Android JSON Parsing made easy using Jackson!

Ever wanted to pass JSON format data from web services….well, we know things cant get tricky and everybody hates complicated solutions! Well, why not give Jackson – a JSON parser a try, it has some pretty neat features…especially if you’re lazy like me!

More info: http://jackson.codehaus.org/

Required Downloads:
jackson-core-asl-1.8.0.jar
jackson-jaxrs-1.8.0.jar
jackson-mapper-asl-1.8.0.jar
jackson-mrbean-1.8.0.jar
jackson-xc-1.8.0.jar

File: recipes-all.json

{ "recipes": 
	[ 
		{
			"name":"Recipe 1",
			"id":"8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2a50017",
			"recipe":"1 Lorem ipsum...",
			"image":"/malibu-server/recipe/getImage/8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2a50017"
		}, 
		{ 
			"name":"Recipe 2",
			"id":"8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2a90018",
			"recipe":"2 Lorem ipsum...",
			"image": "/malibu-server/recipe/getImage/8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2a90018"
		},
		{
			"name": "Recipe 3",
			"id":"8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2ae0019",
			"recipe":"3 Lorem ipsum...",
			"image":  "/malibu-server/recipe/getImage/8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2ae0019"
			} 
	]
}

File: main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
	android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
	android:layout_height="fill_parent">
	<TextView android:id="@+id/textview" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
		android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
</LinearLayout>

The Data Model:
File: Recipe.java (the data model entity: singular)

public class Recipe
  {
    public String name;
    public String id;
    public String recipe;
    public String image;
  }

File: Recipes.java (plural)

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;

public class Recipes extends HashMap<String, ArrayList<Recipe>>
  {
	//empty
  }

File: Main.java

public class Main extends Activity
  {
    private static final String tag = Main.class.getName();

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
      {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(com.android.jackson.json.R.layout.main);
        TextView textview = (TextView) this.findViewById(com.android.jackson.json.R.id.textview);

        StringBuffer strBuffer = new StringBuffer();

        MockRecipesController mockRecipesController = new MockRecipesController();
        mockRecipesController.init();
        for (Recipe recipe : mockRecipesController.findAll())
          {
            Log.d(tag, "Name: " + recipe.name);
            Log.d(tag, "ID: " + recipe.id);
            Log.d(tag, "Recipe: " + recipe.recipe);
            Log.d(tag, "Image: " + recipe.image);

            strBuffer.append("Name: " + recipe.name + "\n");
            strBuffer.append("ID: " + recipe.id + "\n");
            strBuffer.append("Recipe: " + recipe.recipe + "\n");
            strBuffer.append("Image: " + recipe.image + "\n");
          }

            // Finally
            textview.setText(strBuffer.toString());
          }
      }
  }

File: MockRecipesController.java

package com.malibu.mock;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;

import org.codehaus.jackson.JsonFactory;
import org.codehaus.jackson.JsonParseException;
import org.codehaus.jackson.JsonParser;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;

import com.malibu.models.Recipe;
import com.malibu.models.Recipes;

public class MockRecipesController
  {
    private final String json = "{ \"recipes\": \n" + "  [ \n" + "    {\n" + "      \"name\":\"Recipe 1\",\n" + "      \"id\":\"8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2a50017\",\n" + "      \"recipe\":\"1 Lorem ipsum...\",\n" + "      \"image\":\"/malibu-server/recipe/getImage/8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2a50017\"\n" + "    }, \n" + "    { \n" + "      \"name\":\"Recipe 2\",\n" + "      \"id\":\"8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2a90018\",\n" + "      \"recipe\":\"2 Lorem ipsum...\",\n" + "      \"image\": \"/malibu-server/recipe/getImage/8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2a90018\"\n" + "    },\n" + "    {\n" + "      \"name\": \"Recipe 3\",\n" + "      \"id\":\"8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2ae0019\",\n" + "      \"recipe\":\"3 Lorem ipsum...\",\n" + "      \"image\":  \"/malibu-server/recipe/getImage/8aecfd9b2fa26e83012fa298c2ae0019\"\n" + "      } \n" + "  ]\n" + "}\n" + "";

    private ObjectMapper objectMapper = null;
    private JsonFactory jsonFactory = null;
    private JsonParser jp = null;
    private ArrayList<Recipe> recipes = null;
    private Recipes mRecipes = null;

    public MockRecipesController()
      {
        objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
        jsonFactory = new JsonFactory();
      }

    public void init()
      {
        try
          {
            jp = jsonFactory.createJsonParser(json);
            mRecipes = objectMapper.readValue(jp, Recipes.class);
            recipes = mRecipes.get("recipes");
          }
        catch (JsonParseException e)
          {
            e.printStackTrace();
          }
        catch (IOException e)
          {
            e.printStackTrace();
          }
      }

    public ArrayList<Recipe> findAll()
      {
        return recipes;
      }

    public Recipe findById(int id)
      {
        return recipes.get(id);
      }
  }