Simplest way to read json from a URL in java

Question

This might be a dumb question but what is the simplest way to read and parse JSON from URL in Java?

In Groovy, it\

Answer 1

Here's a full sample of how to parse Json content. The example takes the Android versions statistics (found from Android Studio source code here, which links to here).

Copy the "distributions.json" file you get from there into res/raw, as a fallback.

build.gradle

    implementation 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.6'

manifest

MainActivity.kt

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
        if (savedInstanceState != null)
            return
        thread {
            // https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/+/studio-master-dev:tools/adt/idea/android/src/com/android/tools/idea/stats/DistributionService.java
            var root: JsonArray
            Log.d("AppLog", "loading...")
            try {
                HttpURLConnection.setFollowRedirects(true)
                val statsUrl = "https://dl.google.com/android/studio/metadata/distributions.json" //just a string
                val url = URL(statsUrl)
                val request: HttpURLConnection = url.openConnection() as HttpURLConnection
                request.connectTimeout = 3000
                request.connect()
                InputStreamReader(request.content as InputStream).use {
                    root = JsonParser.parseReader(it).asJsonArray
                }
            } catch (e: Exception) {
                Log.d("AppLog", "error while loading from Internet, so using fallback")
                e.printStackTrace()
                InputStreamReader(resources.openRawResource(R.raw.distributions)).use {
                    root = JsonParser.parseReader(it).asJsonArray
                }
            }
            val decimalFormat = DecimalFormat("0.00")
            Log.d("AppLog", "result:")

            root.forEach {
                val androidVersionInfo = it.asJsonObject
                val versionNickName = androidVersionInfo.get("name").asString
                val versionName = androidVersionInfo.get("version").asString
                val versionApiLevel = androidVersionInfo.get("apiLevel").asInt
                val marketSharePercentage = androidVersionInfo.get("distributionPercentage").asFloat * 100f
                Log.d("AppLog", "\"$versionNickName\" - $versionName - API$versionApiLevel - ${decimalFormat.format(marketSharePercentage)}%")
            }
        }
    }
}

As alternative to the dependency, you can also use this instead:

InputStreamReader(request.content as InputStream).use {
    val jsonArray = JSONArray(it.readText())
}

and the fallback:

InputStreamReader(resources.openRawResource(R.raw.distributions)).use {
    val jsonArray = JSONArray(it.readText())
}

The result of running this:

loading...
result:
"Ice Cream Sandwich" - 4.0 - API15 - 0.20%
"Jelly Bean" - 4.1 - API16 - 0.60%
"Jelly Bean" - 4.2 - API17 - 0.80%
"Jelly Bean" - 4.3 - API18 - 0.30%
"KitKat" - 4.4 - API19 - 4.00%
"Lollipop" - 5.0 - API21 - 1.80%
"Lollipop" - 5.1 - API22 - 7.40%
"Marshmallow" - 6.0 - API23 - 11.20%
"Nougat" - 7.0 - API24 - 7.50%
"Nougat" - 7.1 - API25 - 5.40%
"Oreo" - 8.0 - API26 - 7.30%
"Oreo" - 8.1 - API27 - 14.00%
"Pie" - 9.0 - API28 - 31.30%
"Android 10" - 10.0 - API29 - 8.20%