Parse nested json data into string

Question

Context: I'm working on a middle-man service that acts like a CMS system. I get a full complex json file dropped on my server which I then need to serve out to my clients that expect json content. (let's ignore the validation part for now)

I have a name, version and content fields that exist at the top level. Content (chapters) exists as an array of nested complex objects (~5 levels deep).

{
  "name": "MyCourse",
  "version": 12345,
  "chapters": [
    {
      "name": "Chapter01",
      "content": {
        "menu": {
          "id": "Chapter01_EndMenu",
          "file": "ch1_end_op.wav"
        },
        "score": {
          "id": "Chapter01_Score",
          "files": [....

What I've tried (and works): Building out my pojo to mirror the json structure where content(chapters) exists as a list of complex objects. Calling gson parser on this works.

What I'm trying to do: Have a simpler pojo with just name, version and content where content just stores the array representation (chapters and nested objects) as a String.

I tried defining my content field in pojo as a String and set the @SerializedName annotation to force gson to parse the array as a string into it but that doesn't work.

Is it possible to partially get the json as fields and get the rest (of the nested array) into a string field in my pojo?

You want to have the chapters json string as it is in a POJO content string variable right? — Pasupathi Rajamanickam
– Pasupathi Rajamanickam, Commented May 26, 2015 at 4:50
yes, that is correct. The chapters array is almost too deep and too much overhead (nested pojo-wise) to maintain, given that it doesn't affect my service in any way. — kosh
– kosh, Commented May 26, 2015 at 5:08

Pasupathi Rajamanickam · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-26 05:17:21Z

2

It's simple in JSONObject you can get the JSON String as it is using the keys.

String jsonString = "{  \"name\": \"MyCourse\",  \"version\": 12345,  \"chapters\": [    {      \"name\": \"Chapter01\"}]}";
JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject(jsonString);
Details details = new Details();
details.setName(jsonObject.get("name"));
details.setVersion(jsonObject.get("version"));
details.setChapters(jsonObject.get("chapters"));

You can try this.

answered May 26, 2015 at 5:17

Pasupathi Rajamanickam

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Sachin Gupta · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-26 06:04:17Z

0

You can define your own adapter for String data-type.

E. g. :

GsonBuilder builder = new GsonBuilder();
builder.registerTypeAdapter(String.class, new JsonDeserializer<String>() {
                public String deserialize(JsonElement json, Type typeOfT,
                        JsonDeserializationContext context)
                        throws JsonParseException {
                    return json.toString();
                }
});

Gson gson = builder.create();

Now it can store chapters data as String.

edited May 26, 2015 at 6:04

answered May 26, 2015 at 5:08

Sachin Gupta

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