Maximum as3 adobe JSON string length

Question

I've written Socket Communication server with Java and a AIR programm with AS3, using Socket connection. The communication through socket connection is done with JSON serialization.

Sometimes with really long JSON strungs over socket, AS3 code says that there is a JSON parse error.

Each JSON string I end with end string to let programm know, that it is not the end of the message, so this is not the problem with AIR programm reading the message in parts.

The error occurs only with realy long json string, for example, string with 78031 length. Is there any limits for JSON serialization?

Note prior to Flash Player 11 we used an external library to do JSON encoding/decoding. In Flash 11, JSON support is built into the player. Which are you using? — Sunil D.
– Sunil D., Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 14:28
I've used both. Both are throwing error. Now I'm using com.adobe.serialization.json.JSONDecoder — LokoTerrorita
– LokoTerrorita, Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 14:48
A workaround would be to paginate your JSON, break it up into chunks before it reaches actionscript. — ToddBFisher
– ToddBFisher, Commented Aug 14, 2013 at 2:40

Sergey Dragan · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-29 12:33:48Z

I had the same problem. The problem is in Flash app reading data from socket.

The point is that Flash ProgressEvent.SOCKET_DATA event fires even when server didn't send all the data, and something is left (especially when the data is big and the connection is slow). So something like {"key":"value"} comes in two (or more) parts, like: {"key":"val and ue"}. Also sometimes you might receive several joined JSONs in one message like {"json1key":"value"}{"json2key":"value"} - built-in Flash JSON parser cannot handle these too.

To fight this I recommend you to modify your SocketData handler in the Flash app to add a cache for received strings. Like this:

// declaring vars
private var _socket:Socket;
private var _cache: String = "";

// adding EventListener
_socket.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.SOCKET_DATA, onSocketData);

private function onSocketData(e: Event):void
{
    // take the incoming data from socket
    var fromServer: ByteArray = new ByteArray;
    while (_socket.bytesAvailable)
    {
        _socket.readBytes(fromServer);
    }

    var receivedToString: String = fromServer.toString();
    _cache += receivedToString;

    if (receivedToString.length == 0) return;   // nothing to parse

    // convert that long string to the Vector of JSONs
    // here is very small and not fail-safe alghoritm of detecting separate JSONs in one long String
    var jsonPart: String = "";
    var jsonVector: Vector.<String> = new Vector.<String>;
    var bracketsCount: int = 0;
    var endOfLastJson: int = 0;

    for (var i: int = 0; i < _cache.length; i++)
    {
        if (_cache.charAt(i) == "{") bracketsCount += 1;
        if (bracketsCount > 0) jsonPart = jsonPart.concat(_cache.charAt(i));
        if (_cache.charAt(i) == "}")
        {
            bracketsCount -= 1;
            if (bracketsCount == 0)
            {
                jsonVector.push(jsonPart);
                jsonPart = "";
                endOfLastJson = i;
            }
        }
    }

    // removing part that isn't needed anymore 
    if (jsonVector.length > 0)
    {
        _cache = _cache.substr(endOfLastJson + 1);
    }

    for each (var part: String in jsonVector)
    {
        trace("RECEIVED: " + part); // voila! here is the full received JSON
    }
}

Andreas · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-14 02:56:51Z

0

According to Adobe, it appears that you are not facing a JSON problem but instead a Socket limitation.

A String you may send over a Socket via writeUTF and readUTF is limited by 65,535 bytes. This is due to the string being prepended with a 16 bit unsigned integer rather than a null terminated string.

answered Aug 14, 2013 at 2:56

Andreas

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2 Comments

LokoTerrorita Over a year ago

I wrote, that I'm dealing with it. I have unique string at the end of the json string

Andreas Over a year ago

Yes, that may be true. If you don't properly split the string before sending it, and append when reading, it will result in data loss.

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