OutOfMemoryError when using Gson to parse a large JSON response

Question

URL url = new URL(\"http://pubapi.cryptsy.com/api.php?method=orderdatav2\");
CryptsyCurrencyPairsReturn response = gson.fromJson(new InputStreamReader(url.openStream()),         


        

Answer 1

From my experience, you need to stream the JSON data.
And yes you can use google GSON to stream JSON data this is an example how to do it :

APIModel result = new APIModel();
        try {
            HttpResponse response;
            HttpClient myClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
            HttpPost myConnection = new HttpPost(APIParam.API_001_PRESENT(
                    serial_id, api_key));
            try {
                response = myClient.execute(myConnection);
                Reader streamReader = new InputStreamReader(response
                        .getEntity().getContent());
                JsonReader reader = new JsonReader(streamReader);
                reader.beginObject();
                while (reader.hasNext()) {

                    String name = reader.nextName();

                    if (name.equals("result")) {
                        if (reader.nextString() == "NG") {
                            result.setResult(Util.API_001_RESULT_NG);
                            break;
                        }
                    } else if (name.equals("items")) {
                        result = readItemsArray(reader);
                    } else {
                        reader.skipValue(); // avoid some unhandle events
                    }
                }

                reader.endObject();
                reader.close();
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                result.setResult(Util.API_001_RESULT_NG);
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            result.setResult(Util.API_001_RESULT_NG);
        }

readItemsArray function :

// read items array
    private APIModel readItemsArray(JsonReader reader) throws IOException {
        APIModel result = new APIModel();
        String item_name, file_name, data;
        result.setResult(Util.API_001_RESULT_OK);

        reader.beginArray();
        while (reader.hasNext()) {
            item_name = "";
            file_name = "";
            data = "";
            reader.beginObject();
            while (reader.hasNext()) {
                String name = reader.nextName();
                if (name.equals("name")) {
                    item_name = reader.nextString();
                } else if (name.equals("file")) {
                    file_name = reader.nextString();
                } else if (name.equals("data")) {
                    data = reader.nextString();
                } else {
                    reader.skipValue();
                }
            }
            reader.endObject();
            result.populateModel("null", item_name, file_name, data);
        }
        reader.endArray();
        return result;
    }

API Model Class :

public class APIModel {
    private int result;
    private String error_title;
    private String error_message;
    private ArrayList type;
    private ArrayList item_name;
    private ArrayList file_name;
    private ArrayList data;

    public APIModel() {
        result = -1;
        error_title = "";
        error_message = "";
        setType(new ArrayList());
        setItem_name(new ArrayList());
        setFile_name(new ArrayList());
        setData(new ArrayList());
    }

    public void populateModel(String type, String item_name, String file_name, String data) {
        this.type.add(type);
        this.item_name.add(item_name);
        this.file_name.add(file_name);
        this.data.add(data);
    }

    public int getResult() {
        return result;
    }

    public void setResult(int result) {
        this.result = result;
    }

    public String getError_title() {
        return error_title;
    }

    public void setError_title(String error_title) {
        this.error_title = error_title;
    }

    public String getError_message() {
        return error_message;
    }

    public void setError_message(String error_message) {
        this.error_message = error_message;
    }

    public ArrayList getType() {
        return type;
    }

    public void setType(ArrayList type) {
        this.type = type;
    }

    public ArrayList getItem_name() {
        return item_name;
    }

    public void setItem_name(ArrayList item_name) {
        this.item_name = item_name;
    }

    public ArrayList getFile_name() {
        return file_name;
    }

    public void setFile_name(ArrayList file_name) {
        this.file_name = file_name;
    }

    public ArrayList getData() {
        return data;
    }

    public void setData(ArrayList data) {
        this.data = data;
    }


}

before I use the streaming API from google GSON I also got OOM error because the JSON data I got is very big data (many images and sounds in Base64 encoding) but with GSON streaming I can overcome that error because it reads the data per token not all at once. And for Jackson JSON library I think it also have streaming API and how to use it almost same with my implementation with google GSON. I hope my answer can help you and if you have another question about my answer feel free to ask in the comment :)