HTTP API send Json values fails Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

[Hannes_]

I am trying to implement a .Net library for the API to adafruit io (Which for now is HTTP only).
It works fine, except when sending .Json as the data in 'value'. According to this "https://io.adafruit.com/api/docs/cookbook.html?ruby#double-encoded-json-strings" i can just send the value as .Json inside the .Json with 'value' 'lat' like this:
{"value":{"name":"Testname"}, "lat":12}
However i will get back a Bad Formatted or Unprocessable Entity from the Server. Even if i try the example provided on the mentioned page it does not work.
Does someone know if it is possible to send the value as .json in the way i am trying to do and it is just a bug in my code or is it maybe not possible with the HTTP API?

If i use the same code to send values of type string {"value":"TestValue", "lat":0.00, ...} it does work, so i would think that all the other settings should be correct.
My current workaround is therefore to send all data as value of type string like that:
{"value":"{\"TestValue\":10}", "lat":0.00, ...} (with escaped "), which does work but requires some extra handling which seems a bit unnecessary.
Does anyone have some information regarding this or spottet an error in the way i try to do that?

[lorennorman]

Hello Hannes_!

Edit: Oops, I got this wrong! The Adafruit IO API should in fact accept the raw object format as well as a double-encoded string. It is not clear what the issue is, here. The remainder of this response should be disregarded.

It looks like you've explained the behavior accurately, this:

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{"value":{"name":"Testname"}, "lat":12}

...will not work, while this:

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{"value":"{\"TestValue\":10}", "lat":0.00}

...works fine.

This is because when sending JSON, you do have to encode the "value" field so that it is sent as a string. But you don't have to do this manually, .NET will have a utility function to do the encoding work for you. A quick web search on the subject shows that you can use the `JsonSerializer.Serialize` method for this: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet ... son-how-to

Let me know if this is making sense, and good luck on your .NET api library!

[Hannes_]

Hello lorennorman,
thanks you for the reply. I just thought that the first version would also work because a similar thing is described in the documentation https://io.adafruit.com/api/docs/cookbook.html?ruby#io-formatted-json:

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{
  "value": {"sensor-1":22.587,"sensor-2":13.182},
  "lat": 38.1123,
  "lon": -91.2325,
  "ele": 112
}

Am i reading the document the wrong way or is it maybe a mistake?


Currently i use the second version with newtonsoft .json .Net to handle the .Json de- and encoding.
I wasn't aware that there is the System.Text.Json so thanks for your tip. Are there any advantages you think i should consider?

PS:
If anybody is interested in the project I decided to publish it on github so feel free to use it or participate:
https://github.com/HannesZeihsel/adafruit-io-api

[lorennorman]

Oops! I see what you're referencing now, and you're totally right, the raw object form should work as well! We double-checked our side and everything looks fine, so I think we don't have enough information to troubleshoot it further. It sounds like you've gotten it working by double-encoding though, and that's the safest option regardless (particularly for a library!)

As for the appropriate .NET JSON libraries, I am out of my element. I would use whatever the community is using and finding productive, and it looks like that answer was in fact Newtonsoft, at least until MS built something in. I suppose you might decide to use the built-in just to reduce dependencies, but either appear to be fine options.

Thank you so much for open sourcing your work!