Add 'standard' JSON fields to serialized objects in REST API - json

Motivated by this: Google JSON Style Guide, I want to insert a bit of custom serialization logic to my rest API. I'm using the WebAPI 2 and JSON.NET. My goal is to wrap the 'payload' of my response in the 'data' field of the main JSON response, as described in the style guide, include an apiVersion field in every response, and that sort of thing. Of course the controller actions just return straight POCO's, and I want to modify the container that they're sent inside of, not the POCOs themselves, so:
{
"id": "111",
"apiVersion": "1.0",
"data": {
"kind": "monkey",
"name": "manny",
"age": "3"
},
"error": null
}
...that type of thing. So I envision inserting little bits of standard data into every response before it goes over the wire. What's the best way to accomplish this?
TIA.

I believe you can use an ActionFilterAttribute to achieve this kind of behaviour. You would first need to create a class to represent your wrapped response (all the properties are string, adjust as you need):
public class WrappedJsonResponse
{
public string Id {get;set;}
public string ApiVersion {get;set;}
public object Data {get;set;}
public string Error {get;set;}
}
The ActionFilterAttribute allow you to do some processing after the execution of an action via the virtual OnActionExecuted method:
public class WrappedJsonAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
public override void OnActionExecuted(HttpActionExecutedContext context)
{
// A POCO response will normally be wrapped in an ObjectContent
var content = context.Response.Content as ObjectContent
if(content != null)
{
// Create the WrappedJsonResponse object appropriately and
// put the original result in the Data property
content.Value = new WrappedJsonResponse { Data = content.Value };
content.ObjectType = typeof(WrappedJsonResponse);
}
}
}
With the attribute, you can then choose to apply it where you want (whole controller, action only or as a default filter).
Note: I do not have access to a development environment at the moment and have not tested the filter. If this is not complete, it should at least give you an idea on how it can be done.

Related

How to force DotNetCore 2.1 Web API to output Json format? What library do I need?

I be straight to the point. I am in the process of converting ASP.Net web services into DotNetCore 2.1 services. My question is very simple. How do I get json output from a string (with a GET verb)?
I'm new at this, but almost every piece of documentation and recommendations do not work with DotNetCore.
Obviously, the following will not work:
[HttpGet]
public string Get()
{
return "{\"country_code\":\"US\",\"country_name\":\"United States\",\"region_name\":\"California\",\"city_name\":\"Los Angeles\",\"latitude\":\"34.052230\",\"longitude\":\" - 118.243680\",\"zip_code\":\"90001\",\"time_zone\":\" - 08:00\"}";
}
I just need to convert this string (or tell the client) that I want the output in json. The following does not work either - got a squiggly line under the "Json(" method and, for the life of me, can't find a reference to make it go away (I pulled it from an example, so they must be using a 3rd party json parsing library or there's a reference that I'm missing)
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult Get()
{
return Json("{\"country_code\":\"US\",\"country_name\":\"United States\",\"region_name\":\"California\",\"city_name\":\"Los Angeles\",\"latitude\":\"34.052230\",\"longitude\":\" - 118.243680\",\"zip_code\":\"90001\",\"time_zone\":\" - 08:00\"}", "application/json");
}
Ideally, I'd like to serialize an object to json, but figured I'd start with something ridiculously simple.
Anywho, if anyone can help.
If you don't already have a strongly typed model, you can build an anonymous type and return that from the controller
Simple Example.
public class MyController: Controller {
[HttpGet]
public IActionResult Get() {
var model = new {
country_code = "US",
country_name = "United States",
region_name = "California",
city_name = "Los Angeles",
latitude = 34.052230,
longitude = -118.243680,
zip_code = 90001,
time_zone = "- 08:00"
};
return Ok(model); //200 OK with content
}
}
In more complex scenarios you would get your objects from a data source.
No library needed, the framework out of the box will serialize the object(s) into JSON for you by default unless otherwise configured.
If you insist on passing a manually formatted string then use the ContemntResult object. Pass it the string and the content type.
[HttpGet]
public IActionResult Get() {
string json = "{\"country_code\":\"US\",\"country_name\":\"United States\",\"region_name\":\"California\",\"city_name\":\"Los Angeles\",\"latitude\":\"34.052230\",\"longitude\":\" - 118.243680\",\"zip_code\":\"90001\",\"time_zone\":\" - 08:00\"}";
return Content(json, new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json"));
}
Reference Format response data in ASP.NET Core Web API
Forcing a Particular Format
If you would like to restrict the response formats for a specific action you can apply the
[Produces] filter. The [Produces] filter specifies the response
formats for a specific action (or controller). Like most Filters, this
can be applied at the action, controller, or global scope.
[Produces("application/json")]
public class AuthorsController
The [Produces] filter will force all actions within the
AuthorsController to return JSON-formatted responses, even if other
formatters were configured for the application and the client provided
an Accept header requesting a different, available format.
Don't return string but object. So result of your actions are json string this is why you will get string in JSON and not an object
Make sure that your client is sending header "Content-Type": "application/json".
[HttpGet]
public Address Get()
{
return new Address{ CountryCode = "US"} ;
}

Converting simple value to JSON in ASP.NET Core API

Sometimes my ASP.NET Core API needs to return a simple value i.e. bool, int or string even though in most cases, I return complex objects/arrays as JSON.
I think for consistency purposes, it's a good idea to return even simple values as JSON. What's the easiest way to convert a simple value, whether it's bool or int into JSON?
My standard controller action looks like this -- see below -- which gives me the ability to return status codes as well as data. Therefore, I'd like to stick to that approach, rather than return JsonResult.
public async Task<IActionResult> Get()
{
// Some logic
return Ok(data);
}
I'm just trying to figure out the easiest way to convert my data into JSON, if it's not already in JSON format.
Looking at your code, I assume your application is supposed to be a service that needs to return some kind of data serialised in JSON.
Well, good news is ASP.NET Core already includes a data serialiser that would do the job for you.
You may need to set it up according to your needs.
For example, let's assume the following data class:
public class Data {
public string Name { get; }
public string Value { get; }
public bool IsValid { get; }
public Data(string name, string value, bool isValid) {
Name = name;
Value = value;
IsValid = isValid;
}
}
Then the following method in your Controller:
public async Task<IActionResult> Get() {
var data = new Data("sample name", "this is a value", true);
return Ok(data);
}
would return:
{
"name": "sample name",
"value": "this is a value",
"isValid": true
}
Even thought the standard serialisation behaviour may fit fine for very simple implementations, you may need more control on how your different data types should be serialised (and deserialised) by your application, especially when those do not exactly match the way you want to present the data back to the client. In this case you may want to use Custom Converters.
You can configure that when setting up MVC in the ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) method:
// Add framework services.
services.AddMvc().AddJsonOptions(jo => {
// sample serialiser setup
jo.SerializerSettings.ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();
jo.SerializerSettings.DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Utc;
jo.SerializerSettings.MissingMemberHandling = MissingMemberHandling.Error;
// custom Converters
jo.SerializerSettings.Converters.Add(new MyCustomConverter());
});
Here you can read and learn more on how to setup and use Custom Converters.

Solution for Generic in Go

I want to make a useful library for JSON responses. In Java I've this already. I started now new with Go and have no idea how to transform my Java code. I've read that Go doesn't have anything like generics, but how can I solve my problem?
I'm talking about the following part of code:
#Data
public class ServiceResult<T extends Serializable> implements Serializable {
private ServiceResultStatus status;
private String type;
private T content;
private String hash;
private String destination;
private HashMap<String, Metadata> metadata = new HashMap<>();
...
The idea of service-result is to provide an structural pattern for RESTful web services. If you need more information, here is the link to my repo on Github: https://github.com/Viascom/service-result
A service-result looks at the end like this:
{
"status": "successful",
"type": "ch.viascom.example.models.response.GetTasksResponse",
"content": [
{
"id": "3e99c7fb-0ed7-11e7-a7a5-0050569c3e5a",
"name": "Example Task"
}
],
"hash": "7bf9c04d1e9f8fe7995e4b8beeac1a4c830e7ea",
"destination": "ch.viascom.example.handler.TaskHandler",
"metadata": {
}
}
You can add the json-mapping directly to the structure definition and use the encoder, decoder to marshal and unmarshal it. It's all built in and easier than in other languages, imho.
type ServiceResponse struct {
Value string`json:"nameInJsonResponse"`
}
here is a good example from the playground: https://play.golang.org/p/4L2wMVv7tW
For your particular case it should be something like this:
type ServiceResult struct {
Status ServiceResultStatus`json:"status"`
Type string`json:"type"`
Hash string`json:"hash"`
Destination string`json:"destination"`
Metadata map[string]Metadata metadata`json:"metadata"`
}
type ExplizitServiceResult struct {
ServiceResult
Content SomeStruct`json:"content"`
}
https://play.golang.org/p/FFfiq6LxVt
If you don't want to derive every user struct from the ServiceResult you can define the content as interface{} so every struct can be inserted. I've updated my example for this. Maybe this is the easiest solution to your problem.
https://play.golang.org/p/LNgreqrnnw

Can the GXT JsonReader (using AutoBeans) parse complex JSON structures in one request?

I need to work with data returned from a service which has a more complex JSON structure than the examples provided in the GXT documentation and thus far I cannot find any instructions or example which demonstrates how this might be accomplished.
The JSON contains multiple key/value pairs, but some of the key/value pairs are collections. I can have all of the data returned to me in one call from the service in the proper structure, but there does not appear to be a way to parse the data into separate entities. In my particular case I am attempting to configure a loader which will process one of the collections but I also need other key/value pairs from the same message (it is not ok to have the loader make one call and then have another call made for the same data and retrieve the other key/value pairs). Is there any way to accomplish this using GXT3?
Example: let's assume I can make a request from a server which returns JSON containing the name of an author along with a collection of the books the author has written. I want to display the author's name above a grid which lists the books. I want only one request made to the server and then have my view display the author in one component and the book list in a grid. Assume I need a loader instead of just a store as the grid may have to make additional calls (e.g. if it is a paging grid, livegrid, etc.).
Example JSON: (one JSON message returned with and author element along with a collection of book elements - I've indented the JSON to illustrate the structure)
{ "returnData" :
{"author" : "AuthorName"},
{"books" :
{"id" : "1", "name" : "Book1"},{"id" : "2", "name" : "Book2"}
}
}
Using the example for JsonReader (see the javadoc for an example) I can receive the request and parse the links into a collection using AutoBeans. This works fine when I need to have those retrieved and parsed in a loader. However, if I do that then the other properties are ignored. I currently don't see any way to parse the other values in the same request so they can be used elsewhere. My example code for the collection processing is below:
// this is the root JSON object, the AuthorRecord
public interface AuthorRecord {
#PropertyName(value="author")
String getAuthor();
#PropertyName(value="author")
void setAuthor(String author);
#PropertyName(value="books")
List<Book> getBooks();#
#PropertyName(value="books")
void setBooks (List<Book> books);
}
// models the book objects returned
public interface Book {
#PropertyName(value="id")
String getId();
#PropertyName(value="id")
void setId(String id);
#PropertyName(value="name")
String getName();
#PropertyName(value="name")
void setName(String name);
}
public interface ReturnData {
AuthorRootObject getAuthorRoot();
}
public interface LibraryAutoBeanFactory extends AutoBeanFactory {
AutoBean<ReturnData> authorRecord();
AutoBean<ListLoadConfig> loadConfig();
}
public class ReturnDataJsonReader extends JsonReader<ListLoadResult<Book>,
ReturnData> {
public ReturnDataJsonReader(AutoBeanFactory factory,
Class<ReturnData> rootBeanType) {
super(factory, rootBeanType);
}
#Override
protected ListLoadResultBean<Book> createReturnData(Object loadConfig,
ReturnData incomingData) {
return new ListLoadResultBean<Book>(incomingData.getBooks());
}
}
The problem I was having was that I need to have a view that includes a grid (paging grid, etc.) which lists out the books, while having the Author's name sit above the grid. I wanted to get all of this information (or at least the first page of results) with only one request to the server since the JSON message contains all the information I need to accomplish this. The problem is that the loader makes the request and receives the response, and it expects that the reader it will use is going to process a collection. In my case, I need the loader to process the collection of books but also populate another data field. The solution I found was to create an arbitrary collection to pass to the loader and then implement my own load handler to process the return object as needed.
1.The JSON being returned is really just one object of type ReturnData. The extended JsonReader could process this using AutoBeans, but if the reader is to be used for the loader, it needs to return a collection. Therefore, override the createReturnData() method to return a collection of one object.
public class ReturnDataJsonReader extends JsonReader<ListLoadResult<AuthorRecord>,
ReturnData> {
public ReturnDataJsonReader(AutoBeanFactory factory, Class<ReturnData> rootBeanType)
{
super(factory, rootBeanType);
}
#Override
protected ListLoadResultBean<AuthorRecord> createReturnData(Object loadConfig,
ReturnData incomingData) {
List<AuthorRecord> authorDataCollection = new ArrayList<AuthorRecord>();
authorDataCollection.add(incomingData);
return authorDataCollection;
}
}
2.The LoadHandler used in the examples takes a ListStore as an input and populates it with the results from the loader. Since the return object is not what we want populating the loader, and since we need to populate another property on the view, create your own LoadHandler to take the objects needed as input and populate them:
View Class Example:
public class ExampleViewClass {
// truncating most of the code in here for brevity
// note some of the objects referenced here reference objects in the question
private String authorName;
private ListStore<Book> bookList;
// IMPORTANT - create your own LoadHandler
private class LibraryLoadResultistStoreBinding<C, M, D extends
ListLoadResult<AuthorRecord>> implements LoadHandler<ListLoadConfig,
ListLoadResult<AuthorRecord>> {
private final ListStore<Book> bookStore;
private final String authorName;
public LibraryLoadResultistStoreBinding(ListStore<Book> books, String author) {
this.bookStore = books;
this.authorName = author;
}
#Override
public void onLoad(LoadEvent<ListLoadConfig, ListLoadResult<AuthorRecord> event)
{
// the response object
AuthorRecord response = event.getLoadResult().getData().get(0);
bookStore.replaceAll(response.getBooks());
author = response.getAuthor();
}
}
// example uses an HttpProxy but that's not required
public void populateView() {
LibraryAutoBeanFactory factory = GWT.create(LibraryAutoBeanFactory.class);
ReturnDataJsonReader reader = new ReturnDataJsonReader(factory, ReturnData.class);
String path = "http://path.to.resource/getinfo";
RequestBuilder builder = new RequestBuilder(RequestBuilder.GET, path);
HttpProxy<ListLoadConfig> proxy = new HttpProxy<ListLoadConfig>(builder);
final ListLoader<ListLoadConfig, ListLoadResult<AuthorRecord>> loader = new
ListLoader<ListLoadConfig, ListLoadResult<AuthorRecord>> (proxy, reader);
loader.useLoadConfig(ReturnDataAutoBeanFactory.instance.loadConfig().as();
loader.addLoadHandler(new LibraryLoadResultistStoreBinding<ListLoadConfig,
AuthorRecord, ListLoadResult<AuthorRecord>>(bookList, authorName);
// pass in the objects to be populated
loader.load(); // fire the loader
}

Jackson JSON to Java mapping for same attrubute with different data type

I have a JSON object which I don't have control of and want to map it to a Java object which is pre-created.
There is one attribute in the JSON object which can be a URL or it could be a JSONArray.
Class SomeClass {
private URL items;
public URL getURL() {
return items;
}
public void setURL(URL url) {
this.items = url;
}
}
Below is the JSON:
Case A:
{
...
items: http://someurl.abc.com/linktoitems,
...
}
OR
Case B
{
...
items: [
{ "id": id1, "name": name1 },
{ "id": id2, "name": name2 }
]
...
}
If i create the POJO to map for Case A, Case B fails and vice versa. In short, is there a way to map the JSON attribute to the POJO field with different data types? In that case I will create two separate fields in the POJO named,
private URL itemLink;
private Item[] itemList;
It depends on exact details, but if what you are asking is if it is possible to map either JSON String or JSON array into a Java property, yes this can be done.
Obvious way would be to define a custom deserializer which handles both kinds of JSON input.
But it is also possible to define Java type in such a way that it can be constructed both by setting properties (which works from JSON Object) and have a single-String-arg constructor or static single-String-arg factory method marked with #JsonCreator.
Yet another possibility is to use an intermediate type that can deserialized from any JSON: both java.lang.Object and JsonNode ("JSON tree") instances can be created from any JSON. From this value you would need to do manual conversion; most likely in setter, like so:
public void setItems(JsonNode treeRoot) { .... }
What will not work, however, is defining two properties with the same name.
One thing I don't quite follow is how you would convert from List to URL though. So maybe you actually do need two separate internal fields; and setter would just assign to one of those (and getter would return value of just one).