b>      <b-hint>java.util.Map</b-hint>  </field></mapping><mapping map-id="mapB" map-null="false">  <class-a>com.example.PojoB</class-a>  <class-b>java.util.Map</class-b>  <field-exclude>    <a>pojoA</a>    <b>this</b>  </field-exclude></mapping>

Then you define a bean setting the above dozer mapping file as a property.

<bean id="mapper" class="org.dozer.DozerBeanMapper">   <property name="mappingFiles">    <list>       <value>dozerMapping.xml</value>    </list>   </property></bean>

Then in the class that where you are serializing

public class TestClass{     @Autowired     DozerBeanMapper mapper;     public Map<String,Object> serializeObject(PojoA pojoA)     {          return ((Map<String, Object>) mapper.map(pojoA, Map.class, "mapA"));     }}

Dozer manual here.