I have an Android appthat originally posted some strings in json format to a python cgi script, which all worked fine. The problem is when the json object contains lists, then python (Using simplejson) when it gets them is still treating them as a big string
Here is a text dump of the json once it reaches python before I parse it:
{"Prob1":"[1, 2, 3]","Name":"aaa","action":1,"Prob2":"[20, 20, 20]","Tasks":"[1 task, 2 task, 3 task]","Description":""}
if we look at the "Tasks" key, the list after is clearly a single string with the elements all treated as one string (i.e. no quotes around each element). it's the same for prob1 and prob2. action, Name etc are all fine. I'm not sure if this is what python is expecting but I'm guessing not?
Just in case the android data was to blame i added quotes around each element of the arraylist like this:
Tasks.add('"'+row.get(1).toString()+'"'); instead of Tasks.add(row.get(1).toString());
On the webserver it's now received as
{"Prob1":"[1, 2, 3]","Name":"aaa","action":1,"Prob2":"[20, 20, 20]","Tasks":"[\"1 task\", \"2 task\", \"3 task\"]","Description":""}
but i still get the same problem; when i iterate through "Tasks" in a loop it's looping through each individual character as if the whole thing were a string :/
Since I don't know what the json structure should look like before it gets to Python I'm wondering whether it's a probem with the Android sending the data or my python interpreting it.. though from the looks of that script I've been guessing it's been the sending.
In the Android App I'm sending one big JSONObject containing "Tasks" and the associated arraylist as one of the key value pairs... is this correct? or should JSONArray be involved anywhere?
Thanks for any help everyone, I'm new to the whole JSON thing as well as to Android/Java (And only really a novice at Python too..). I can post additional code if anyone needs it, I just didn't want to lengthen the post too much
EDIT:
when I add
json_data=json_data.replace(r'"[','[')
    json_data=json_data.replace(r']"',']')
    json_data=json_data.replace(r'\"','"')
to the python it WORKS!!!! but that strikes me as a bit nasty and just papering over a crack..
Tasks is just a big string. To be a valid list, it would have to be ["1 task", "2 task", "3 task"]

Same goes for Prob1 and Prob2. To be a valid list, the brackets should not be enclosed in quotes.
Python grabbing JSON from POST method