Why it happens
The problem is that PostgreSQL is overly strict about casts between text and non-text data types. It will not allow an implicit cast (one without a CAST or :: in the SQL) from a text type like text or varchar (character varying) to a text-like non-text type like json, xml, etc.
The PgJDBC driver specifies the data type of varchar when you call setString to assign a parameter. If the database type of the column, function argument, etc, is not actually varchar or text, but instead another type, you get a type error. This is also true of quite a lot of other drivers and ORMs.
PgJDBC: stringtype=unspecified
The best option when using PgJDBC is generally to pass the parameter stringtype=unspecified. This overrides the default behaviour of passing setString values as varchar and instead leaves it up to the database to "guess" their data type. In almost all cases this does exactly what you want, passing the string to the input validator for the type you want to store.
All: CREATE CAST ... WITH FUNCTION ...
You can instead CREATE CAST to define a data-type specific cast to permit this on a type-by-type basis, but this can have side effects elsewhere. If you do this, do not use WITHOUT FUNCTION casts, they will bypass type validation and result in errors. You must use the input/validation function for the data type. Using CREATE CAST is suitable for users of other database drivers that don't have any way to stop the driver specifying the type for string/text parameters.
e.g.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION json_intext(text) RETURNS json AS $$
SELECT json_in($1::cstring);
$$ LANGUAGE SQL IMMUTABLE;
CREATE CAST (text AS json)
WITH FUNCTION json_intext(text) AS IMPLICIT;
All: Custom type handler
If your ORM permits, you can implement a custom type handler for the data type and that specific ORM. This mostly useful when you're using native Java type that maps well to the PostgreSQL type, rather than using String, though it can also work if your ORM lets you specify type handlers using annotations etc.
Methods for implementing custom type handlers are driver-, language- and ORM-specific. Here's an example for Java and Hibernate for json.
PgJDBC: type handler using PGObject
If you're using a native Java type in Java, you can extend PGObject to provide a PgJDBC type mapping for your type. You will probably also need to implement an ORM-specific type handler to use your PGObject, since most ORMs will just call toString on types they don't recognise. This is the preferred way to map complex types between Java and PostgreSQL, but also the most complex.
PgJDBC: Type handler using setObject(int, Object)
If you're using String to hold the value in Java, rather than a more specific type, you can invoke the JDBC method setObject(integer, Object) to store the string with no particular data type specified. The JDBC driver will send the string representation, and the database will infer the type from the destination column type or function argument type.
See also
Questions:
External:
