How to create a Nested JSON Object payload and pass it as the payload of Playwright Java API post request.

Let’s warm up with an easy one , I want to create the below payload.

{
    "monitors": [
        {
            "monitorId": "yourMonitorIdVariable"
        }
    ]
}

For that I could use below code. Refer the inline comments for clarity. This will give the above outcome.

import com.google.gson.JsonArray;
import com.google.gson.JsonObject;


public class JsonCreation {
    public JsonObject jsonBodyCreationToExecuteSyntheticAlert(String monitorId) {



       

        // Create the main JSON object
        JsonObject mainJsonObjectPayload = new JsonObject();

        // Create the "monitors" array
        JsonArray monitorsArray = new JsonArray();

        // Create a monitor object
        JsonObject monitorObject = new JsonObject();
        monitorObject.addProperty("monitorId", monitorId);

        // Add the monitor object to the monitors array
        monitorsArray.add(monitorObject);

        // Add the monitors array to the main JSON object
        mainJsonObjectPayload.add("monitors", monitorsArray);
        
        return mainJsonObjectPayload;
    }
}

If you get below error, Don’t use jsonObject.toString on a JSON object when use the Json object in the Rest assured payload.

{
    "error": {
        "code": 400,
        "message": "Could not map JSON at '' near line 1 column 1"
    }
}

To demonstrate this, I used the https://petstore.swagger.io/#/pet/addPet example. I want to generate this payload and pass it .

{
 "id": 0,
 "category": {
  "id": 0,
  "name": "string"
 },
 "name": "doggie",
 "photoUrls": ["samurl"],
 "tags": [{
  "id": 666,
  "name": "myname"
 }],
 "status": "available"
}

So let’s breakdown the generating the payload as a separate class.This will print the above payload.

package com.payloads;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.JsonArray;
import com.google.gson.JsonObject;

public class CreatedNestedJSONObjectPayloadUsingJavaMapWithArray {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Create a Gson instance
        Gson gson = new Gson();

        // Create the main JSON object
        JsonObject mainJsonObjectPayload = new JsonObject();

        // Add properties to the main JSON object since id doesn't have child can add directly.

        mainJsonObjectPayload.addProperty("id", 0);

        // Create and add the nested "category" JSON object since category has two children as id,name
        JsonObject categoryObject = new JsonObject();
        categoryObject.addProperty("id", 0);
        categoryObject.addProperty("name", "string");
        //After that add category to main object as a simple key and value.
        mainJsonObjectPayload.add("category", categoryObject);

        // since id doesn't have child can add directly.
        mainJsonObjectPayload.addProperty("name", "doggie");

        // Create and add the "photoUrls" JSON array since "photoUrls"  value is an array with 1 element.
        JsonArray photoUrlsArray = new JsonArray();
        // Add array element
        photoUrlsArray.add("samurl");
        //After that add photoUrls to main object as a simple key and value.
        mainJsonObjectPayload.add("photoUrls", photoUrlsArray);

        // Create and add the "tags" JSON array, tags also same , it has 2 elements as id and name.
        JsonArray tagsArray = new JsonArray();
        JsonObject tagObject = new JsonObject();
        tagObject.addProperty("id", 666);
        tagObject.addProperty("name", "myname");
        tagsArray.add(tagObject);
        mainJsonObjectPayload.add("tags", tagsArray);


        // since id doesn't have child can add directly.
        mainJsonObjectPayload.addProperty("status", "available");

        // Convert the JSON object to a formatted string
        String gsonOutput= gson.toJson(mainJsonObjectPayload);

        // Print the formatted JSON output
        System.out.println(gsonOutput);
    }
}

So to create a pet we can use that

    //POST Call: create a user
        APIResponse apiPostResponse = requestContext.post("https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet",
                RequestOptions.create()
                        .setHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
                        .setData(gsonOutput)
        );

So all together the code is as per below.

package com.api.scripts;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.JsonArray;
import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
import com.microsoft.playwright.APIRequest;
import com.microsoft.playwright.APIRequestContext;
import com.microsoft.playwright.APIResponse;
import com.microsoft.playwright.Playwright;
import com.microsoft.playwright.options.RequestOptions;
import org.testng.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.*;

import java.io.IOException;


public class PostNestedJsonObjectWithArray {
    Playwright playwright;
    APIRequest request;
    APIRequestContext requestContext;

