java - How to dynamically handle json response array/object using Gson

Question

I am facing a problem , sometimes Json response returns an array of objects , sometimes object itself , how we can handle dynamically in the response class. In the current eg :results sometimes gets an array of objects

 ""results": " +
            "[{" +

and sometimes object itself

 ""results": " +
            "{" +

Eg:

How we can handle this ?

Gson gson = new Gson();
    SearchResponse response=new SearchResponse();
    response= gson.fromJson("{" +
            ""completed_in": 0.047," +
            ""max_id": 291771567376039936," +
            ""max_id_str": "291771567376039936"," +
            ""next_page": "?page=2&max_id=291771567376039936&q=javacodegeeks"," +
            ""page": 1," +
            ""query": "javacodegeeks"," +
            ""refresh_url": "?since_id=291771567376039936&q=javacodegeeks"," +
            ""results": " +
            "{" +
            ""created_at": "Thu, 17 Jan 2013 04:58:57 +0000"," +
            ""from_user": "hkokko"," +
            ""from_user_id": 24726686," +
            ""from_user_id_str": "24726686"," +
            " "from_user_name": "Hannu Kokko"," +
            " "geo": null," +
            ""id": 291771567376039936," +
            ""id_str": "291771567376039936"," +
            ""iso_language_code": "en"," +
            " "metadata": {" +
            ""result_type": "recent"}," +
            ""profile_image_url": "hjh"," +
            ""profile_image_url_https": "kkj"," +
            ""source": "<a href="hj;"," +
            ""text": "Continuous Deployment: Are You Afraid It Might Work? jh"," +
            ""to_user": null," +
            ""to_user_id": 0," +
            ""to_user_id_str": "0"," +
            ""to_user_name": null" +
            " }," +
            ""results_per_page": 15," +
            ""since_id": 0," +
            ""since_id_str": "0"" +
            "}", SearchResponse.class);
    System.out.println(response.toString());

Kindly assist...

Can anyone give any suggestions by using different jars to achieve this?

Answer 1

i found a solution for this ,i felt to share this..The code will automatically convert ..if excepted response is arraylist in response class....then if object is coming in response then add to arraylist else if arraylist it will take the same list. we need hook change the response bfore it calls fromJson.

public class ArrayAdapter<T> extends TypeAdapter<List<T>> {
    private Class<T> adapterclass;

    public ArrayAdapter(Class<T> adapterclass) {

        this.adapterclass = adapterclass;
    }

    public List<T> read(JsonReader reader) throws IOException {


        List<T> list = new ArrayList<T>();

        Gson gson = new Gson();

        if (reader.peek() == JsonToken.BEGIN_OBJECT) {

            T inning = (T) gson.fromJson(reader, adapterclass);
            list.add(inning);

        } else if (reader.peek() == JsonToken.BEGIN_ARRAY) {

            reader.beginArray();
            while (reader.hasNext()) {
                T inning = (T) gson.fromJson(reader, adapterclass);
                list.add(inning);
            }
            reader.endArray();

        } else {
            reader.skipValue();
        }

        return list;
    }

    public void write(JsonWriter writer, List<T> value) throws IOException {

    }

}

public class ArrayAdapterFactory implements TypeAdapterFactory {

  @SuppressWarnings({ "unchecked" })
  @Override
  public <T> TypeAdapter<T> create(final Gson gson, final TypeToken<T> type) {

      ArrayAdapter typeAdapter = null;
      try {
          if (type.getRawType() == List.class)
          {

              typeAdapter = new ArrayAdapter(
                      (Class) ((ParameterizedType) type.getType())
                              .getActualTypeArguments()[0]);
          }
      } catch (Exception e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
      }

      return typeAdapter;
}

then just call

 Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().registerTypeAdapterFactory(new ArrayAdapterFactory()).create();
 SearchResponse response;
 esponse= gson.fromJson("your json string", SearchResponse.class)