How to extract and convert RapidAPI ResponseBody to JSON string in Android?

Other Questions RapidAPI
1

I am using a dictionary API via RapidAPI in my Android application, but I’m having difficulty retrieving the actual response data. When I log the response body, all I see is something like okhttp3.internal.http.RealResponseBody@7a2b8d1 instead of the expected JSON content.

OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
Request request = new Request.Builder()
    .url("https://mashape-community-urban-dictionary.p.rapidapi.com/define?term=check")
    .get()
    .addHeader("x-rapidapi-host", "mashape-community-urban-dictionary.p.rapidapi.com")
    .addHeader("x-rapidapi-key", API_KEY)
    .build();

Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

Log.d("TAG", "response details: " + response.toString());
Log.d("TAG", "response headers: " + response.headers());
Log.d("TAG", "response content: " + response.body());
Log.d("TAG", "message: " + response.message());

The logs display:

Response details: Response{protocol=http/1.1, code=200, message=OK, url=https://mashape-community-urban-dictionary.p.rapidapi.com/define?term=check}

Response headers: Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 11:03:35 GMT
Server: RapidAPI-1.1.0

Response content: okhttp3.internal.http.RealResponseBody@6e33b4c

Message: OK

How can I correctly get the JSON data out from this ResponseBody and convert it into a string?

2

yeah, that object is just a ref to the response. use response.body().string() to get the JSON. just a tip - you can only call string() once, so save it in a var if you need it multiple times or you’ll run into some errors!

3

You’re logging the ResponseBody object instead of its content. When you call response.body(), you get a ResponseBody instance - logging that just shows the object reference.

Fix it like this:

String responseData = response.body().string();
Log.d("TAG", "JSON response: " + responseData);

I’ve hit this same issue with OkHttp APIs. The ResponseBody.string() method pulls the entire response into memory as a string - perfect for JSON parsing. Works great for normal-sized responses, but you’ll want to stream larger ones.

Once you’ve got the string, parse it with Gson or JSONObject.

4

This happens all the time with OkHttp responses. That ResponseBody object you’re seeing? It’s just a reference to the response data, not the actual content. You need to call the string() method on the response body to get the JSON.

Replace your last log statement with:

String jsonResponse = response.body().string();
Log.d("TAG", "JSON content: " + jsonResponse);

Here’s the catch - you can only call string() once on a ResponseBody. After that, the response stream is consumed and you’ll get empty results or an exception if you try again. Need to use the response data multiple times? Store it in a String variable first like I showed above, then work with that variable instead of hitting the response body repeatedly.