    @BeforeClass
    public void setup() {
        playwright = Playwright.create();
        request = playwright.request();
        requestContext = request.newContext();
    }




    @Test
    public void createUserTest() throws IOException {


        // Create a Gson instance
        Gson gson = new Gson();

        // Create the main JSON object
        JsonObject mainJsonObjectPayload = new JsonObject();

        // Add properties to the main JSON object since id doesn't have child can add directly.

        mainJsonObjectPayload.addProperty("id", 0);

        // Create and add the nested "category" JSON object since category has two children as id,name
        JsonObject categoryObject = new JsonObject();
        categoryObject.addProperty("id", 0);
        categoryObject.addProperty("name", "string");
        //After that add category to main object as a simple key and value.
        mainJsonObjectPayload.add("category", categoryObject);

        // since id doesn't have child can add directly.
        mainJsonObjectPayload.addProperty("name", "doggie");

        // Create and add the "photoUrls" JSON array since "photoUrls"  value is an array with 1 element.
        JsonArray photoUrlsArray = new JsonArray();
        // Add array element
        photoUrlsArray.add("samurl");
        //After that add photoUrls to main object as a simple key and value.
        mainJsonObjectPayload.add("photoUrls", photoUrlsArray);

        // Create and add the "tags" JSON array, tags also same , it has 2 elements as id and name.
        JsonArray tagsArray = new JsonArray();
        JsonObject tagObject = new JsonObject();
        tagObject.addProperty("id", 666);
        tagObject.addProperty("name", "myname");
        tagsArray.add(tagObject);
        mainJsonObjectPayload.add("tags", tagsArray);


        // since id doesn't have child can add directly.
        mainJsonObjectPayload.addProperty("status", "available");

        // Convert the JSON object to a formatted string
        String gsonOutput = gson.toJson(mainJsonObjectPayload);

        // Print the formatted JSON output
        System.out.println(gsonOutput);



        //POST Call: create a user
        APIResponse apiPostResponse = requestContext.post("https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet",
                RequestOptions.create()
                        .setHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
                        .setData(gsonOutput)
        );

        System.out.println(apiPostResponse.status());
        Assert.assertEquals(apiPostResponse.status(), 200);

        System.out.println(apiPostResponse.text());

        ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
        JsonNode postJsonResponse = objectMapper.readTree(apiPostResponse.body());
        System.out.println(postJsonResponse.toPrettyString());

        //capture id from the post json response:
        String userId = postJsonResponse.get("id").asText();
        System.out.println("user id : " + userId);


    }
    @AfterClass
    public void tearDown() {
        playwright.close();
    }
}

This will generates the below output.

{"id":0,"category":{"id":0,"name":"string"},"name":"doggie","photoUrls":["samurl"],"tags":[{"id":666,"name":"myname"}],"status":"available"}
200
{"id":9223372036854755489,"category":{"id":0,"name":"string"},"name":"doggie","photoUrls":["samurl"],"tags":[{"id":666,"name":"myname"}],"status":"available"}
{
  "id" : 9223372036854755489,
  "category" : {
    "id" : 0,
    "name" : "string"
  },
  "name" : "doggie",
  "photoUrls" : [ "samurl" ],
  "tags" : [ {
    "id" : 666,
    "name" : "myname"
  } ],
  "status" : "available"
}
user id : 9223372036854755489

POM.XML that I used it as per below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>org.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>PlayrightMavenJavaDemo</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <properties>
        <maven.compiler.source>18</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>18</maven.compiler.target>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    </properties>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.8.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>11</source>
                    <target>11</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.0.0-M1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <suiteXmlFiles>
                        <suiteXmlFile>mytestng.xml</suiteXmlFile>
                    </suiteXmlFiles>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
        <resources>
            <resource>
                <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
                <filtering>true</filtering>
            </resource>
        </resources>
    </build>
    <dependencies>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.testng/testng -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.testng</groupId>
            <artifactId>testng</artifactId>
            <version>7.8.0</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.microsoft.playwright</groupId>
            <artifactId>playwright</artifactId>
            <version>1.33.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.fasterxml.jackson.core/jackson-databind -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
            <version>2.15.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.json/json -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.json</groupId>
            <artifactId>json</artifactId>
            <version>20230618</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>

Some good videos to check about payload generation-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3USL0lolTtU&ab_channel=TalkwithLal