How to parse nested JSON object in Delphi XE2?

Question

I'm new to JSON and I have this project on my hands that require me to parse a JSON and display some of its contents in a ListView. The problem is that the documentation I've read by now dealt with JSON objects containing JSON arrays, while my case involves dealing with nested objects. To cut the story short, here's the summary: I'm using Delphi XE2 with DBXJSON. I post some values to a server and it replies with a JSON object that looks like that:

    {
    "products": {
        "Men's Sneakers": {
            "instock": false,
            "size": "423",
            "manufacturer": "Adidas",
            "lastcheck": "20120529"
        },
        "Purse": {
            "instock": true,
            "size": "not applicable",
            "manufacturer": "Prada",
            "lastcheck": "20120528"
        },
        "Men's Hood": {
            "instock": false,
            "size": "M",
            "manufacturer": "Generic",
            "lastcheck": "20120529"
       }
    },
   "total": 41,
   "available": 30
}

What I wanted to achieve was to have each item (i.e. Purse) parsed and added as caption in a listview, along with one subitem (manufacturer). I created a procedure that takes the JSON string as argument, created the JSON object, but I don't know how to parse the nested objects any further.

procedure TForm1.ParseString(const AString: string);
var
  json          : TJSONObject;
  jPair         : TJSONPair;
  jValue        : TJSONValue;
  jcValue       : TJSONValue;
  l,i           : Integer;
begin
    json    := TJSONObject.ParseJSONValue(TEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(AString),0) as TJSONObject;
  try
    //get the pair to evaluate in this case the index is 1
    jPair   := json.Get(1); 
        {further process the nested objects and adding them to the listview}
  finally
     json.Free;
  end;
end;

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Lost quite some time trying to get the ins and outs of JSON in Delphi with no avail.

Thanks, sphynx

Answer 1

Try this sample

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

{$R *.res}

uses
  DBXJSON,
  System.SysUtils;


Const
StrJson=
'{'+
'    "products": {'+
'        "Men''s Sneakers": {'+
'            "instock": false,'+
'            "size": "423",'+
'            "manufacturer": "Adidas",'+
'            "lastcheck": "20120529"'+
'        },'+
'        "Purse": {'+
'            "instock": true,'+
'            "size": "not applicable",'+
'            "manufacturer": "Prada",'+
'            "lastcheck": "20120528"'+
'        },'+
'        "Men''s Hood": {'+
'            "instock": false,'+
'            "size": "M",'+
'            "manufacturer": "Generic",'+
'            "lastcheck": "20120529"'+
'        }'+
'    },'+
'    "total": 41,'+
'    "available": 30'+
'}';

procedure ParseJson;
var
  LJsonObj  : TJSONObject;
  LJPair    : TJSONPair;
  LProducts : TJSONValue;
  LProduct  : TJSONValue;
  LItem     : TJSONValue;
  LIndex    : Integer;
  LSize     : Integer;
begin
    LJsonObj    := TJSONObject.ParseJSONValue(TEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(StrJson),0) as TJSONObject;
  try
     LProducts:=LJsonObj.Get('products').JsonValue;
     LSize:=TJSONArray(LProducts).Size;
     for LIndex:=0 to LSize-1 do
     begin
      LProduct := TJSONArray(LProducts).Get(LIndex);
      LJPair   := TJSONPair(LProduct);
      Writeln(Format('Product Name %s',[LJPair.JsonString.Value]));
        for LItem in TJSONArray(LJPair.JsonValue) do
        begin
           if TJSONPair(LItem).JsonValue is TJSONFalse then
            Writeln(Format('  %s : %s',[TJSONPair(LItem).JsonString.Value, 'false']))
           else
           if TJSONPair(LItem).JsonValue is TJSONTrue then
            Writeln(Format('  %s : %s',[TJSONPair(LItem).JsonString.Value, 'true']))
           else
            Writeln(Format('  %s : %s',[TJSONPair(LItem).JsonString.Value, TJSONPair(LItem).JsonValue.Value]));
        end;
     end;
  finally
     LJsonObj.Free;
  end;
end;

begin
  try
    ParseJson;
  except
    on E: Exception do
      Writeln(E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
  end;
  Readln;
end.

This will return

Product Name Men's Sneakers
  instock : false
  size : 423
  manufacturer : Adidas
  lastcheck : 20120529
Product Name Purse
  instock : true
  size : not applicable
  manufacturer : Prada
  lastcheck : 20120528
Product Name Men's Hood
  instock : false
  size : M
  manufacturer : Generic
  lastcheck : 20120529

Answer 2

This site describes the type TJSONValue in more detail. If your data is an object, it will have the type TJSONObject, so check its API to see how to proceed.

I believe the first thing you need it to iterate over its pairs (use GetEnumerator if you don't know the key names, otherwise just use the overloaded Get - passing a string instead of a number). For each pair, the key will be a simple string (type TJSONString) and the value may be any TJSONValue. Repeat until you reach the leaves.

Example:

products   := jPair.Get('products');
purse      := products.GetJsonValue().Get('Purse');
purseManuf := purse.GetJsonValue().Get('manufacturer');
...

Or if you don't know what the products are:

products   := jPair.Get('products');
for prodPair in products.GetEnumerator() do
begin
    prodName := prodPair.GetJsonString();
    prodObj  := prodPair.GetJsonValue();
    ...

Answer 3

This blog post shows a very modern and simple way to convert JSON:

uses REST.JSON; // Also new System.JSON
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);

var
  Foo: TFoo;

begin
  Foo := TFoo.Create;

  try
    Foo.Foo := 'Hello World';
    Foo.Fee := 42;
    Memo1.Lines.Text := TJson.ObjectToJsonString(Foo);
  finally
    Foo.Free;
  end;

  Foo := TJson.JsonToObject<TFoo>(Memo1.Lines.Text);

  try
    Foo.Fee := 100;
    Memo1.Lines.Add(TJson.ObjectToJsonString(Foo));
  finally
    Foo.Free;
  end;
end;