REST API response body is not a string?

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 08:42:46 +0000

It's been a while since I've written Clojure, so I am rusty.

Basically, I'm trying to write code which does an HTTP GET on a REST API and converts that JSON array of objects into clojure data (list of Maps?). The JSON data looks like this:

[
    {
        "id": 1,
        "category": "technical",
        "asin": "0131103628",
        "title": "C Programming Language, 2nd Edition",
        "publication_date": "1988-04-01T00:00:00Z",
        "review": "The C book.",
        "created_at": "2020-03-06T20:48:00Z"
    },
    {
        "id": 2,
        "category": "technical",
        "asin": "0387966080",
        "title": "The Science of Fractal Images",
        "publication_date": "1988-07-19T00:00:00Z",
        "review": "The book on fractal algorithms.  Sadly, no longer in print.  I had to search high and low for a used copied.",
        "created_at": "2020-03-06T20:48:00Z"
    },
    // etc..
]

I'm using http-kit (I've also tried clj-http) to call the REST API and return the body. Later, I try converting the body to Clojure data. I've tried using both org.clojure/data.json and cheshire. However, I don't belive the data is being converted correctly.

(defn get-books-body
  []
  (:body @(client/get books-url api-options)))

(defn get-books
  []
  (parse-string get-books-body true))

When I try to display the type of the body, it shows up as an address instead of a string:

clojure-json-test.core=> (type get-books-body)
clojure_json_test.core$get_books_body

And I cannot look at the first record, after converting from JSON:

clojure-json-test.core=> (first get-books)
Execution error (IllegalArgumentException) at clojure-json-test.core/eval3169 (form-      init15378865171954877190.clj:1).
Don't know how to create ISeq from: clojure_json_test.core$get_books

Any idea what I am doing wrong?

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REST API response body is not a string?