Android JSON Parser Tutorial with Examples

What is JSON?
JSON & Java Object
Quickly generate a project to work with JSON
Java Beans classes
Example, read JSON data transferred into a Java object
Example of converting a Java object into JSON data
Read JSON from URL

1. What is JSON?

No ADS

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a data exchange format. It stores data in key and value pair. Compared to XML, JSON is more simple and easier to read.

Hãy xem một ví dụ đơn giản của JSON:

{
"name" : "Tran",
"address" : "Hai Duong, Vietnam",
"phones" : [0121111111, 012222222]
}

Key-value pairs can be nested:

{
  "id": 111 ,
  "name":"Microsoft",
  "websites": [
     "http://microsoft.com",
     "http://msn.com",
     "http://hotmail.com"
  ],
  "address":{
     "street":"1 Microsoft Way",
     "city":"Redmond"
  }
}

In Java, there are very many open source code libraries which help manipulate with JSON documents, for example:

JSONP
json.org
Jackson
Google GSON
json-lib
javax json
json-simple
json-smart
flexjson
fastjson

Android provides available supports for the library to work with JSON, you don't need to declare any other libraries. In this manual, I will instruct you how to work with the JSON using the JSON API available in the operating system of Android.

2. JSON & Java Object

The following illustration describes the relationship between JSON and Java classes.

3. Quickly generate a project to work with JSON

No ADS

I quickly generate a project named JSONTutorial to work with JSON through examples.

Name: JSONTutorial
Package name: org.o7planning.jsontutorial

Create a raw folder:

I create some json files in the 'raw' folder, which will be involved in the examples in this document.

The sources of providing JSON data can be from files or URLs, etc. At the end of the document you can see the example of taking JSON data from URL, analyzed and displayed on an Android application.

company.json

{
  "id": 111 ,
  "name":"Microsoft",
  "websites": [
     "http://microsoft.com",
     "http://msn.com",
     "http://hotmail.com"
  ],
  "address":{
     "street":"1 Microsoft Way",
     "city":"Redmond"
  }
}

Design activity_main.xml:

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editText"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="220dp"
        android:layout_marginStart="16dp"
        android:layout_marginLeft="16dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"
        android:layout_marginEnd="16dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="16dp"
        android:ems="10"
        android:inputType="none|textMultiLine"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="39dp"
        android:text="Running the Example"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/editText" />
</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

4. Java Beans classes

Some classes participated in the examples:

Address.java

package org.o7planning.jsontutorial.beans;


public class Address {

    private String street;
    private String city;

    public Address() {

    }

    public Address(String street, String city) {
        this.street = street;
        this.city = city;
    }

    public String getStreet() {
        return street;
    }

    public void setStreet(String street) {
        this.street = street;
    }

    public String getCity() {
        return city;
    }

    public void setCity(String city) {
        this.city = city;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return street + ", " + city;
    }

}

Company.java

package org.o7planning.jsontutorial.beans;

public class Company {

    private int id;
    private String name;
    private String[] websites;
    private Address address;

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String[] getWebsites() {
        return websites;
    }

    public void setWebsites(String[] websites) {
        this.websites = websites;
    }

    public Address getAddress() {
        return address;
    }

    public void setAddress(Address address) {
        this.address = address;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        sb.append("\n id:" + this.id);
        sb.append("\n name:" + this.name);
        if (this.websites != null) {
            sb.append("\n website: ");
            for (String website : this.websites) {
                sb.append(website + ", ");
            }
        }
        if (this.address != null) {
            sb.append("\n address:" + this.address.toString());
        }
        return sb.toString();
    }

}

5. Example, read JSON data transferred into a Java object

No ADS

In this example, we will read the JSON data file and transfer it into a Java object.

