Parsing JSON by Hand from Azure Mobile Services

1. This post is about parsing data by hand coming back from Azure Mobile Services.
   • It does not rely on the MobileServiceCollectionView to populate controls with data.
   • Use the code below if you want more control over the parsing of data.

1. Use this technique to manually parse JSON data coming back from Azure Mobile Services
   • It gives you fine grained control over the parsing of data coming back.

1. You will need to edit the code as you see below.
   • There is the application key
   • There is the DNS name
2. Both of these items will differ with your own version of Azure Mobile Services

public async void GetData()
{
    // Part of the namespace "System.Net.Http"
    HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("X-ZUMO-APPLICATION", "rZYYXzOAKgiukahLDniLPeydiMpefy22");
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
    //
    // Asynchronously call into the web service
    //
    var response = await client.GetAsync(
        new Uri("https://brunotodoservice.azure-mobile.net/tables/TodoItem"));

    //
    // Read the data as a big string
    //
    var result = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

    //
    // Parse the JSON data
    //
    var parsedResponse = JsonArray.Parse(result);

    //
    // Convert to a JSON array
    //
    JsonArray array = parsedResponse;

    IJsonValue outValue;
    foreach (var item in array)
    {
        var obj = item.GetObject();
        // Extract the text key. Assume there is a “text” column coming back
        if (obj.TryGetValue("text", out outValue))
        {
            string textValue = outValue.GetString();

        }
    }
}

1. For Andrew:
1. The best way to learn all the details of using Azure Mobile Services is to do a lab in the Windows Azure Training Kit.