o added support for JSON data format (FC-250)
o updated the realm version to latest snapshot
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index e83c9da..6484689 100755
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@
     <title>${project.name} ${project.version}</title>
     
     <!-- Dependencies version -->
-    <fortress.realm.version>2.0.2</fortress.realm.version>
+    <fortress.realm.version>${project.version}</fortress.realm.version>
     <cxf.version>3.2.6</cxf.version>
     <httpclient.version>3.1</httpclient.version>
     <java.version>1.8</java.version>
@@ -104,6 +104,7 @@
     <slf4j.log4j12.version>1.7.21</slf4j.log4j12.version>
     <spring.version>5.0.9.RELEASE</spring.version>
     <spring.security.version>5.0.7.RELEASE</spring.security.version>
+    <jackson-jaxrs.version>2.9.7</jackson-jaxrs.version>
 
     <!--  Other properties -->
     <base.dir>.</base.dir>
@@ -138,6 +139,12 @@
       <version>${cxf.version}</version>
     </dependency>
 
+    <dependency>
+        <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.jaxrs</groupId>
+        <artifactId>jackson-jaxrs-json-provider</artifactId>
+        <version>${jackson-jaxrs.version}</version>
+    </dependency>
+
     <!-- Spring Dependencies -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/directory/fortress/rest/JacksonFieldOnlyMapper.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/directory/fortress/rest/JacksonFieldOnlyMapper.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41cc7d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/directory/fortress/rest/JacksonFieldOnlyMapper.java
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+/*
+ *   Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ *   or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ *   distributed with this work for additional information
+ *   regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ *   to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ *   "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ *   with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ *   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ *   software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ *   "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ *   KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ *   specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ *   under the License.
+ *
+ */
+package org.apache.directory.fortress.rest;
+
+import org.apache.directory.fortress.core.model.FortEntity;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonAutoDetect.Visibility;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.PropertyAccessor;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+
+/**
+ * This class is used to marshall/unmarshall subtypes of {@link FortEntity} using only the fields.
+ * This mapper ignores all the getter and setters.
+ * 
+ * @author <a href="mailto:dev@directory.apache.org">Apache Directory Project</a>
+ */
+public class JacksonFieldOnlyMapper extends ObjectMapper
+{
+    public JacksonFieldOnlyMapper()
+    {
+        super();
+        // allow access to fields
+        setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.FIELD, Visibility.ANY);
+        setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.GETTER, Visibility.NONE); // and do not use getters and setters
+        setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.IS_GETTER, Visibility.NONE);
+        setVisibility(PropertyAccessor.SETTER, Visibility.NONE);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/main/resources/applicationContext.xml b/src/main/resources/applicationContext.xml
index fc17f78..5649b86 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/applicationContext.xml
+++ b/src/main/resources/applicationContext.xml
@@ -38,6 +38,13 @@
         <property name="securedObject" ref="securedObject"/>
     </bean>
 
+    <bean id="customMapper" class="org.apache.directory.fortress.rest.JacksonFieldOnlyMapper">
+    </bean>
+
+    <bean id="customJsonProvider" class="com.fasterxml.jackson.jaxrs.json.JacksonJsonProvider">
+        <constructor-arg ref="customMapper"/>
+    </bean>
+
     <jaxrs:server id="restContainer" address="/">
         <jaxrs:serviceBeans>
             <ref bean="fortressService"/>
@@ -51,6 +58,9 @@
             <bean class="org.apache.directory.fortress.rest.SecurityOutFaultInterceptor"/>
         </jaxrs:outFaultInterceptors>
 
+        <jaxrs:providers>
+           <ref bean="customJsonProvider"/>
+        </jaxrs:providers>
     </jaxrs:server>
 
 </beans>
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/directory/fortress/rest/JsonSerializationTest.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/directory/fortress/rest/JsonSerializationTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b83f55a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/directory/fortress/rest/JsonSerializationTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+/*
+ *   Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ *   or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ *   distributed with this work for additional information
+ *   regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ *   to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ *   "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ *   with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ *   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ *   software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ *   "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ *   KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ *   specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ *   under the License.
+ *
+ */
+package org.apache.directory.fortress.rest;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
+
+import org.apache.directory.fortress.core.model.User;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
+
+/**
+ * @author <a href="mailto:dev@directory.apache.org">Apache Directory Project</a>
+ */
+public class JsonSerializationTest {
+    @Test
+    public void testFqcn() throws Exception {
+        User u = new User();
+        JacksonFieldOnlyMapper om = new JacksonFieldOnlyMapper();
+        byte[] data = om.writeValueAsBytes(u);
+        JsonNode json = om.readTree(data);
+        assertEquals(User.class.getName(), json.get("fqcn").asText());
+        User read = om.readValue(data, User.class);
+        assertNotNull(read);
+    }
+}