Parse YouTube JSON for UITableView - ios

Question

I am trying to have a UITableView that displays the title, thumbnail, viewcount, and duration of some youtube videos on a specific channel. The link is this
https://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos?q=remedyLIVE&max-results=5&v=2&alt=jsonc&orderby=published
And the JSON looks like this
{
apiVersion = "2.1";
data = {
items = (
{
accessControl = {
autoPlay = allowed;
comment = allowed;
commentVote = allowed;
embed = allowed;
list = allowed;
rate = allowed;
syndicate = allowed;
videoRespond = moderated;
};
aspectRatio = widescreen;
category = Music;
commentCount = 0;
content = {
1 = "rtsp://r3---sn-jc47eu7l.c.youtube.com/CiILENy73wIaGQkbMrdTdbNpexMYDSANFEgGUgZ2aWRlb3MM/0/0/0/video.3gp";
5 = "https://www.youtube.com/v/e2mzdVO3Mhs?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata";
6 = "rtsp://r3---sn-jc47eu7l.c.youtube.com/CiILENy73wIaGQkbMrdTdbNpexMYESARFEgGUgZ2aWRlb3MM/0/0/0/video.3gp";
};
description = "In this episode of IchthusTV My Epic talks about seeking help within the church. -- Text 'Remedy' to 313131 if you need to chat. RemedyLIVE: We Chat, Listen, and Love www.remedyLIVE.com.";
duration = 109;
id = e2mzdVO3Mhs;
player = {
default = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2mzdVO3Mhs&feature=youtube_gdata_player";
mobile = "https://m.youtube.com/details?v=e2mzdVO3Mhs";
};
thumbnail = {
hqDefault = "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/e2mzdVO3Mhs/hqdefault.jpg";
sqDefault = "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/e2mzdVO3Mhs/default.jpg";
};
title = "My Epic - Help within the Church";
updated = "2014-11-11T20:00:03.000Z";
uploaded = "2014-11-11T20:00:03.000Z";
uploader = chatlistenlove;
},
{
accessControl = {
autoPlay = allowed;
comment = allowed;
commentVote = allowed;
embed = allowed;
list = allowed;
rate = allowed;
syndicate = allowed;
videoRespond = moderated;
};
aspectRatio = widescreen;
category = People;
commentCount = 0;
content = {
etc... I won't post the whole thing but you can see it on the link above! As this is my first time working with JSON I understand that I need to parse this to an array or dictionary but I am just a bit confused on what exactly the "objectforkey" methods look like once I have the data. None of the tutorials I see apply to what I am doing so specific help would be awesome! Here is my code so far
[super viewDidLoad];
// Do any additional setup after loading the view from its nib.
[self.tableView registerNib:[UINib nibWithNibName:#"RemedyYouTubeTableViewCell"
bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]]
forCellReuseIdentifier:#"RemedyYouTubeTableViewCell"];
NSURL *youtubeURL = [NSURL URLWithString:#"https://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos?q=remedyLIVE&max-results=5&v=2&alt=jsonc&orderby=published"];
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:youtubeURL];
if (data == nil)
{
NSLog(#"data is nil");
}
else
{
NSError *error;
titleArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
videoIDArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
thumbArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
NSArray *json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:kNilOptions error:&error];
NSLog(#"%#", json);
for (NSDictionary *item in json)
{
NSDictionary* snippet = [item objectForKey:#"snippet"];
title = [snippet objectForKey:#"title"];
videoID = [[snippet objectForKey:#"resourceId"] objectForKey:#"videoId"];
thumbURL = [[[snippet objectForKey:#"thumbnails"] objectForKey:#"default"] objectForKey:#"url"];
[titleArray addObject:title];
[videoIDArray addObject:videoID];
[thumbArray addObject:thumbURL];
}
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
For example why is the word "snippet" chosen? I found this on another stack overflow post about this but I don't understand. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

As mentioned in the comments, you can parse NSDictionary objects (translated by parsing JSON objects) using short hand notation. To get to the value you want, use something like this:
NSURL* playbackUrl = [NSURL urlWithString:yourDictionary[#"data"][#"items"][#"player"]["mobile"]];
To prevent crashes when the property doesn't exist, you'll want to use a try catch block:
#try {
NSURL* playbackUrl = [NSURL urlWithString:yourDictionary[#"data"][#"items"][#"player"]["mobile"]];
}
#catch (NSException *exception) {
// handle exception
}