The following example can be tested on https://ellie-app.com/m9tk39VpQg/0.

import Html exposing (..)
import Json.Decode 

payload =
  """
  ["fu", "bar"]
  """

main =
  Json.Decode.decodeString decoder payload -- Ok ["fu","bar"]
  |> toString
  |> text

decoder =
  Json.Decode.list Json.Decode.string

The following examples can be tested on https://ellie-app.com/m9vmQ8NcMc/0.

import Html exposing (..)
import Json.Decode

payload =
  """
  [ { "bark": true, "tag": "dog", "name": "Zap", "playful": true }
  , { "whiskers": true, "tag" : "cat", "name": "Felix" }
  , {"color": "red", "tag": "tomato"}
  ]
  """

-- OUR MODELS

type alias Dog =
  { bark: Bool
  , name: String
  , playful: Bool
  }
  
type alias Cat =
  { whiskers: Bool
  , name: String
  }

-- OUR DIFFERENT ANIMALS

type Animal 
  = DogAnimal Dog
  | CatAnimal Cat
  | NoAnimal

main =
  Json.Decode.decodeString decoder payload
  |> toString
  |> text

decoder =
  Json.Decode.field "tag" Json.Decode.string
    |> Json.Decode.andThen animalType
    |> Json.Decode.list 

animalType tag =
  case tag of
    "dog" ->
      Json.Decode.map3 Dog 
          (Json.Decode.field "bark" Json.Decode.bool) 
          (Json.Decode.field "name" Json.Decode.string) 
          (Json.Decode.field "playful" Json.Decode.bool) 
        |> Json.Decode.map DogAnimal
    "cat" ->
      Json.Decode.map2 Cat 
          (Json.Decode.field "whiskers" Json.Decode.bool) 
          (Json.Decode.field "name" Json.Decode.string)
        |> Json.Decode.map CatAnimal
    _ ->
      Json.Decode.succeed NoAnimal

This is useful if you use rust in the backend and elm on the front end

enum Complex{
    Message(String),
    Size(u64)
}

let c1 = Complex::Message("hi");
let c2 = Complex::Size(1024u64);

The encoded Json from rust will be:

c1:
    {"variant": "Message",
     "fields": ["hi"]
    }
c2:
    {"variant": "Size",
     "fields": [1024]
    }

The decoder in elm

import Json.Decode as Decode exposing (Decoder)

type Complex = Message String
    | Size Int

-- decodes json to Complex type
complexDecoder: Decoder Value
complexDecoder = 
    ("variant" := Decode.string `Decode.andThen` variantDecoder)

variantDecoder: String -> Decoder Value
variantDecoder variant =
    case variant of
        "Message" ->
            Decode.map Message 
                ("fields" := Decode.tuple1 (\a -> a) Decode.string)
        "Size" ->
            Decode.map Size
                ("fields" := Decode.tuple1 (\a -> a) Decode.int)
        _ ->
            Debug.crash "This can't happen"

Usage: the data is requested from http rest api and the decoding of the payload will be

    Http.fromJson complexDecoder payload

Decoding from string will be

    Decode.decodeString complexDecoder payload

The following code can be found in a demo here: https://ellie-app.com/mbFwJT9jD3/0

import Html exposing (..)
import Json.Decode exposing (Decoder)

payload =
  """
  [{
      "id": 0,
      "name": "Adam Carter",
      "work": "Unilogic",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "dob": "24/11/1978",
      "address": "83 Warner Street",
      "city": "Boston",
      "optedin": true
    },
    {
      "id": 1,
      "name": "Leanne Brier",
      "work": "Connic",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "dob": "13/05/1987",
      "address": "9 Coleman Avenue",
      "city": "Toronto",
      "optedin": false
    }]
  """
  
type alias User =
  { name: String
  , work: String
  , email: String
  , dob: String
  , address: String
  , city: String
  , optedin: Bool
  }
 
main =
  Json.Decode.decodeString decoder payload
  |> toString
  |> text

decoder: Decoder (List User)
decoder =
    Json.Decode.map7 User 
    (Json.Decode.field "name" Json.Decode.string)
    (Json.Decode.field "work" Json.Decode.string)
    (Json.Decode.field "email" Json.Decode.string)
    (Json.Decode.field "dob" Json.Decode.string)
    (Json.Decode.field "address" Json.Decode.string)
    (Json.Decode.field "city" Json.Decode.string)
    (Json.Decode.field "optedin" Json.Decode.bool)
    |> Json.Decode.list 

In case you have json with an ISO date string like this

JSON.stringify({date: new Date()})
// -> "{"date":"2016-12-12T13:24:34.470Z"}"

You can map it to elm Date type:

import Html exposing (text)
import Json.Decode as JD
import Date

payload = """{"date":"2016-12-12T13:24:34.470Z"}"""

dateDecoder : JD.Decoder Date.Date
dateDecoder =
  JD.string
    |> JD.andThen ( \str ->
          case Date.fromString str of
            Err err -> JD.fail err
            Ok date -> JD.succeed date )

payloadDecoder : JD.Decoder Date.Date
payloadDecoder =
  JD.field "date" dateDecoder

main =
  JD.decodeString payloadDecoder payload
  |> toString
  |> text

See Ellie for a working example. This example uses the NoRedInk/elm-decode-pipeline module.

Given a list of JSON objects, which themselves contain lists of JSON objects:

[
  {
    "id": 0,
    "name": "Item 1",
    "transactions": [
      { "id": 0, "amount": 75.00 },
      { "id": 1, "amount": 25.00 }
    ]
  },
  {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Item 2",
    "transactions": [
      { "id": 0, "amount": 50.00 },
      { "id": 1, "amount": 15.00 }
    ]
  }
]

If the above string is in the payload string, that can be decoded using the following:

module Main exposing (main)

import Html exposing (..)
import Json.Decode as Decode exposing (Decoder)
import Json.Decode.Pipeline as JP
import String


type alias Item =
    { id : Int
    , name : String
    , transactions : List Transaction
    }


type alias Transaction =
    { id : Int
    , amount : Float
    }


main =
    Decode.decodeString (Decode.list itemDecoder) payload
        |> toString
        |> String.append "JSON "
        |> text



itemDecoder : Decoder Item
itemDecoder =
    JP.decode Item
        |> JP.required "id" Decode.int
        |> JP.required "name" Decode.string
        |> JP.required "transactions" (Decode.list transactionDecoder)


transactionDecoder : Decoder Transaction
transactionDecoder =
    JP.decode Transaction
        |> JP.required "id" Decode.int
        |> JP.required "amount" Decode.float