How to handle Dynamic JSON in Retrofit?

Question

I am using the retrofit efficient networking library, but I am unable to handle Dynamic JSON which contains single prefix responseMessage which changes to object randomly, the same prefix ( responseMessage) changes to String in some cases (dynamically).

Json format Object of responseMessage:

{
   "applicationType":"1",
   "responseMessage":{
      "surname":"Jhon",
      "forename":" taylor",
      "dob":"17081990",
      "refNo":"3394909238490F",
      "result":"Received"
   }

}

responseMessage Json format dynamically changes to type string:

 {
       "applicationType":"4",
       "responseMessage":"Success"          
 }

My problem is since retrofit has built-in JSON parsing, I have to assign single POJO per request! but the REST-API unfortunately, is built on dynamic JSON responses. The prefix will change from string to object randomly in both success(...) and failure(...) methods!

void doTrackRef(Map<String, String> paramsref2) {
    RestAdapter restAdapter = new RestAdapter.Builder().setEndpoint("http://192.168.100.44/RestDemo").build();



    TrackerRefRequest userref = restAdapter.create(TrackerRefRequest.class);
    userref.login(paramsref2,
            new Callback<TrackerRefResponse>() {
                @Override
                public void success(
                        TrackerRefResponse trackdetailresponse,
                        Response response) {

                    Toast.makeText(TrackerActivity.this, "Success",
                    Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

                }

                @Override
                public void failure(RetrofitError retrofitError) {


                    Toast.makeText(TrackerActivity.this, "No internet",
                        Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                }


            });
}

Pojo:

public class TrackerRefResponse {


private String applicationType;

    private String responseMessage;          //String type

//private ResponseMessage responseMessage;  //Object of type ResponseMessage

//Setters and Getters


}

In above code POJO TrackerRefResponse.java prefix responseMessage is set to string or object of type responseMessage , so we can create the POJO with ref variable with same name (java basics :) ) so I'm looking for same solution for dynamic JSON in Retrofit. I know this is very easy job in normal http clients with async task, but it's not the best practice in the REST-Api JSON parsing! looking at the performance Benchmarks always Volley or Retrofit is the best choice, but I'm failed handle dynamic JSON!

Possible solution I Know

1. Use old asyc task with http client parsing. :(

2. Try to convince the RESTapi backend developer.

3. Create custom Retrofit client :)

Answer 1

Late to the party, but you can use a converter.

RestAdapter restAdapter = new RestAdapter.Builder()
    .setEndpoint("https://graph.facebook.com")
    .setConverter(new DynamicJsonConverter()) // set your static class as converter here
    .build();

api = restAdapter.create(FacebookApi.class);

Then you use a static class which implements retrofit's Converter:

static class DynamicJsonConverter implements Converter {

    @Override public Object fromBody(TypedInput typedInput, Type type) throws ConversionException {
        try {
            InputStream in = typedInput.in(); // convert the typedInput to String
            String string = fromStream(in);
            in.close(); // we are responsible to close the InputStream after use

            if (String.class.equals(type)) {
                return string;
            } else {
                return new Gson().fromJson(string, type); // convert to the supplied type, typically Object, JsonObject or Map<String, Object>
            }
        } catch (Exception e) { // a lot may happen here, whatever happens
            throw new ConversionException(e); // wrap it into ConversionException so retrofit can process it
        }
    }

    @Override public TypedOutput toBody(Object object) { // not required
        return null;
    }

    private static String fromStream(InputStream in) throws IOException {
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
        StringBuilder out = new StringBuilder();
        String line;
        while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
            out.append(line);
            out.append("\r\n");
        }
        return out.toString();
    }
}

I have written this sample converter so it returns the Json response either as String, Object, JsonObject or Map< String, Object >. Obviously not all return types will work for every Json, and there is sure room for improvement. But it demonstrates how to use a Converter to convert almost any response to dynamic Json.