Building Better JSON blog post companion code.

newWayCreateJsonWithJson.java

...
  /*
   * the main data object, we've read the API docs and know what to expect ;-)
   * assuming that the previously output JSON data is what we're pulling off of
   */
  class SomeNiftyDataObject {
    private String hello;
    private List<SomeNiftySubObject> dataAr = new ArrayList<SomeNiftySubObject>();
    private boolean error;
      
      /*
       * the sub-object, in the dataAr
       * since we need to define the sub-object's
       * structure as well
       */
      class SomeNiftySubObject {
        private String _id;
        private String someOtherKey;
        
        /*
         * Getter / Setter pairs
         */
        public String get_id() { return _id; }
        public String getSomeOtherKey() { return someOtherKey; }
        
        public void set_id( String id ) { this._id = id; }
        public void setSomeOtherKey( String someOtherKey ) { this.someOtherKey = someOtherKey; }
      }
    
    /*
     * Getter / Setter pairs
     */
     public String getHello() { return hello; }
     public List<SomeNiftySubObject> getDataAr() { return dataAr; }
     public boolean getError() { return error; }
     
     public void setHello( String hello ) { this.hello = hello; }
     public void setDataAr( List<SomeNiftySubObject> dataAr ) { this.dataAr = dataAr; }
     public void setError( boolean error ) { this.error = error; }
    
  }
  
...
  /*
   * we're building data, from a received set of JSON, into 
   * a Java object, so we can do normal Java things with it
   */
  private void buildMyNewJsonData () {
    // assuming that the JSON of the data is set in a string called rawData
    Gson g = new Gson();
    SomeNiftyDataObject nwData = g.fromJson( rawData, SomeNiftyDataObject.class );
    //SomeNiftyDataObject is now instantiated with the data set according to our class above!
  }
...

OldWayCreateJsonWithCommonsLib.java

...
private void buildJsonData() {
	JsonJavaObject myData = new JsonJavaObject();
	myData.putJsonProperty("hello", "world");
	JsonJavaArray dataAr = new JsonJavaArray();
		for( int i=0; i<5; i++ ) {
				JsonJavaObject subObject = new JsonJavaObject();
				subObject.putJsonProperty("_id",i+1);
				subObject.putJsonProperty("someOtherKey", "someOtherValue");
			}
	myData.putArray("data", dataAr);
	myData.putJsonProperty("error", false);
}
...

outputToJson.json

{
	"hello": "world",
	"dataAr": [
				{ "_id": 1, "someOtherKey": "someOtherValue" },
				{ "_id": 2, "someOtherKey": "someOtherValue" },
				{ "_id": 3, "someOtherKey": "someOtherValue" },
				{ "_id": 4, "someOtherKey": "someOtherValue" },
				{ "_id": 5, "someOtherKey": "someOtherValue" }
		],
	"error": false
}