ReadJSONExample.java

package org.o7planning.jsontutorial.json;

import android.content.Context;

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONException;
import org.json.JSONObject;
import org.o7planning.jsontutorial.R;
import org.o7planning.jsontutorial.beans.Address;
import org.o7planning.jsontutorial.beans.Company;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;


public class ReadJSONExample {

    // Read the company.json file and convert it to a java object.
    public static Company readCompanyJSONFile(Context context) throws IOException,JSONException {

        // Read content of company.json
        String jsonText = readText(context, R.raw.company);

      
        JSONObject jsonRoot = new JSONObject(jsonText);


        int id= jsonRoot.getInt("id");
        String name = jsonRoot.getString("name");

        JSONArray jsonArray = jsonRoot.getJSONArray("websites");
        String[] websites = new String[jsonArray.length()];

        for(int i=0;i < jsonArray.length();i++) {
            websites[i] = jsonArray.getString(i);
        }

        JSONObject jsonAddress = jsonRoot.getJSONObject("address");
        String street = jsonAddress.getString("street");
        String city = jsonAddress.getString("city");
        Address address= new Address(street, city);

        Company company = new Company();
        company.setId(id);
        company.setName(name);
        company.setAddress(address);
        company.setWebsites(websites);
        return company;
    }


 
    private static String readText(Context context, int resId) throws IOException {
        InputStream is = context.getResources().openRawResource(resId);
        BufferedReader br= new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));
        StringBuilder sb= new StringBuilder();
        String s= null;
        while((  s = br.readLine())!=null) {
            sb.append(s);
            sb.append("\n");
        }
        return sb.toString();
    }

}

MainActivity.java

package org.o7planning.jsontutorial;

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import org.o7planning.jsontutorial.beans.Company;
import org.o7planning.jsontutorial.json.ReadJSONExample;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private EditText outputText;
    private Button button;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        this.outputText = (EditText)this.findViewById(R.id.editText);
        this.button = (Button) this.findViewById(R.id.button);

        this.button.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view) {
                runExample(view);
            }
        });
    }



    public void runExample(View view)  {
        try {

            Company company = ReadJSONExample.readCompanyJSONFile(this);

            outputText.setText(company.toString());
        } catch(Exception e)  {
            outputText.setText(e.getMessage());
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

}

Run the example:

6. Example of converting a Java object into JSON data

No ADS

The following example converts a Java object into a JSON data.

JsonWriterExample.java

package org.o7planning.jsontutorial.json;

import android.util.JsonWriter;

import org.o7planning.jsontutorial.beans.Address;
import org.o7planning.jsontutorial.beans.Company;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.Writer;

public class JsonWriterExample {

 
    public static void writeJsonStream(Writer output, Company company ) throws IOException {
        JsonWriter jsonWriter = new JsonWriter(output);

        jsonWriter.beginObject();// begin root

        jsonWriter.name("id").value(company.getId());
        jsonWriter.name("name").value(company.getName());

        String[] websites= company.getWebsites();

        // "websites": [ ....]
        jsonWriter.name("websites").beginArray(); // begin websites
        for(String website: websites) {
            jsonWriter.value(website);
        }
        jsonWriter.endArray();// end websites

        // "address": { ... }
        jsonWriter.name("address").beginObject(); // begin address
        jsonWriter.name("street").value(company.getAddress().getStreet());
        jsonWriter.name("city").value(company.getAddress().getCity());
        jsonWriter.endObject();// end address

        // end root
        jsonWriter.endObject();
    }


    public static Company createCompany() {

        Company company = new Company();
        company.setId(123);
        company.setName("Apple");

        String[] websites = { "http://apple.com", "https://jobs.apple.com" };
        company.setWebsites(websites);

        Address address = new Address();
        address.setCity("Cupertino");
        address.setStreet("1 Infinite Loop");

        company.setAddress(address);

        return company;
    }

}

MainActivity.java (2)

package org.o7planning.jsontutorial;

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import org.o7planning.jsontutorial.beans.Company;
import org.o7planning.jsontutorial.json.JsonWriterExample;
import java.io.StringWriter;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private EditText outputText;
    private Button button;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        this.outputText = (EditText)this.findViewById(R.id.editText);
        this.button = (Button) this.findViewById(R.id.button);

        this.button.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view) {
                runExample(view);
            }
        });
    }

    public void runExample(View view)  {
        try {
            StringWriter output = new StringWriter();

            Company company = JsonWriterExample.createCompany();


            JsonWriterExample.writeJsonStream(output, company);

            String jsonText = output.toString();

            outputText.setText(jsonText);
        } catch(Exception e)  {
            outputText.setText(e.getMessage());
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Running the example: