I am trying to parse some JSON objects which is made just of (string,string) pairs, in order to emulate Resjson behaviour. The file I am parsing contains this.
{
"greeting":"Hello world",
"_greeting.comment":"Hello comment.",
"_greeting.source":"Original Hello",
}
Please note the last comma is incorrect, and I also used http://jsonlint.com/ to test JSON syntax. It tells me it is incorrect, as I expected. My - slightly modified - code is :
string path = #"d:\resjson\example.resjson";
string jsonText = File.ReadAllText(path);
IDictionary<string, string> dict;
try
{
dict = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<IDictionary<string, string>>(jsonText);
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
// code never reaches here
}
My above code returns the IDictionary with the 3 keys as if the formatting was correct. If I serialize back, the string obtained is without the last comma.
My questions are :
Is Newtonsoft.Json so permissive that it allows users slight errors ?
If so, can I set the permissiveness so that it is more strict ?
Is there a way to check if a string is valid JSON format, using
Newtonsoft.Json with and/or without the permissiveness?
Related
I am looking at extracting the root element of a JSON document. It looks like this is possible neither using JsonPointer nor JsonPath as my attempts to look up for such an expression has been unsuccessful. Any tips would be appreciated. TIA.
Sample document:
{
"MESSAGE1_ROOT_INPUT": {
"CTRL_SEG": "test"
}
}
The below using gson 2.9.0:
$.*~
produces:
{"CTRL_SEG": "test"}
while JSONPath Online produces this:
[
"MESSAGE1_ROOT_INPUT"
]
The attempt is to get text "MESSAGE1_ROOT_INPUT" using JsonPath/JsonPointer expression(s). Note that, extracting this the traditional (substring or regex on a stringified json text) way, would preferably be my last resort.
Background: We are building an API service that accepts JSON documents with different roots. Such as, MESSAGE2_ROOT_INPUT, MESSAGE3_ROOT_INPUT, etc. It is based on this, the routing of a message further will occur.
Supported/Employed Languages: Java/GSON Library/RegEx
Gson does not natively support JSONPath or JSON Pointer. However, you can quite efficiently obtain the name of the first property using JsonReader:
public static String getFirstPropertyName(Reader reader) throws IOException {
// Don't have to call JsonReader.close(); that would just close the provided reader
JsonReader jsonReader = new JsonReader(reader);
jsonReader.beginObject();
return jsonReader.nextName();
}
There are however two things to keep in mind:
This only reads the beginning of the JSON document; it neither verifies that the complete JSON document has valid syntax, nor checks if there might be more top-level properties
This consumes some data from the Reader; to further process the data you have to buffer the data to allow re-reading it again (you can also first store the JSON in a String and pass a StringReader to JsonReader)
I would like to parse json string using JObject.Parse() of NewtonSoft.Json. Assume that the json string is like this:
{"json":"{\"count\":\"123\"}"}
The result of jObject.First.ToString() is "json": "{\"count\":\"123\"}".
The result of jObject["json"].ToString() is {"count":"123"}. Enumerating gets the same result as this.
The testing code I used is like this.
[TestMethod()]
public void JsonParseTest()
{
var json = "{\"json\":\"{\\\"count\\\":\\\"123\\\"}\"}";
var jObject = JObject.Parse(json);
Console.WriteLine($"json : {json}");
Console.WriteLine($"jObject.First.ToString() : {jObject.First}");
Console.WriteLine($"jObject[\"json\"].ToString() : {jObject["json"]}");
}
We can see that enumerating of jObject will lose the character '\'. What is the problem? I would be appreciated for any suggestion :)
EDIT 1
The version of NewtonSoft is 12.0.3 released in 2019.11.09.
The parser isn't loosing anything. There is no literal \ in your example. The backslashes are purely part of the JSON syntax to escape the " inside the string vlue. The value of the key json is {"count":"123"}.
If you want to have backslashes in that value (however I don't see why you would want that), then you need add them, just like you added them in your C# string (C# and JSON happen to have the same escaping mechanism):
{"json":"{\\\"count\\\":\\\"123\\\"}"}
with leads to the C# code:
var json = "{\"json\":\"{\\\\\\\"count\\\\\\\":\\\\\\\"123\\\\\\\"}\"}";
Please pardon me if this is a repeat question. I have been through some of the questions/answers with a similar requirement but somehow got a bit overwhelmed and confused at the same time. My requirement is:
I get a JSON string/object as a request parameter. ( eg: params.timesheetJSON )
I then have to parse/iterate through it.
Here is the JSON that my grails controller will be receiving:
{
"loginName":"user1",
"timesheetList":
[
{
"periodBegin":"2014/10/12",
"periodEnd":"2014/10/18",
"timesheetRows":[
{
"task":"Cleaning",
"description":"cleaning description",
"paycode":"payCode1"
},
{
"task":"painting",
"activityDescription":"painting description",
"paycode":"payCode2"
}
]
}
],
"overallStatus":"SUCCESS"
}
Questions:
How can I retrieve the whole JSON string from the request? Does request.JSON be fine here? If so, will request.JSON.timesheetJSON yield me the actual JSON that I want as a JSONObject?
What is the best way to parse through the JSON object that I got from the request? Is it grails.converters.JSON? Or is there any other easy way of parsing through? Like some API which will return the JSON as a collection of objects by automatically taking care of parsing. Or is programatically parsing through the JSON object the only way?
Like I said, please pardon me if the question is sounding vague. Any good references JSON parsing with grails might also be helpful here.
Edit: There's a change in the way I get the JSON string now. I get the JSON string as a request paramter.
String saveJSON // This holds the above JSON string.
def jsonObject = grails.converters.JSON.parse(saveJSON) // No problem here. Returns a JSONObject. I checked the class type.
def jsonArray = jsonArray.timesheetList // No problem here. Returns a JSONArray. I checked the class type.
println "*** Size of jsonArray1: " + jsonArray1.size() // Returns size 1. It seemed fine as the above JSON string had only one timesheet in timesheetList
def object1 = jsonArray[1] // This throws the JSONException, JSONArray[1] not found. I tried jsonArray.getJSONObject(1) and that throws the same exception.
Basically, I am looking to seamlessly iterate through the JSON string now.
I have wrote some code that explains how this can be done, that you can see below, but to be clear, first the answers to your questions:
Your JSON String as you wrote above will be the contents of your POST payload to the rest controller. Grails will use its data binding mechanism to bind the incomming data to a Command object that your should prepare. It has to have fields corresponding to the parameters in your JSON String (see below). After you bind your command object to your actual domain object, you can get all the data you want, by simply operating on fields and lists
The way to parse thru the JSON object is shown in my example below. The incomming request is esentially a nested map, with can be simply accessed with a dot
Now some code that illustrates how to do it.
In your controller create a method that accepts "YourCommand" object as input parameter:
def yourRestServiceMethod (YourCommand comm){
YourClass yourClass = new YourClass()
comm.bindTo(yourClass)
// do something with yourClass
// println yourClass.timeSheetList
}
The command looks like this:
class YourCommand {
String loginName
List<Map> timesheetList = []
String overallStatus
void bindTo(YourClass yourClass){
yourClass.loginName=loginName
yourClass.overallStatus=overallStatus
timesheetList.each { sheet ->
TimeSheet timeSheet = new TimeSheet()
timeSheet.periodBegin = sheet.periodBegin
timeSheet.periodEnd = sheet.periodEnd
sheet.timesheetRows.each { row ->
TimeSheetRow timeSheetRow = new TimeSheetRow()
timeSheetRow.task = row.task
timeSheetRow.description = row.description
timeSheetRow.paycode = row.paycode
timeSheet.timesheetRows.add(timeSheetRow)
}
yourClass.timeSheetList.add(timeSheet)
}
}
}
Its "bindTo" method is the key piece of logic that understands how to get parameters from the incomming request and map it to a regular object. That object is of type "YourClass" and it looks like this:
class YourClass {
String loginName
Collection<TimeSheet> timeSheetList = []
String overallStatus
}
all other classes that are part of that class:
class TimeSheet {
String periodBegin
String periodEnd
Collection<TimeSheetRow> timesheetRows = []
}
and the last one:
class TimeSheetRow {
String task
String description
String paycode
}
Hope this example is clear enough for you and answers your question
Edit: Extending the answer according to the new requirements
Looking at your new code, I see that you probably did some typos when writting that post
def jsonArray = jsonArray.timesheetList
should be:
def jsonArray = jsonObject.timesheetList
but you obviously have it properly in your code since otherwise it would not work, then the same with that line with "println":
jsonArray1.size()
shuold be:
jsonArray.size()
and the essential fix:
def object1 = jsonArray[1]
shuold be
def object1 = jsonArray[0]
your array is of size==1, the indexing starts with 0. // Can it be that easy? ;)
Then "object1" is again a JSONObject, so you can access the fields with a "." or as a map, for example like this:
object1.get('periodEnd')
I see your example contains errors, which lead you to implement more complex JSON parsing solutions.
I rewrite your sample to the working version. (At least now for Grails 3.x)
String saveJSON // This holds the above JSON string.
def jsonObject = grails.converters.JSON.parse(saveJSON)
println jsonObject.timesheetList // output timesheetList structure
println jsonObject.timesheetList[0].timesheetRows[1] // output second element of timesheetRows array: [paycode:payCode2, task:painting, activityDescription:painting description]
JObject.Parse(jsonString) is causing issue for boolean data. e.g. The json is :
{
"BoolParam": true
}
I used the following code to parse:
JObject data = JObject.Parse(str1);
foreach (var x in data)
{
string name = x.Key;
Console.Write(name + " (");
JToken value = x.Value;
Console.Write(value.Type + ")\n");
Console.WriteLine(value);
}
This print out the value as :
BoolParam (Boolean) : True
The case sensitivity causes issue as I save this json for later use. The saved json looks like
{
"BoolParam": True
}
However, when i later use it, the JObject.Parse(str) throws error as invalid Json :Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: T. Path 'BoolParam', line 2, position 15.
If I change the case from "True" to "true", it works. I dont want to add this hack to change the case when saving but is there a better way to handle this scenario.
I dont want to add this hack to change the case when saving but is
there a better way to handle this scenario.
No, you have to produce valid JSON when saving if you want to be able to later deserialize it with a JSON serializer such as Newtonsoft JSON. So fixing your saving routing is the right way to go here.
One could use anonymous types and no worry about case sensitivity of boolean type variables
public static void Main()
{
bool a = true;
JObject c = JObject.FromObject(new {BoolParam= a});
Console.WriteLine(c);
}
Output:
{
"BoolParam": true
}
what is the difference between json string and parsed json string?
for eg in javascript suppose i have a string in the json format say [{},{}]
parsing this string will also produce the same thing.
So why do we need to parse?
It's just serialization/deserialization.
In Javscript code you normally work with the object, as that lets you easily get its properties, etc, while a JSON string doesn't do you much good.
var jsonobj = { "arr": [ 5, 2 ], "str": "foo" };
console.log(jsonobj.arr[1] + jsonobj.str);
// 2foo
var jsonstr = JSON.stringify(jsonobj);
// cannot do much with this
To send it to the server via an Ajax call, though, you need to serialize (stringify) it first. Likewise, you need to deserialize (parse) from a string into an object when receiving JSON back from the server.
Great question. The difference is transfer format.
JSON is only the 'Notation' of a JavaScript Object, it is not actually the JavaScript 'object-literal' itself. So as the data is received in JSON, it is just a string to be interpreted, evaluated, parsed, in order to become an actual JavaScript 'Object-Literal.
There is one physical difference between the two, and that is quotation marks. It makes sense, that JSON needs to be a string to be transferred. Here is how:
//A JavaScript Object-Literal
var anObj = { member: 'value'}
//A JSON representation of that object
var aJSON = { "member":"value" }
Hope that helps. All the best! Nash
I think a parsed json string should be the string data into the actual javascript objects and data arrays (or whichever language the json string contains)
The JSON object contains methods for parsing JSON and converting values to JSON.
It can't be called or constructed, and aside from its two method properties it has no interesting functionality of its own.
JSONParser parser = new JSONParser();
Object object = parser.parse(Message.toString());
JSONObject arObj = (JSONObject) object;