mongodb - Post to Spring MVC controller with domain class that has Mongo @DBref not working -

mongodb - Post to Spring MVC controller with domain class that has Mongo @DBref not working -

i have domain model created productcategory, , 1 of fields has @dbref annotated parentcategory, following:

@document public class productcategory{ @id private string id; private string name; @dbref private productcategory parentcategory; setter.getter... }

my controller simply

@requestmapping(value="/api/category", method=requestmethod.post) public @responsebody productcategory addcategory(@requestbody productcategory category) { homecoming category; }

i tried $ref noted mongodb documentation, can't build json post in way server recognizes parentcategory. give me error message

org.springframework.http.converter.httpmessagenotreadableexception: not read json: unrecognized field "$ref"

i read through http://docs.spring.io/spring-data/data-mongodb/docs/1.5.0.release/reference/htmlsingle/#mapping-usage-references , spring documentation , can't find related.

do need create custom httpmessageconverter?

spring mongodb spring-mvc spring-mongo