JSON sending fine as key:answer, not key:array - php

Question

I'm having an issue where my android application is getting a positive result from our key:answer POST, but not from key:array for the same structure. My web developer is saying that I'm not serialising it properly, but every JSON tester I can find on the web is quite happy with the send, just not our web server. I'm sending my JSON in groups of 10 as a string (We had a previous issue where when sending about 200 keys it was giving issues, so I've split it down to 10 per send) and the JSON sent is as follows:
[{
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "date_inspDate",
"answervalues": "18-07-2017"
}, {
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "text_clientRep",
"answervalues": "testrep"
}, {
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "text_designCode",
"answervalues": "destdesign"
}, {
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "text_qcPlan",
"answervalues": "testqc"
}, {
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "text_equipDesc",
"answervalues": "testdesc"
}, {
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "text_companyName",
"answervalues": "testco"
}, {
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "text_drawingNo",
"answervalues": "testrev"
}, {
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "Detail",
"answervalues": [{
"register": 1,
"values": "act2"
}, {
"register": 2,
"values": "act3"
}]
}, {
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "Regulated",
"answervalues": [{
"register": 1,
"values": "YES"
}, {
"register": 2,
"values": "NO"
}]
}, {
"jobDetails": {
"jobid": "7",
"company": {
"cmid": "30"
}
},
"formName": "IPE Report",
"formHeader": "Activity",
"key": "Comments",
"answervalues": [{
"register": 1,
"values": "DIMENSIONS CHECK"
}, {
"register": 2,
"values": "HOLD POINT"
}]
}]
All is fine until it hits the Detail key, which is an array. This structure was sending fine last week, they claim they've changed nothing. Is it really a serialisation issue on my side or is the server just not accepting that key as either value or array?

Answer 1

From your error message:
"JSON parse error: Can not deserialize instance of java.lang.String out of START_ARRAY token;"
I think you problem is in 'answervalues'.
/* in some entries you have it as an array of objects*/
"answervalues": [{
"register": 1,
"values": "YES"
}, {
"register": 2,
"values": "NO"
}]
/* while in other entries as a string */
"answervalues": "testrev"
Talk with your developer to see how this need to be formatted. I believe the string values also need to be passed as an object in a single array. Something like..
"answervalues": [{
"register": 1,
"values":"testrev"
}]