JSON response and converting it to a JSON object -

i have piece of sample code request data website , response turns out gibberish.

import java.io.bufferedreader; import java.io.ioexception; import java.io.inputstreamreader; import java.net.httpurlconnection; import java.net.malformedurlexception; import java.net.url;   public class netclientget {  public static void main(string[] args) {      try     {          url url = new url("http://fids.changiairport.com/webfids/fidsp/get_flightinfo_cache.php?d=0&type=pa&lang=en");          httpurlconnection conn = (httpurlconnection) url.openconnection();         conn.setrequestmethod("get");         conn.setrequestproperty("accept", "application/json");          if (conn.getresponsecode() != 200)         {             throw new runtimeexception("failed : http error code : " + conn.getresponsecode());         }          system.out.println("the connection content type : " + conn.getcontenttype());          // convert input stream json         bufferedreader br = new bufferedreader(new inputstreamreader((conn.getinputstream())));          string output;         system.out.println("output server .... \n");         while ((output = br.readline()) != null)         {             system.out.println(output);         }         conn.disconnect();     } catch (malformedurlexception e)     {         e.printstacktrace();     } catch (ioexception e)     {         e.printstacktrace();     } } 

}

how convert inputstream readable json object. found few questions have response , trying parse.

the first problem code server g'zipping response data, aren't handling. can verify retrieving data via browser , looking @ response headers:

http/1.1 200 ok
date: fri, 10 may 2013 16:03:45 gmt
server: apache/2.2.17 (unix) php/5.3.6
x-powered-by: php/5.3.6
vary: accept-encoding
content-encoding: gzip
keep-alive: timeout=5, max=100
connection: keep-alive
transfer-encoding: chunked
content-type: application/json

thats why output looks 'gibberish'. fix this, chain gzipinputstream on top of url connections output stream.

// convert input stream json bufferedreader br; if ("gzip".equalsignorecase(conn.getcontentencoding())) {     br = new bufferedreader(new inputstreamreader(             (new gzipinputstream(conn.getinputstream())))); } else {     br = new bufferedreader(new inputstreamreader(             (conn.getinputstream()))); } 

the second issue data returned in jsonp format (json wrapped in callback function, callback_function_name(json);). need extract before parsing:

// retrieve data server string output = null; final stringbuffer buffer = new stringbuffer(16384); while ((output = br.readline()) != null) {     buffer.append(output); } conn.disconnect();  // extract json jsonp envelope string jsonp = buffer.tostring(); string json = jsonp.substring(jsonp.indexof("(") + 1,         jsonp.lastindexof(")")); system.out.println("output server"); system.out.println(json); 

so thats it, have desired data server. @ point can use standard json library parse it. example, using gson:

final jsonelement element = new jsonparser().parse(json);