JSON Parsing is Cake with WebLogic Server 12.1.3

Another feature of WebLogic Server 12.1.3 that developers will find really useful is the inclusion of an implementation of JSR-353 Java API for JSON Processing.

See Chapter 10 Java API for JSON Processing in the Developing Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server book @ http://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1213/wls/WLPRG/java-api-for-json-proc.htm#WLPRG1055

The original JSR submission for this API provides a good description of what it sets out to do.

JSR 353: JavaTM API for JSON Processing
 
This new API, working from the foundations provided by earlier implementations such as Jackson, Jettison and Google JSon, provides a standard API for working with JSON from Java. The goals and objectives of the API are described in the specification request as:

 JSON(JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format.

Many popular web services use JSON format for invoking and returning the data.

Currently Java applications use different implementation libraries to produce/consume JSON from the web services. Hence, there is a need to standardize a Java API for JSON so that applications that use JSON need not bundle the implementation libraries but use the API. Applications will be smaller in size and portable.

The goal of this specification is to develop such APIs to:

• Produce and consume JSON text in a streaming fashion(similar to StAX API for XML)
• Build a Java object model for JSON text using API classes(similar to DOM API for XML)

WebLogic Server 12.1.3 includes a module which contains the API/implementation of this relatively lightweight but important API, enabling developers and applications to more easily work with JSON in a portable, standard manner.

 Unlike JAX-RS 2.0 and JPA 2, both of which have pre-existing specification versions that need to be supported by default, there are no additional steps required for applications to use this API with WebLogic Server 12.1.3.  It's simply included as a default module of the server and available for any application to make use of.
The API and implementation is located in this jar file in a WebLogic Server 12.1.3 installation:

$ORACLE_HOME/wlserver/modules/javax.json_1.0.0.0_1-0.jar

In the my previous post, Using the JAX-RS 2.0 Client API with WebLogic Server 12.1.3
I have a short example of using the API to parse an JAX-RS supplied InputStream to marshall a JSON payload into a Java object.

        
        ...
        GeoIp g = new GeoIp();
        JsonParser parser = Json.createParser(entityStream);
        while (parser.hasNext()) {
            switch (parser.next()) {
                case KEY_NAME:
                    String key = parser.getString();
                    parser.next();
                    switch (key) {
                        case "ip":
                            g.setIpAddress(parser.getString());
                            break;
                        case "country_name":
                            g.setCountryName(parser.getString());
                            break;
                        case "latitude":
                            g.setLatitude(parser.getString());
                            break;
                        case "longitude":
                            g.setLongitude(parser.getString());
                            break;
                        case "region_name":
                            g.setRegionName(parser.getString());
                            break;
                        case "city":
                            g.setCity(parser.getString());
                            break;
                        case "zipcode":
                            g.setZipCode(parser.getString());
                            break;
                        default:
                            break;
                    }
                    break;
                default:
                    break;
            }
        }
        ...

The Java EE 7 tutorial has a section showing how to use the new javax.json API which is well worth having a look at if working with JSON is your thing.

http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/7/tutorial/doc/jsonp.htm

Arun Gupta also has a good hands-on lab under development for Java EE 7 that uses the JSON API to read and write JSON into Java objects that represent a movie database.   His examples collaborate with JAX-RS to issue both GET and POST calls to read and update data using JSON payload.

https://github.com/javaee-samples/javaee7-samples