Spring Websocket with @MessageMapping with Kotlin coroutines is throwing error

Affects: \6.0.11 Kotlin: 1.9.0

When trying to use @MessageMapping with suspend Kotlin error is thrown when processing request

Code:

@Controller
class WebSocketController() {

    private val logger = KotlinLogging.logger {}

    @MessageMapping("/app")
    @SendTo("/topic/test")
    suspend fun testMessage(@RequestBody request: MyRequest): MyResponse? {
        return MyResponse('ok')
    }
}

WebSocketAnnotationMethodMessageHandler : Unhandled exception from message handler method

org.springframework.messaging.converter.MessageConversionException: Could not read JSON: Cannot construct instance of `kotlin.coroutines.Continuation` (no Creators, like default constructor, exist): abstract types either need to be mapped to concrete types, have custom deserializer, or contain additional type information
 at [Source: (byte[])""; line: 1, column: 1]
    at org.springframework.messaging.converter.MappingJackson2MessageConverter.convertFromInternal(MappingJackson2MessageConverter.java:235)
    at org.springframework.messaging.converter.AbstractMessageConverter.fromMessage(AbstractMessageConverter.java:185)
    at org.springframework.messaging.converter.CompositeMessageConverter.fromMessage(CompositeMessageConverter.java:70)
    at org.springframework.messaging.handler.annotation.support.PayloadMethodArgumentResolver.resolveArgument(PayloadMethodArgumentResolver.java:141)
    at org.springframework.messaging.handler.invocation.HandlerMethodArgumentResolverComposite.resolveArgument(HandlerMethodArgumentResolverComposite.java:118)
    at org.springframework.messaging.handler.invocation.InvocableHandlerMethod.getMethodArgumentValues(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:147)
    at org.springframework.messaging.handler.invocation.InvocableHandlerMethod.invoke(InvocableHandlerMethod.java:115)
    at org.springframework.messaging.handler.invocation.AbstractMethodMessageHandler.handleMatch(AbstractMethodMessageHandler.java:567)
    at org.springframework.messaging.simp.annotation.support.SimpAnnotationMethodMessageHandler.handleMatch(SimpAnnotationMethodMessageHandler.java:511)
    at org.springframework.messaging.simp.annotation.support.SimpAnnotationMethodMessageHandler.handleMatch(SimpAnnotationMethodMessageHandler.java:93)
    at org.springframework.messaging.handler.invocation.AbstractMethodMessageHandler.handleMessageInternal(AbstractMethodMessageHandler.java:522)
    at org.springframework.messaging.handler.invocation.AbstractMethodMessageHandler.handleMessage(AbstractMethodMessageHandler.java:457)
    at org.springframework.messaging.support.ExecutorSubscribableChannel$SendTask.run(ExecutorSubscribableChannel.java:144)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635)
    at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833)
Caused by: com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException: Cannot construct instance of `kotlin.coroutines.Continuation` (no Creators, like default constructor, exist): abstract types either need to be mapped to concrete types, have custom deserializer, or contain additional type information
 at [Source: (byte[])""; line: 1, column: 1]
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.InvalidDefinitionException.from(InvalidDefinitionException.java:67)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.reportBadDefinition(DeserializationContext.java:1915)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DatabindContext.reportBadDefinition(DatabindContext.java:414)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.DeserializationContext.handleMissingInstantiator(DeserializationContext.java:1360)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.AbstractDeserializer.deserialize(AbstractDeserializer.java:274)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.deser.DefaultDeserializationContext.readRootValue(DefaultDeserializationContext.java:323)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper._readMapAndClose(ObjectMapper.java:4825)
    at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper.readValue(ObjectMapper.java:3866)
    at org.springframework.messaging.converter.MappingJackson2MessageConverter.convertFromInternal(MappingJackson2MessageConverter.java:221)

It seems that Continuation is not ignored by jackson mapper is trying to serialize it to json

Maven dependencies:

<dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webflux</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-websocket</artifactId>
        </dependency>
<dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-r2dbc</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.module</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-module-kotlin</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.github.microutils</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlin-logging-jvm</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.5</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlin-stdlib-jdk8</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springdoc</groupId>
            <artifactId>springdoc-openapi-ui</artifactId>
            <version>1.7.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlin-reflect</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlinx</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlinx-coroutines-core</artifactId>
            <version>1.7.3</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlinx</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlinx-coroutines-reactive</artifactId>
            <version>1.7.3</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlinx</groupId>
            <artifactId>kotlinx-coroutines-reactor</artifactId>
            <version>1.7.3</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.papertrailapp</groupId>
            <artifactId>logback-syslog4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-configuration-processor</artifactId>
            <optional>true</optional>
        </dependency>

---

Comment From: sdeleuze

The reactive InvocableHandlerMethod (in org.springframework.messaging.handler.invocation.reactive package) supports Coroutines but not the regular one (in org.springframework.messaging.handler.invocation.InvocableHandlerMethod package) since they is no underlying Reactive infrastructure to leverage.

So currently this is not supported, likely won't be in the future, and I would advise you to use the Reactive messaging infrastructure, either a raw WebSocketHandler or RSocket (see related guide).