How to POST raw whole JSON in the body of a Retrof

Question

This question may have been asked before but no it was not definitively answered. How exactly does one post raw whole JSON inside the body of a Retrofit request?

See similar question here. Or is this answer correct that it must be form url encoded and passed as a field? I really hope not, as the services I am connecting to are just expecting raw JSON in the body of the post. They are not set up to look for a particular field for the JSON data.

I just want to clarify this with the restperts once and for all. One person answered not to use Retrofit. The other was not certain of the syntax. Another thinks yes it can be done but only if its form url-encoded and placed in a field (that's not acceptable in my case). No, I can't re-code all the services for my Android client. And yes, it's very common in major projects to post raw JSON instead of passing over JSON content as field property values. Let's get it right and move on. Can someone point to the documentation or example that shows how this is done? Or provide a valid reason why it can/should not be done.

UPDATE: One thing I can say with 100% certainty. You CAN do this in Google's Volley. It's built right in. Can we do this in Retrofit?

Answer 1

1)Add dependencies-

 compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.6.2'
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.3.0'
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.3.0'

2) make Api Handler class

    public class ApiHandler {


  public static final String BASE_URL = "URL";  

    private static Webservices apiService;

    public static Webservices getApiService() {

        if (apiService == null) {

           Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
                    .setLenient()
                    .create();
            Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder().addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create(gson)).baseUrl(BASE_URL).build();

            apiService = retrofit.create(Webservices.class);
            return apiService;
        } else {
            return apiService;
        }
    }


}

3)make bean classes from Json schema 2 pojo

Remember
-Target language : Java -Source type : JSON -Annotation style : Gson -select Include getters and setters -also you may select Allow additional properties

http://www.jsonschema2pojo.org/

4)make interface fro api calling

    public interface Webservices {

@POST("ApiUrlpath")
    Call<ResponseBean> ApiName(@Body JsonObject jsonBody);

}

if you have a form-data parameters then add below line

@Headers("Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded")

Other way for form-data parameter check this link

5)make JsonObject for passing in to body as parameter

 private JsonObject ApiJsonMap() {

    JsonObject gsonObject = new JsonObject();
    try {
        JSONObject jsonObj_ = new JSONObject();
        jsonObj_.put("key", "value");
        jsonObj_.put("key", "value");
        jsonObj_.put("key", "value");


        JsonParser jsonParser = new JsonParser();
        gsonObject = (JsonObject) jsonParser.parse(jsonObj_.toString());

        //print parameter
        Log.e("MY gson.JSON:  ", "AS PARAMETER  " + gsonObject);

    } catch (JSONException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return gsonObject;
}

6) Call Api Like this

private void ApiCallMethod() {
    try {
        if (CommonUtils.isConnectingToInternet(MyActivity.this)) {
            final ProgressDialog dialog;
            dialog = new ProgressDialog(MyActivity.this);
            dialog.setMessage("Loading...");
            dialog.setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false);
            dialog.show();

            Call<ResponseBean> registerCall = ApiHandler.getApiService().ApiName(ApiJsonMap());
            registerCall.enqueue(new retrofit2.Callback<ResponseBean>() {
                @Override
                public void onResponse(Call<ResponseBean> registerCall, retrofit2.Response<ResponseBean> response) {

                    try {
                        //print respone
                        Log.e(" Full json gson => ", new Gson().toJson(response));
                        JSONObject jsonObj = new JSONObject(new Gson().toJson(response).toString());
                        Log.e(" responce => ", jsonObj.getJSONObject("body").toString());

                        if (response.isSuccessful()) {

                            dialog.dismiss();
                            int success = response.body().getSuccess();
                            if (success == 1) {



                            } else if (success == 0) {



                            }  
                        } else {
                            dialog.dismiss();


                        }


                    } catch (Exception e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                        try {
                            Log.e("Tag", "error=" + e.toString());

                            dialog.dismiss();
                        } catch (Resources.NotFoundException e1) {
                            e1.printStackTrace();
                        }

