How do you add array in Data portion of Java HTTP POST request?

Question

I'm writing an HTTP POST request in Java using Apache HttpPost and MultipartEntity . In the data portion of the request, I am able to add simple parts using addPart(name, StringBody) . However, I need to add body part that is an array of values. How do I do this? The example from a curl request is:

curl -k -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{ "name":"someName", 
"email":"noone@nowhere.com", "properties" : { "prop1" : "123", "prop2" : "abc" }}' 
-X POST 'https://some.place.com/api/test'

In Java, I can create the request like this, but I need to know how to create the "properties" array value since StringBody is for a single value:

HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(newAdultUrl);
MultipartEntity entity = new MultipartEntity();
entity.addPart("name", new StringBody("someName"));
entity.addPart("email", new StringBody("noone@nowhere.com"));
entity.addPart("properties", new ??? );
httpPost.setEntity(entity);

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

I did a similar thing as Roberg, but for me worked when I added [] to the end of the keys, like:

 entity.addPart("properties[]", new StringBody("value 1"));
 entity.addPart("properties[]", new StringBody("value 2"));
 entity.addPart("properties[]", new StringBody("value 3"));

Answer 2

Here is one approach that works using StringEntity instead of MultipartEntity:

HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(newUrl);
String jsonData = <create using your favorite JSON library>;
StringEntity entity = new StringEntity(jsonData);
httpPost.setEntity(entity);

I would like to see an answer using MultipartEntity if there is one, but this will get the job done.

Answer 3

In the StringBody pass a method that converts an array to json.
For example JSONArray

new JSONArray(collection).toString()

Answer 4

I was struggling with this too and was able to figure out the answer.

entity.addPart("properties[prop1]", new StringBody("123");
entity.addPart("properties[prop2]", new StringBody("abc");

Answer 5

For me, properties[] or properties did NOT work for me.

To specify number for each array works fine as below.

 entity.addPart("properties[0]", new StringBody("value 1");
 entity.addPart("properties[1]", new StringBody("value 2");
 entity.addPart("properties[2]", new StringBody("value 3");