Support Nested Models

[idoshamun]

I'm trying to define a model with an array of models inside it with the Android SDK and I'm struggling with a casting problem from HashMap to my model.
Let's take for example a model called Feed that contains an array of Posts (which is a model also) and a link to the next page (a simple string).
When I try to get a Feed object with a custom static method using the JsonObjectParser, it throws an exception that it can't cast HashMap to Post.
Right now, the only solution I came up with is to overload the setter of Posts with ArrayList<HasMap<String, ? extends Object>> as a parameter instead of ArrayList<Post>.

[bajtos]

We should hopefully get this for free once we replace our hand-written JSON parser with a proper library supporting custom annotations - see #61.

[firaskafri]

Any updates on this?

[techscientist]

Any updates on this? this would be a crucial feature for many apps

[jamesw6811]

+1 -- This is absolutely essential to our use-case.

[azubieta]

Any updates on this topic ? It's there another way of doing the same ?

[jjhesk]

+1 when is this done?!!!!

Using gson ( "com.google.code.gson:gson:2.6.2") and it has done it.. Please let me know thxx

[JoshDavisMP]

Until the feature gets added, I've found the potential temporary workaround. I haven't thoroughly tested it yet, but it seems to get me at least part of the way there:

public void setMyProperty(Map<String,? extends Object> item) {
    RestAdapter adapter = this.getRepository().getAdapter();
    ChildTypeRepository repository = adapter.createRepository(ChildTypeRepository.class);
    this.myProperty = (ChildModelType) repository.createObject(item);
}

public void setMyListProperty(List<Map<String,? extends Object>> hashList) {
    for(Map<String,? extends Object> item : hashList) {
        this.myListProperty.add((ThisType) this.getRepository().createObject(item));
    }
}

By calling the repository createObject method it calls the same method stack used to initialize your model objects. For the first example I'm referencing a different type so I need to get an adapter (reusing the current repository's so don't use it to make additional API calls) and repository for that model type. For the list example I'm creating a recursive list of the same type as the parent model so I can just use its repository instance.