                    }
                }

                @Override
                public void onFailure(Call<ResponseBean> call, Throwable t) {
                    try {
                        Log.e("Tag", "error" + t.toString());

                        dialog.dismiss();
                    } catch (Resources.NotFoundException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }

            });

        } else {
            Log.e("Tag", "error= Alert no internet");


        }
    } catch (Resources.NotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Answer 2

The @Body annotation defines a single request body.

interface Foo {
  @POST("/jayson")
  FooResponse postJson(@Body FooRequest body);
}

Since Retrofit uses Gson by default, the FooRequest instances will be serialized as JSON as the sole body of the request.

public class FooRequest {
  final String foo;
  final String bar;

  FooRequest(String foo, String bar) {
    this.foo = foo;
    this.bar = bar;
  }
}

Calling with:

FooResponse = foo.postJson(new FooRequest("kit", "kat"));

Will yield the following body:

{"foo":"kit","bar":"kat"}

The Gson docs have much more on how object serialization works.

Now, if you really really want to send "raw" JSON as the body yourself (but please use Gson for this!) you still can using TypedInput:

interface Foo {
  @POST("/jayson")
  FooResponse postRawJson(@Body TypedInput body);
}

TypedInput is a defined as "Binary data with an associated mime type.". There's two ways to easily send raw data with the above declaration:

1. Use TypedByteArray to send raw bytes and the JSON mime type:

   String json = "{\"foo\":\"kit\",\"bar\":\"kat\"}";
   TypedInput in = new TypedByteArray("application/json", json.getBytes("UTF-8"));
   FooResponse response = foo.postRawJson(in);
   

2. Subclass TypedString to create a TypedJsonString class:

   public class TypedJsonString extends TypedString {
     public TypedJsonString(String body) {
       super(body);
     }
   
     @Override public String mimeType() {
       return "application/json";
     }
   }
   

   And then use an instance of that class similar to #1.

Answer 3

Based on the top answer, I have a solution to not have to make POJOs for every request.

Example, I want to post this JSON.

{
    "data" : {
        "mobile" : "qwer",
        "password" : "qwer"
    },
    "commom" : {}
}

then, I create a common class like this:

import java.util.Map;
import java.util.HashMap;

public class WRequest {

    Map<String, Object> data;
    Map<String, Object> common;

    public WRequest() {
        data = new HashMap<>();
        common = new HashMap<>();
    }
}

Finally, when I need a json

WRequest request = new WRequest();
request.data.put("type", type);
request.data.put("page", page);

The request marked annotation @Body then can pass to Retrofit.

Answer 4

In Retrofit2, When you want to send your parameters in raw you must use Scalars.

first add this in your gradle:

compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.3.0'
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.3.0'
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-scalars:2.3.0'

Your Interface

public interface ApiInterface {

    String URL_BASE = "http://10.157.102.22/rest/";

    @Headers("Content-Type: application/json")
    @POST("login")
    Call<User> getUser(@Body String body);

}

Activity

   public class SampleActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements Callback<User> {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(@Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_sample);

        Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
                .baseUrl(ApiInterface.URL_BASE)
                .addConverterFactory(ScalarsConverterFactory.create())
                .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
                .build();

        ApiInterface apiInterface = retrofit.create(ApiInterface.class);


        // prepare call in Retrofit 2.0
        try {
            JSONObject paramObject = new JSONObject();
            paramObject.put("email", "[e-mail]");
            paramObject.put("pass", "4384984938943");

            Call<User> userCall = apiInterface.getUser(paramObject.toString());
            userCall.enqueue(this);
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }


    @Override
    public void onResponse(Call<User> call, Response<User> response) {
    }

    @Override
    public void onFailure(Call<User> call, Throwable t) {
    }
}

Answer 5

I tried this: When you are creating your Retrofit instance, add this converter factory to the retrofit builder:

gsonBuilder = new GsonBuilder().serializeNulls()     
your_retrofit_instance = Retrofit.Builder().addConverterFactory( GsonConverterFactory.create( gsonBuilder.create() ) )