android how to send int and double as namevaluepair as http post

Question

I've an app where i am trying to send data to a webservice using a http post. The user data is a mixture of strings int and doubles. In the app all are represented as Strings as when i use AsyncTask to run the network call, (so that it's not on the main thread), the params array is of type String.

The problem i have is that the server expects an int sometimes. eg compID is an int that the server expects. When using the http post, i use NameValuePair. This will only accept strings. How can i pass an int or a double to the http post?

In my activity.

String[] params = new String[]{tagCompany, tagId, tagPerson, OUT,
                                null, null,null, null, null, null}; 
                        AsyncPostData apd = new AsyncPostData();
                        apd.execute(params);





private class AsyncPostData extends AsyncTask<String, Void, Void> {

        ProgressDialog progressDialog;

        @Override
        protected void onPreExecute()
        {
            progressDialog= ProgressDialog.show(NfcscannerActivity.this, 
                    "Connecting to Server"," Posting data...", true);            
        };  


        @Override
        protected Void doInBackground(String... params) {

            nfcscannerapplication.loginWebservice.postData(params[0], params[1], params[2], params[3], params[4],
                    params[5], params[6], params[7], params[8], params[9]);
            return null;
        }

         @Override
            protected void onPostExecute(Void result)
            {
             super.onPostExecute(result);
                if(progressDialog != null)
                progressDialog.dismiss();

            }
    }//end of AsyncPostData 

.

My post method

public void postData( String compID, String tagID, String clientID, String carerID, 
            String phoneScanned, String phoneSent, String TXType, String phoneType, String latitude, String longitude) {
        // Create a new HttpClient and Post Header
        HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient();
        HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost("http://cfweb.yourofficeanywhere.co.uk:88/roadrunner.asmx/PostTransaction");


        try {
            // Add your data
            List<NameValuePair> nameValuePairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(2);
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("CompanyID", compID));
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("TagID", tagID));
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("ClientID", clientID));
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("CarerID", carerID));
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("PhoneScanned", "2010-10-16 16:30 000"));
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("PhoneSent", "2010-10-16 16:32 000"));
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("TXType", "2"));
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("PhoneType", "2"));
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("Latitude", latitude));
            nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("Longitude", longitude));

            httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nameValuePairs));

            // Execute HTTP Post Request
            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(httppost);

            Log.e(TAG, "response of post = " + response.toString());



        } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        }
    } 

In my post method some of the values are set to null for now. What i would like to know is how to make compID an int in the NameValuePair. compID comes over from the activity as a String but the server expects an int.

Solution

You can do something like this:

nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("TXType",Integer.toString (2)));

TxType is the key and 2 is the value

Comments

[turtleboy]

Hi, this is the problem i have. if i go nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("CompanyID", Integer.parseInt(compID))); Eclipse complains that String, int is undefined for NameValuePair

[Agata]

Try nameValuePairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("CompanyID", ((int)Integer.parseInt(compID))));

[Astrorvald]

The constructor of BasicNameValuePair is (String, String), so it won't work.

[Agata]

So... your problem is that server accepts only int, but from application you can only send String?

[turtleboy]

Hi The variable compID is a String. NameValuePair will only accept <String,String> not <String, int>, but the server expects <String, int>

[kittu88]

you can change the datatype in the server, if it is possible. I guess that will be less tedious.

[turtleboy]

yes Astrorvald has got it right. The constructor is String String. I need to send String, int to server. So is there another data structure other than NameValePair that can handle this?

[turtleboy]

I've had a chat with director and he says we might be able to change what the server expects. like you say might be easier:)

[turtleboy]

@Astrorvald Hi do you want to put that as an answer and i'll accept it