Parsing JSON as Array(String) in Kemal - json

Question

I want to create an endpoint that receives JSON data and should parse it as an array of strings.
POST /
{
"keys": ["foo", "bar"]
}
I'm running into problems with the type system. This is what I tried (.as(Array(String))) but it does not compile:
require "kemal"
def print_keys(keys : Array(String))
puts "Got keys: #{keys}"
end
post "/" do |env|
keys = env.params.json["keys"].as(Array(String)) # <-- ERROR
print_keys(keys)
end
Kemal.run
The error message is:
8 | keys = env.params.json["keys"].as(Array(String)) # <-- ERROR
^
Error: can't cast (Array(JSON::Any) | Bool | Float64 | Hash(String, JSON::Any) | Int64 | String | Nil) to Array(String)
If I change the code to parse not Array(String) but instead String, it compiles without problems. Why does it make a difference in the .as method that the type is Array(String) instead of String?
How can the code be changed to parse arrays of strings?

Answer 1

I found an example in the documentation, which uses JSON.mapping. In my concrete example, it could be written as follows:
require "kemal"
def print_keys(keys : Array(String))
puts "Got keys: #{keys}"
end
class KeyMappings
JSON.mapping({
keys: Array(String)
})
end
post "/" do |env|
json = KeyMappings.from_json env.request.body.not_nil!
print_keys(json.keys)
end
Kemal.run