What is use of the annotation @JsonIgnore?

@JsonIgnore is used to ignore the logical property used in serialization and deserialization. @JsonIgnore can be used at setters, getters or fields.

If you add @JsonIgnore to a field or its getter method, the field is not going to be serialized.

Sample POJO:

class User {
    @JsonIgnore
    private int id;
    private String name;
    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }
    @JsonIgnore
    public void setId(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }
    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }  
}

Sample code for serialization:

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
User user = new User();
user.setId(2);
user.setName("Bob");
System.out.println(mapper.writeValueAsString(user));

Console output:

{"name":"Bob"}

When serializing your object into Json, the fields that are tagged with @JsonIgnore will not be included in the serialized Json object. This attribute is read by the Json serialize using reflection.

The Jackson's @JsonIgnore annotation can be placed on fields, getters/settess and constructor parameters mark a property to be ignored during the serialization to JSON (or deserialization from JSON). Refer to the Jackson annotations reference documentation for more details.