Android JSON Parsing Tutorial

原：http://www.androidhive.info/2012/01/android-json-parsing-tutorial/

JSON is the best alternative to XML for storing data in files. It is easy to parse and access data stored in JSON format. Previously i explainedparsing XML and today i am going to discuess parsing JSON data with an example.

The JSON Structure

I am taking an example of following JSON which will give you list of contacts and each contact will have details like name, email, address, phone number ertc,. You can get this JSON data by accessinghttp://api.androidhive.info/contacts/

{     "contacts" : [         {                 "id" : "c200" ,                 "name" : "Ravi Tamada" ,                 "email" : "ravi@gmail.com" ,                 "address" : "xx-xx-xxxx,x - street, x - country" ,                 "gender" : "male" ,                 "phone" : {                     "mobile" : "+91 0000000000 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +91 0000000000 免费end_of_the_skype_highlighting" ,                     "home" : "00 000000" ,                     "office" : "00 000000"                 }         },         {                 "id" : "c201" ,                 "name" : "Johnny Depp" ,                 "email" : "johnny_depp@gmail.com" ,                 "address" : "xx-xx-xxxx,x - street, x - country" ,                 "gender" : "male" ,                 "phone" : {                     "mobile" : "+91 0000000000 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +91 0000000000 免费end_of_the_skype_highlighting" ,                     "home" : "00 000000" ,                     "office" : "00 000000"                 }         },         .         .         .         .   ] }

The difference between [ and { - (Square brackets and Curly brackets)

If you observe normally JSON data will have square brackets and curly brackets. The difference between [ and { is, the square bracket represents starting of anJSONArray node whereas curly bracket representsJSONObject. While accessing these elements we need to call different methods to access these nodes.

Writing JSON Parser Class

In your project create a class file and name it as JSONParser.java. The parser class has a method which will make http request to get JSON data and returns a JSONObject.

JSONParser.java

package com.androidhive.jsonparsing; import java.io.BufferedReader; import java.io.IOException; import java.io.InputStream; import java.io.InputStreamReader; import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException; import org.apache.http.HttpEntity; import org.apache.http.HttpResponse; import org.apache.http.client.ClientProtocolException; import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost; import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient; import org.json.JSONException; import org.json.JSONObject; import android.util.Log; public class JSONParser {     static InputStream is = null ;     static JSONObject jObj = null ;     static String json = "" ;     // constructor     public JSONParser() {     }     public JSONObject getJSONFromUrl(String url) {         // Making HTTP request         try {             // defaultHttpClient             DefaultHttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();             HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(url);             HttpResponse httpResponse = httpClient.execute(httpPost);             HttpEntity httpEntity = httpResponse.getEntity();             is = httpEntity.getContent();                  } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {             e.printStackTrace();         } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {             e.printStackTrace();         } catch (IOException e) {             e.printStackTrace();         }         try {             BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader(                     is, "iso-8859-1" ), 8 );             StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();             String line = null ;             while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null ) {                 sb.append(line + "n" );             }             is.close();             json = sb.toString();         } catch (Exception e) {             Log.e( "Buffer Error" , "Error converting result " + e.toString());         }         // try parse the string to a JSON object         try {             jObj = new JSONObject(json);         } catch (JSONException e) {             Log.e( "JSON Parser" , "Error parsing data " + e.toString());         }         // return JSON String         return jObj;     } }

Parsing JSON Data

Once you created parser class next thing is to know how to use that class. Below i am explaining how to parse the json (taken in this example) using the parser class.

1. In the contacts json we have items like name, email, address, gender and phone numbers. So first thing is to store all these node names in variables. Open your main activity class and declare store all node names in static variables.

// url to make request private static String url = "http://api.androidhive.info/contacts/" ; // JSON Node names private static final String TAG_CONTACTS = "contacts" ; private static final String TAG_ID = "id" ; private static final String TAG_NAME = "name" ; private static final String TAG_EMAIL = "email" ; private static final String TAG_ADDRESS = "address" ; private static final String TAG_GENDER = "gender" ; private static final String TAG_PHONE = "phone" ; private static final String TAG_PHONE_MOBILE = "mobile" ; private static final String TAG_PHONE_HOME = "home" ; private static final String TAG_PHONE_OFFICE = "office" ; // contacts JSONArray JSONArray contacts = null ;

2. Next step to is to use parser class to get JSONObject and looping through each json item. Below i am creating an instance of JSONParser class and using for loop i am looping through each json item and finally storing each json data in variable.

