Excel VBA macro using iTunes search API - fastest way to query & parse JSON results

Question

I am trying to build Excel page from iTunes query data. An example for Angry Birds app my query would look like: https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=343200656&country=AL

Answer 1

I had a similar issue with querying Salesforce's REST API and found dealing with JSON through ScriptControl ended up being unmanageable. I used the following library for parsing and converting to JSON and it's worked perfectly for me: https://code.google.com/p/vba-json/.

Dim JSON As New JSONLib
Dim Parsed As Object

Set Parsed = JSON.parse(jsonValue)
Debug.Print Parsed("resultCount")
Debug.Print Parsed("results")(0)

Using that library, I then wrapped up some of the common functionality for making web requests that I think would help you out: https://github.com/timhall/Excel-REST

Using these libraries, your code would look something like the following:

Dim iTunesClient As New RestClient
iTunesClient.BaseUrl = "https://itunes.apple.com/"

Dim Request As New RestRequest
Request.Format = json
Request.Resource = "lookup"
Request.AddQuerystringParam "id", "343200656"
Request.AddQuerystringParam "country", "AL"

Dim Response As RestResponse
Set Response = iTunesClient.Execute(Request)

' => GET https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=343200656&country=AL

If Response.StatusCode = 200 Then
    ' Response.Data contains converted JSON Dictionary/Collection
    Debug.Print "Result Count: " & Response.Data("resultCount")
    Dim i As Integer
    For i = LBound(Response.Data("results")) To UBound(Response.Data("results"))
        Debug.Print "Result " & i & ": " & Response.Data("results")(i)
    Next i
Else
    Debug.Print "Error: " & Response.Content
End If