org.json.JSONException: Value Array of type java.lang.String cannot be converted to JSONObject

Question

I am returning values from the server side using a php wrapper via JSON. But the the following error occurs when I am returning the value to the client side.

This is my client side code

        @Override
    protected Boolean doInBackground(String... arg0) {

        try {

            // Setup the parameters
            ArrayList<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("FirstNameToSearch",
                    strNameToSearch));
            // Create the HTTP request
            HttpParams httpParameters = new BasicHttpParams();

            // Setup timeouts
            HttpConnectionParams
                    .setConnectionTimeout(httpParameters, 45000);
            HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(httpParameters, 45000);

            HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient(httpParameters);
            HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost(
                    "http://172.16.12.142/etsmobile/menuload.php");

            httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));

            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

            String result = EntityUtils.toString(entity);       

            // Create a JSON object from the request response
            JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject(result);

            // Retrieve the data from the JSON object
            pasName = jsonObject.getString("Name");
            pasPost = jsonObject.getString("Post");
            pasStation = jsonObject.getString("Station");


        } catch (Exception ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }

        return true;
    }

This is my Server Side Code

<?php

$firstname = $_POST["FirstNameToSearch"];

$con = mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "") or die("Unable to connect to MySQL");


if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
    echo 'Database connection error: ' . mysqli_connect_error();
    exit();
}

$selected = mysql_select_db("ets", $con) or die("Could not select ets");

$userdetails = mysql_query("SELECT users.* FROM login, users WHERE username = '$firstname' and login.emp_no=users.emp_no");
$getUser_result = mysql_fetch_assoc($userdetails);


$name = $getUser_result['name'];
$post = $getUser_result['post'];
$station = $getUser_result['station'];

mysql_close($con);

$result_data = array('Name' => $name, 'Post' => $post, 'Station' => $station);
//print_r($result_data);
echo json_encode($result_data);
?> 

This is my JSON Output

{"Name":"Sameera Yatawara","Post":"Station Master","Station":"Dematagoda"} 

Answer 1

Try retrieving data with something like this:

...
String result = EntityUtils.toString(entity);

JSONArray array = (JSONArray) new JSONTokener(result).nextValue(); 
JSONObject json = array.getJSONObject(0);
json.getString('name');
...

or

...
String result = EntityUtils.toString(entity);

JSONObject json = (JSONObject ) new JSONTokener(result).nextValue();
json.getString('name');
...

Also check the PHP script encoding. I had similar problem. I set encoding to UTF-8 with DOM in text editor (Notepad++,..) and it start working.