Deserialize strange json with retrofit and Gson

Question

I need to deserialize this json:

    {    
    "17": {
       "entity_id": "17",
       "attribute_set_id": "4",
       "type_id": "virtual",
       },
    "18": {
       "entity_id": "18",
       "attribute_set_id": "9",
       "type_id": "virtual"
       }
    }

but using retrofit and Gson it seems to be impossible.

OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient.Builder()
                .addInterceptor(new SigningInterceptor(consumer))
                .readTimeout(60, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
                .connectTimeout(60, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
                .build();

        retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
                .baseUrl("http://endpoint/")
                .client(client)
                .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
                .build();

So, how can I deserialize this creature? What type can I use?

Answer 1

This is Map where "17" is a key and

{ "entity_id": "17", "attribute_set_id": "4", "type_id": "virtual", }

is a object.

Try HashMap.

Answer 2

You could create a Java class (say Item ) to include member variables ( entity_id , attribute_set_id and type_id ) - I created this Gist , and use JSONObject to do something like this:

JSONObject yourJSON = new JSONObject(jsonString);
//This will iterate through 17, 18, etc
Iterator<String> keysIterator = yourJSON .keys();
while(keysIterator.hasNext()) {
   String key = keysIterator.next();
   JSONObject actualObj = (JSONObject)yourJSON.get(key);
   //Here, supposing you had defined Item class, using Gson, you'd do this:
   Item thisItem = (new Gson()).fromJson(actualObj.toString(), Item.class);
   //From here you can call thisItem.getEntityId(), etc 
}