Send POST request with JSON data using Volley

I would like to send a new JsonObjectRequest request:

• I want to receive JSON data (response from server): OK

• I want to send JSON formatted data with this request to the server

  JsonObjectRequest request = new JsonObjectRequest(
      Request.Method.POST, "myurl.com", null,
      new Response.Listener<JSONObject>() {
          @Override
          public void onResponse(JSONObject response) {
              //...
          }
      },
      new Response.ErrorListener() {
          @Override
          public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {
              //...
          }
      })
      {
          @Override
          protected Map<String,String> getParams() {
              // something to do here ??
              return params;
          }
  
          @Override
          public Map<String, String> getHeaders() throws AuthFailureError {
              // something to do here ??
              return params;
          }
      };
  

P.S. I use GSON library in my project too.

Solution 1:

JsonObjectRequest actually accepts JSONObject as body.

From this blog article,

final String url = "some/url";
final JSONObject jsonBody = new JSONObject("{\"type\":\"example\"}");

new JsonObjectRequest(url, jsonBody, new Response.Listener<JSONObject>() { ... });

Here is the source code and JavaDoc (@param jsonRequest):

/**
 * Creates a new request.
 * @param method the HTTP method to use
 * @param url URL to fetch the JSON from
 * @param jsonRequest A {@link JSONObject} to post with the request. Null is allowed and
 *   indicates no parameters will be posted along with request.
 * @param listener Listener to receive the JSON response
 * @param errorListener Error listener, or null to ignore errors.
 */
public JsonObjectRequest(int method, String url, JSONObject jsonRequest,
        Listener<JSONObject> listener, ErrorListener errorListener) {
    super(method, url, (jsonRequest == null) ? null : jsonRequest.toString(), listener,
                errorListener);
}

Solution 2:

I know that this thread is quite old, but I had this problem and I came up with a cool solution which can be very useful to many because it corrects/extended the Volley library on many aspects.

I spotted some not supported-out-of-box Volley features:

• This JSONObjectRequest is not perfect: you have to expect a JSON at the end (see the Response.Listener<JSONObject>).
• What about Empty Responses (just with a 200 status)?
• What do I do if I want directly my POJO from the ResponseListener?

I more or less compiled a lot of solutions in a big generic class in order to have a solution for all the problem I quoted.

  /**
  * Created by laurentmeyer on 25/07/15.
  */
 public class GenericRequest<T> extends JsonRequest<T> {

     private final Gson gson = new Gson();
     private final Class<T> clazz;
     private final Map<String, String> headers;
     // Used for request which do not return anything from the server
     private boolean muteRequest = false;

     /**
      * Basically, this is the constructor which is called by the others.
      * It allows you to send an object of type A to the server and expect a JSON representing a object of type B.
      * The problem with the #JsonObjectRequest is that you expect a JSON at the end.
      * We can do better than that, we can directly receive our POJO.
      * That's what this class does.
      *
      * @param method:        HTTP Method
      * @param classtype:     Classtype to parse the JSON coming from the server
      * @param url:           url to be called
      * @param requestBody:   The body being sent
      * @param listener:      Listener of the request
      * @param errorListener: Error handler of the request
      * @param headers:       Added headers
      */
     private GenericRequest(int method, Class<T> classtype, String url, String requestBody,
                           Response.Listener<T> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener, Map<String, String> headers) {
         super(method, url, requestBody, listener,
                 errorListener);
         clazz = classtype;
         this.headers = headers;
         configureRequest();
     }

     /**
      * Method to be called if you want to send some objects to your server via body in JSON of the request (with headers and not muted)
      *
      * @param method:        HTTP Method
      * @param url:           URL to be called
      * @param classtype:     Classtype to parse the JSON returned from the server
      * @param toBeSent:      Object which will be transformed in JSON via Gson and sent to the server
      * @param listener:      Listener of the request
      * @param errorListener: Error handler of the request
      * @param headers:       Added headers
      */
     public GenericRequest(int method, String url, Class<T> classtype, Object toBeSent,
                           Response.Listener<T> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener, Map<String, String> headers) {
         this(method, classtype, url, new Gson().toJson(toBeSent), listener,
                 errorListener, headers);
     }

     /**
      * Method to be called if you want to send some objects to your server via body in JSON of the request (without header and not muted)
      *
      * @param method:        HTTP Method
      * @param url:           URL to be called
      * @param classtype:     Classtype to parse the JSON returned from the server
      * @param toBeSent:      Object which will be transformed in JSON via Gson and sent to the server
      * @param listener:      Listener of the request
      * @param errorListener: Error handler of the request
      */
     public GenericRequest(int method, String url, Class<T> classtype, Object toBeSent,
                           Response.Listener<T> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener) {
         this(method, classtype, url, new Gson().toJson(toBeSent), listener,
                 errorListener, new HashMap<String, String>());
     }

     /**
      * Method to be called if you want to send something to the server but not with a JSON, just with a defined String (without header and not muted)
      *
      * @param method:        HTTP Method
      * @param url:           URL to be called
      * @param classtype:     Classtype to parse the JSON returned from the server
      * @param requestBody:   String to be sent to the server
      * @param listener:      Listener of the request
      * @param errorListener: Error handler of the request
      */
     public GenericRequest(int method, String url, Class<T> classtype, String requestBody,
                           Response.Listener<T> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener) {
         this(method, classtype, url, requestBody, listener,
                 errorListener, new HashMap<String, String>());
     }

     /**
      * Method to be called if you want to GET something from the server and receive the POJO directly after the call (no JSON). (Without header)
      *
      * @param url:           URL to be called
      * @param classtype:     Classtype to parse the JSON returned from the server
      * @param listener:      Listener of the request
      * @param errorListener: Error handler of the request
      */
     public GenericRequest(String url, Class<T> classtype, Response.Listener<T> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener) {
         this(Request.Method.GET, url, classtype, "", listener, errorListener);
     }

