Can't iterate JSON string from asp.net WCF service in Xcode - ios

Question

I am new to objective-c but I am trying to render out a simple UItableview, filling it with data from my REST service coded in asp.net. The service takes data from SPs run on SQL servicer and using the JSONSerailzer class spits out a JSON string. I have verified it is a valid JSON string by pasting the output to an online JSON viewer.
Example as follows (This is exactly how my service returns it):
{"d":"[{\"callref\":12345,\"user\":\"foo\",\"name\":\"bar\"},{\"callref\":54321,\"user\":\"bar\",\"name\":\"foo\"}]"}
I can get the data in to objective-c fine via:
id result = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:webData options:kNilOptions error:&error];
However when I try to step into this result either by casting as NSDictionary or NSArray but the result always ends up as NSCFString and because of that it crashes my code when I try to enter a for loop.
NSArray *allItems = [result objectForKey:#"d"];
for (int i=0; i<allItems.count; ++i) {
NSDictionary *item = [allItems objectAtIndex:i];
NSString *callref=[item objectForKey:#"callref"];
NSString *user=[item objectForKey:#"user"];
NSString *name=[item objectForKey:#"name"];
}
What am I missing here? Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The JSON being returned from the server is not what you expect it to be, by the look of it.
It's a dictionary (see the outer { and }), however it contains a key of "d" and a string value of "[{\"callref\" ..." (note the first double-quote and the escaped inner double-quotes).
So first job is to fix the server, which is off-topic to your question.
After that, it should be as simple as:
NSDictionary* result = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:webData
options:kNilOptions
error:&error];
NSArray *keys = [result allKeys];
for (NSString *key in keys) {
NSArray *array = result[key];
for (NSDictionary *item in array) {
NSString *callref = item[#"callref"];
NSString *user = item[#"user"];
NSString *name = item[#"name"];
}
}