[jackson] serialize/deserialize java 8 java.time with Jackson JSON mapper

If you can't use jackson-modules-java8 for whatever reasons you can (de-)serialize the instant field as long using @JsonIgnore and @JsonGetter & @JsonSetter:

public class MyBean {

    private Instant time = Instant.now();

    @JsonIgnore
    public Instant getTime() {
        return this.time;
    }

    public void setTime(Instant time) {
        this.time = time;
    }

    @JsonGetter
    private long getEpochTime() {
        return this.time.toEpochMilli();
    }

    @JsonSetter
    private void setEpochTime(long time) {
        this.time = Instant.ofEpochMilli(time);
    }
}

Example:

@Test
public void testJsonTime() throws Exception {
    String json = new ObjectMapper().writeValueAsString(new MyBean());
    System.out.println(json);
    MyBean myBean = new ObjectMapper().readValue(json, MyBean.class);
    System.out.println(myBean.getTime());
}

yields

{"epochTime":1506432517242}
2017-09-26T13:28:37.242Z