// Creating JSON Parser instance JSONParser jParser = new JSONParser(); // getting JSON string from URL JSONObject json = jParser.getJSONFromUrl(url); try {     // Getting Array of Contacts     contacts = json.getJSONArray(TAG_CONTACTS);     // looping through All Contacts     for ( int i = 0 ; i < contacts.length(); i++){         JSONObject c = contacts.getJSONObject(i);         // Storing each json item in variable         String id = c.getString(TAG_ID);         String name = c.getString(TAG_NAME);         String email = c.getString(TAG_EMAIL);         String address = c.getString(TAG_ADDRESS);         String gender = c.getString(TAG_GENDER);         // Phone number is agin JSON Object         JSONObject phone = c.getJSONObject(TAG_PHONE);         String mobile = phone.getString(TAG_PHONE_MOBILE);         String home = phone.getString(TAG_PHONE_HOME);         String office = phone.getString(TAG_PHONE_OFFICE);     } } catch (JSONException e) {     e.printStackTrace(); }

Parsing JSON data and updating into ListView

In my previous tutorial Android ListView Tutorial i explained how to create listview and updating with list data. Below i am implementing same listview but the list data i am updating is from parsed JSON.

AndroidJSONParsingActivity.java

package com.androidhive.jsonparsing; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.HashMap; import org.json.JSONArray; import org.json.JSONException; import org.json.JSONObject; import android.app.ListActivity; import android.content.Intent; import android.os.Bundle; import android.util.Log; import android.view.View; import android.widget.AdapterView; import android.widget.AdapterView.OnItemClickListener; import android.widget.ListAdapter; import android.widget.ListView; import android.widget.SimpleAdapter; import android.widget.TextView; public class AndroidJSONParsingActivity extends ListActivity {     // url to make request     private static String url = "http://api.androidhive.info/contacts/" ;     // JSON Node names     private static final String TAG_CONTACTS = "contacts" ;     private static final String TAG_ID = "id" ;     private static final String TAG_NAME = "name" ;     private static final String TAG_EMAIL = "email" ;     private static final String TAG_ADDRESS = "address" ;     private static final String TAG_GENDER = "gender" ;     private static final String TAG_PHONE = "phone" ;     private static final String TAG_PHONE_MOBILE = "mobile" ;     private static final String TAG_PHONE_HOME = "home" ;     private static final String TAG_PHONE_OFFICE = "office" ;     // contacts JSONArray     JSONArray contacts = null ;     @Override     public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super .onCreate(savedInstanceState);         setContentView(R.layout.main);         // Hashmap for ListView         ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>> contactList = new ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>>();         // Creating JSON Parser instance         JSONParser jParser = new JSONParser();         // getting JSON string from URL         JSONObject json = jParser.getJSONFromUrl(url);         try {             // Getting Array of Contacts             contacts = json.getJSONArray(TAG_CONTACTS);             // looping through All Contacts             for ( int i = 0 ; i < contacts.length(); i++){                 JSONObject c = contacts.getJSONObject(i);                 // Storing each json item in variable                 String id = c.getString(TAG_ID);                 String name = c.getString(TAG_NAME);                 String email = c.getString(TAG_EMAIL);                 String address = c.getString(TAG_ADDRESS);                 String gender = c.getString(TAG_GENDER);                 // Phone number is agin JSON Object                 JSONObject phone = c.getJSONObject(TAG_PHONE);                 String mobile = phone.getString(TAG_PHONE_MOBILE);                 String home = phone.getString(TAG_PHONE_HOME);                 String office = phone.getString(TAG_PHONE_OFFICE);                 // creating new HashMap                 HashMap<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();                 // adding each child node to HashMap key => value                 map.put(TAG_ID, id);                 map.put(TAG_NAME, name);                 map.put(TAG_EMAIL, email);                 map.put(TAG_PHONE_MOBILE, mobile);                 // adding HashList to ArrayList                 contactList.add(map);             }         } catch (JSONException e) {             e.printStackTrace();         }         /**          * Updating parsed JSON data into ListView          * */         ListAdapter adapter = new SimpleAdapter( this , contactList,                 R.layout.list_item,                 new String[] { TAG_NAME, TAG_EMAIL, TAG_PHONE_MOBILE }, new int [] {                         R.id.name, R.id.email, R.id.mobile });         setListAdapter(adapter);         // selecting single ListView item         ListView lv = getListView();         // Launching new screen on Selecting Single ListItem         lv.setOnItemClickListener( new OnItemClickListener() {             @Override             public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view,                     int position, long id) {                 // getting values from selected ListItem                 String name = ((TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.name)).getText().toString();                 String cost = ((TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.email)).getText().toString();                 String description = ((TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.mobile)).getText().toString();                 // Starting new intent                 Intent in = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), SingleMenuItemActivity. class );                 in.putExtra(TAG_NAME, name);                 in.putExtra(TAG_EMAIL, cost);                 in.putExtra(TAG_PHONE_MOBILE, description);                 startActivity(in);             }         });     } }