How to parse JSONP in Objective-C? - ios

Question

I am retrieving JSON information for an API and it says on the API that it is in JSON but I noticed it is in JSONP or "json with padding" as some call it. I tired to look everywhere to find how to parse this but no luck. The information I am trying to receive is this:
({"book":[{"book_name":"James","book_nr":"59","chapter_nr":"3","chapter":
{"16":{"verse_nr":"16","verse":"For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and
every evil work."}}}],"direction":"LTR","type":"verse"});
The link to the data is https://getbible.net/json?p=James3:16, so you can look at it directly.
This is the code I am using to try to retrieve the JSON Data and parse it into a NSMutableDictionary.
-(void)fetchJson {
NSString *currentURL = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"https://getbible.net/json?p=James"];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:currentURL];
NSData *data = [[NSData alloc]initWithContentsOfURL:url];
NSURLRequest *theRequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url cachePolicy:NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalCacheData timeoutInterval:60];
NSMutableData *receivedData = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithLength:0];
NSURLConnection * connection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:theRequest delegate:self startImmediately:YES];
[receivedData setLength:0];
NSURLResponse *response = [[NSURLResponse alloc] initWithURL:url MIMEType:#".json" expectedContentLength:-1 textEncodingName:nil];
expectedTotalSize = [response expectedContentLength];
if ([data length] !=0) {
NSLog(#"appendingData");
[receivedData appendData:data];
if(connection){
NSLog(#"Succeeded! Received %lu bytes of data",(unsigned long)[receivedData length]);
}
NSError *error;
NSDictionary *jsonResponse = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&error];
if(jsonResponse){
NSArray *responseArr = [jsonResponse mutableCopy];
NSLog(#"%lu",(unsigned long)[responseArr count]);
}else if (!jsonResponse){
//do internet connection error response
}
}
}
The results I am getting back from putting a breakpoint in the code is:
jsonResponse returns NULL
NSError NSCocoaErrorDomain code - 3840
but my NSData *data is returning 15640 bytes.
My console is displaying this from the NSLogs I used for debugging:
2014-04-20 01:27:31.877 appendingData
2014-04-20 01:27:31.879 Succeeded! Received 15640 bytes of data
I am receiving the data correctly but I am not parsing it correctly I know the error is because the JSON is in JSONP format. If anyone could please help with this I would appreciate it so much. I have tired to give as much detail on this question as I can but if you need more information just let me know so I can add it and make this as clear as possible.

Answer 1

Your code has at least two separate attempts to download the data. Neither is really correct. The code also only works with JSON, not JSONP.
Try this:
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"https://getbible.net/json?p=James"];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url cachePolicy:NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalCacheData timeoutInterval:60];
[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:request queue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSData *data, NSError *error) {
if (data) {
NSString *jsonString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSRange range = [jsonString rangeOfString:#"("];
range.location++;
range.length = [jsonString length] - range.location - 2; // removes parens and trailing semicolon
jsonString = [jsonString substringWithRange:range];
NSData *jsonData = [jsonString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSError *jsonError = nil;
NSDictionary *jsonResponse = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:jsonData options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&jsonError];
if (jsonResponse) {
// process jsonResponse as needed
} else {
NSLog(#"Unable to parse JSON data: %#", jsonError);
}
} else {
NSLog(#"Error loading data: %#", error);
}
}];

Answer 2

One problem is that the data you're downloading has extraneous information at the beginning and end. The JSON being delivered by your URL is:
({"book":[{"book_name":"James","book_nr":"59","chapter_nr":"3","chapter":{"16":{"verse_nr":"16","verse":"For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."}}}],"direction":"LTR","type":"verse"});
As the error message you're seeing indicates: you need to remove the initial ( from the beginning of the string and the ); from the end so that your JSON will start with the dictionary that your code expects. You can do this by calling subdataWithRange: on your NSData object:
NSData* jsonData = [data subdataWithRange:NSMakeRange(1, data.length-3)];
NSDictionary* jsonResponse = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:jsonData
options:0
error:&error];

Answer 3

Just to update everyone, the NSURLRequest has been deprecated in iOS9. I tried the answer by #rmaddy, and I didn't receive anything either (just like what #lostAtSeaJoshua was encountering I guess). I have updated rmaddy's answer to reflect the NSURLSession implementation that has (I think) replaced NSURLRequest:
NSURLSession *session = [NSURLSession sharedSession];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://somerandomwebsite.com/get.php?anotherRandomParameter=5"];
[[session dataTaskWithURL:url
completionHandler:^(NSData *data,
NSURLResponse *response,
NSError *error) {
// handle response
if (data) {
NSString *jsonString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#"stringJSONed: %#",jsonString);
//Do something with the received jsonString, just like in # rmaddy's reply
} else {
NSLog(#"Error loading data: %#", error);
}
}] resume];
Just a heads up notice, when I first ran it, it gave me the security error. What you need to do (if you are using http) is to add this to your plist:
<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict>
<key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
<true/>
</dict>
I have to mention that after the NSAllowArbitraryLoads key, there are most probably other keys and values, such as NSExceptionDomain. But they're not really relevant to this answer I think. If you need to look further, let me know and I will dig deeper :)