     /**
      * Method to be called if you want to GET something from the server and receive the POJO directly after the call (no JSON). (With headers)
      *
      * @param url:           URL to be called
      * @param classtype:     Classtype to parse the JSON returned from the server
      * @param listener:      Listener of the request
      * @param errorListener: Error handler of the request
      * @param headers:       Added headers
      */
     public GenericRequest(String url, Class<T> classtype, Response.Listener<T> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener, Map<String, String> headers) {
         this(Request.Method.GET, classtype, url, "", listener, errorListener, headers);
     }

     /**
      * Method to be called if you want to send some objects to your server via body in JSON of the request (with headers and muted)
      *
      * @param method:        HTTP Method
      * @param url:           URL to be called
      * @param classtype:     Classtype to parse the JSON returned from the server
      * @param toBeSent:      Object which will be transformed in JSON via Gson and sent to the server
      * @param listener:      Listener of the request
      * @param errorListener: Error handler of the request
      * @param headers:       Added headers
      * @param mute:          Muted (put it to true, to make sense)
      */
     public GenericRequest(int method, String url, Class<T> classtype, Object toBeSent,
                           Response.Listener<T> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener, Map<String, String> headers, boolean mute) {
         this(method, classtype, url, new Gson().toJson(toBeSent), listener,
                 errorListener, headers);
         this.muteRequest = mute;
     }

     /**
      * Method to be called if you want to send some objects to your server via body in JSON of the request (without header and muted)
      *
      * @param method:        HTTP Method
      * @param url:           URL to be called
      * @param classtype:     Classtype to parse the JSON returned from the server
      * @param toBeSent:      Object which will be transformed in JSON via Gson and sent to the server
      * @param listener:      Listener of the request
      * @param errorListener: Error handler of the request
      * @param mute:          Muted (put it to true, to make sense)
      */
     public GenericRequest(int method, String url, Class<T> classtype, Object toBeSent,
                           Response.Listener<T> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener, boolean mute) {
         this(method, classtype, url, new Gson().toJson(toBeSent), listener,
                 errorListener, new HashMap<String, String>());
         this.muteRequest = mute;

     }

     /**
      * Method to be called if you want to send something to the server but not with a JSON, just with a defined String (without header and not muted)
      *
      * @param method:        HTTP Method
      * @param url:           URL to be called
      * @param classtype:     Classtype to parse the JSON returned from the server
      * @param requestBody:   String to be sent to the server
      * @param listener:      Listener of the request
      * @param errorListener: Error handler of the request
      * @param mute:          Muted (put it to true, to make sense)
      */
     public GenericRequest(int method, String url, Class<T> classtype, String requestBody,
                           Response.Listener<T> listener, Response.ErrorListener errorListener, boolean mute) {
         this(method, classtype, url, requestBody, listener,
                 errorListener, new HashMap<String, String>());
         this.muteRequest = mute;

     }


     @Override
     protected Response<T> parseNetworkResponse(NetworkResponse response) {
         // The magic of the mute request happens here
         if (muteRequest) {
             if (response.statusCode >= 200 && response.statusCode <= 299) {
                 // If the status is correct, we return a success but with a null object, because the server didn't return anything
                 return Response.success(null, HttpHeaderParser.parseCacheHeaders(response));
             }
         } else {
             try {
                 // If it's not muted; we just need to create our POJO from the returned JSON and handle correctly the errors
                 String json = new String(response.data, HttpHeaderParser.parseCharset(response.headers));
                 T parsedObject = gson.fromJson(json, clazz);
                 return Response.success(parsedObject, HttpHeaderParser.parseCacheHeaders(response));
             } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
                 return Response.error(new ParseError(e));
             } catch (JsonSyntaxException e) {
                 return Response.error(new ParseError(e));
             }
         }
         return null;
     }

     @Override
     public Map<String, String> getHeaders() throws AuthFailureError {
         return headers != null ? headers : super.getHeaders();
     }

     private void configureRequest() {
         // Set retry policy
         // Add headers, for auth for example
         // ...
     }
 }

It could seem a bit overkill but it's pretty cool to have all these constructors because you have all the cases:

(The main constructor wasn't meant to be used directly although it's, of course, possible).

1. Request with response parsed to POJO / Headers manually set / POJO to Send
2. Request with response parsed to POJO / POJO to Send
3. Request with response parsed to POJO / String to Send
4. Request with response parsed to POJO (GET)
5. Request with response parsed to POJO (GET) / Headers manually set
6. Request with no response (200 - Empty Body) / Headers manually set / POJO to Send
7. Request with no response (200 - Empty Body) / POJO to Send
8. Request with no response (200 - Empty Body) / String to Send

Of course, in order that it works, you have to have Google's GSON Lib; just add:

compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:x.y.z'

to your dependencies (current version is 2.3.1).

Solution 3:

final String URL = "/volley/resource/12";
// Post params to be sent to the server
HashMap<String, String> params = new HashMap<String, String>();
params.put("token", "AbCdEfGh123456");

JsonObjectRequest req = new JsonObjectRequest(URL, new JSONObject(params),
       new Response.Listener<JSONObject>() {
           @Override
           public void onResponse(JSONObject response) {
               try {
                   VolleyLog.v("Response:%n %s", response.toString(4));
               } catch (JSONException e) {
                   e.printStackTrace();
               }
           }
       }, new Response.ErrorListener() {
           @Override
           public void onErrorResponse(VolleyError error) {
               VolleyLog.e("Error: ", error.getMessage());
           }
       });

// add the request object to the queue to be executed
ApplicationController.getInstance().addToRequestQueue(req);

refer