Android : java.lang.String cannot be converted to JSONObject

Question

I'm getting error:

java.lang.String cannot be converted to JSONObject

I want test this tutorial in this website ( http://www.androidhive.info/2012/01/android-json-parsing-tutorial/ ), but i have an error (Value of type java.lang.String cannot be converted to JSONObject), thanks for help

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

private String TAG = MainActivity.class.getSimpleName();

private ProgressDialog pDialog;
private ListView lv;

// URL to get contacts JSON
private static String url = "http://api.androidhive.info/contacts/";

ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>> contactList;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    contactList = new ArrayList<>();

    lv = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.list);

    new GetContacts().execute();
}

/**
 * Async task class to get json by making HTTP call
 */
private class GetContacts extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {

    @Override
    protected void onPreExecute() {
        super.onPreExecute();
        // Showing progress dialog
        pDialog = new ProgressDialog(MainActivity.this);
        pDialog.setMessage("Please wait...");
        pDialog.setCancelable(false);
        pDialog.show();

    }

    @Override
    protected Void doInBackground(Void... arg0) {
        HttpHandler sh = new HttpHandler();

        // Making a request to url and getting response
        String jsonStr = sh.makeServiceCall(url);

        Log.e(TAG, "Response from url: " + jsonStr);

        if (jsonStr != null) {
            try {
                JSONObject jsonObj = new JSONObject(jsonStr);

                // Getting JSON Array node
                JSONArray contacts = jsonObj.getJSONArray("contacts");

                // looping through All Contacts
                for (int i = 0; i < contacts.length(); i++) {
                    JSONObject c = contacts.getJSONObject(i);

                    String id = c.getString("id");
                    String name = c.getString("name");
                    String email = c.getString("email");
                    String address = c.getString("address");
                    String gender = c.getString("gender");

                    // Phone node is JSON Object
                    JSONObject phone = c.getJSONObject("phone");
                    String mobile = phone.getString("mobile");
                    String home = phone.getString("home");
                    String office = phone.getString("office");

                    // tmp hash map for single contact
                    HashMap<String, String> contact = new HashMap<>();

                    // adding each child node to HashMap key => value
                    contact.put("id", id);
                    contact.put("name", name);
                    contact.put("email", email);
                    contact.put("mobile", mobile);

                    // adding contact to contact list
                    contactList.add(contact);
                }
            } catch (final JSONException e) {
                Log.e(TAG, "Json parsing error: " + e.getMessage());
                runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                    @Override
                    public void run() {
                        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
                                "Json parsing error: " + e.getMessage(),
                                Toast.LENGTH_LONG)
                                .show();
                    }
                });

            }
        } else {
            Log.e(TAG, "Couldn't get json from server.");
            runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
                            "Couldn't get json from server. Check LogCat for possible errors!",
                            Toast.LENGTH_LONG)
                            .show();
                }
            });

        }

        return null;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Void result) {
        super.onPostExecute(result);
        // Dismiss the progress dialog
        if (pDialog.isShowing())
            pDialog.dismiss();
        /**
         * Updating parsed JSON data into ListView
         * */
        ListAdapter adapter = new SimpleAdapter(
                MainActivity.this, contactList,
                R.layout.list_item, new String[]{"name", "email",
                "mobile"}, new int[]{R.id.name,
                R.id.email, R.id.mobile});

        lv.setAdapter(adapter);
    }

 }
}

Answer 1

Change the URL to " https://api.androidhive.info/contacts/ ";

https instead of http it will work

I downloaded the code myself and checked it. Actually, the error will appear anytime even if the internet connectivity is absent. This demo is very basic and has not taken care of exceptions very well. So technically when the request fails a blank string is returned by sh.makeServiceCall(url); which Android cannot convert into a JSON.

So just make sure the internet connectivity is fine on the device else modify the sh.makeServiceCall(url) function.