Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 20:55:47 GMT

Assuming your expression rule now outputs an array of dictionaries with proper column names, try just setting that as the "Data" parameter of your read-only grid. After a few other fairly easy configuration items, you should be ready to go.

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 20:51:12 GMT

Yeah, I want only on-demand pretty much, the API is calling the data I need already.

Alright so I guess I just need to figure out the expression to show that data

Thanks a lot Mike!

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 20:48:59 GMT

[quote userid="75476" url="~/discussions/f/data/22157/convert-api-response-json-to-array-to-disaply-it-on-table/86827#86827"]What I need is to simply display that response as a table on a site, do I still need to create a db for that?[/quote]

That depends mainly on whether you need to store the responses for some time, or whether it will be sufficient to call the API on-demand (and every time the user loads that form). Assuming you end up with an expression rule that returns a tidy dictionary of data though, you can simply feed that into the data parameter of the Read-Only Grid and use that live, without having to store it or retrieve it from a DB table.

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 20:46:18 GMT

Got it,

What I need is to simply display that response as a table on a site, do I still need to create a db for that?

On the tutorials, there is a SpaceX app that gets created based on an API response, I want something similar to that, where I get records from the API and I display that on a table

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 20:26:17 GMT

Cool, I knew it was something like that.

So from here what you do depends on what your intended end result is. If your aim is to store the data exactly in a DB table, then in general my first step would be to create a DB table with the columns you need, then use the CDT creator in Appian (i.e. create CDT based on existing DB table). Then you would be able to use the above logic i.e. in an expression rule called in a process node, save it to a multiple-PV set as your new CDT type, then pass that into a WTDS node.

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 20:21:51 GMT

Awesome!!! The first option worked and I now have all records tied to a key

My question is now, how do I then attach this records into a table? Do I have to create it as record type?

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 19:57:27 GMT

Try these permutations, just in case, and see if either happens to work any better:

first:

a!forEach(
  rule!bigQuery().result.body.rows.f,  /* adding ".f" at the end here */
  
  createDictionary(
    {"State", "Country", ...}, /* array of all column/property names */
    fv!item.v
  )
)

Second, somewhat more radical:

a!forEach(
  rule!bigQuery().result.body.rows.f,
  
  createDictionary(
    {"State", "Country", ...}, /* array of all column/property names */
    a!forEach(
      /* create an inner forEach loop, attempt to loop over the inner array of dictionaries containing the "v:" property */
      fv!item,
      fv!item.v
    )
  )
)

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 19:53:13 GMT

Yeah, that is exactly what we need, I am doing some testing now but I think this may not be possible as I'm encountering a lot of limitations, probably I will need to workaround it , please let me know if you find a way on doing that.

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 19:35:03 GMT

[quote userid="75476" url="~/discussions/f/data/22157/convert-api-response-json-to-array-to-disaply-it-on-table/86821#86821"]butt it returns the values on 'v:' I showed before [/quote]

I expected this, I was just curious to see the overall shape of the data when it's called that way.

What i'm hunting for here is how exactly we can refer to the dictionary value within your a!forEach() loop and effectively grab the array of deepest "v:" values, a group at a time, to convert to the dicitonary.

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 19:32:46 GMT

I tried that, butt it returns the values on 'v:' I showed before :( is there a way to get a tutorial or something on converting JSON to array or to values to put into a table?

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 19:15:24 GMT

how about "rule!TGSU_bigquery().result.body.rows.f"?

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 16:55:08 GMT

I tried creating a type data, like a CDT and it shows this on a grid

however, to loop into it, do I use something like

'type!{urn:com:appian:types:TGSU}TGSU_tabletest'(),

a!forEach(
rule!TGSU_bigquery().result.body.rows,
fv!item
)

I tried to use the code above but may have syntax errors, but not sure if I'm on the right way?

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 16:47:53 GMT

It returns the same thing as the response from the API from bigquery

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 16:45:26 GMT

Please try running just this much, and seeing what the output is / what it's formatted like:

a!forEach(
rule!TGSU_bigquery().result.body.rows,
fv!item
)

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 16:43:05 GMT

Thanks Mike,

I tried this code

a!forEach(
rule!TGSU_bigquery().result.body.rows,

createdictionary({"Duckling", "Country", "Job Type","History created time",
"Last activity time", "status","candidate_id","candidateID","source"}, /* array of all column/property names */
fv!item.v)
)

but it returns an error saying ' Expression evaluation error at function a!forEach: Error in a!forEach() expression during iteration 1: Expression evaluation error at function 'createdictionary' [line 4]: The list of keys and values must be of the same length. Recieved 9 keys and 1 values.'

then I guess is because I only added an 'fv!item.v' but if I add more, then I still get an error saying unexpected number of parameters

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 15:55:40 GMT

I believe it would end up being something along these lines, plus or minus:

a!forEach(
  rule!bigQuery().result.body.rows,
  
  createDictionary(
    {"State", "Country", ...}, /* array of all column/property names */
    fv!item.v
  )
)

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 15:50:51 GMT

Thanks a lot Mike, sure thing, here is the requested information:

{{f: {{v: "Cali"}, {v: "country"}, {v: "AA"}, {v: "1/22/2021 11:47"}, {v: "5/11/2021 13:33"}, {v: "Match Sent"}, {v: "ZR_11607_CAND"}, {v: "5.09e+17"}, {v: "source"}}},

{f: {{v: "name"}, {v: "country"}, {v: "AA"}, {v: "3/22/2021 15:51"}, {v: "5/11/2021 13:16"}, {v: "Pending"}, {v: "ZR_12952_CAND"}, {v: "5.09e+17"}, {v: "source"}}}

{f: {{v: "name"}, {v: "country"}, {v: "AA"}, {v: "3/8/2021 11:20"}, {v: "5/11/2021 13:18"}, {v: "Proposed"}, {v: "ZR_13933_CAND"}, {v: "5.09e+17"}, {v: "source"}}}

I am working on using a data type, I was able to show now the correct column names, now I am just trying to figure out how the foreach syntax works in Appian (I'm new here) so maybe that will do it too

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 15:15:48 GMT

If you're willing, do me a favor and show your API output as "expression", and copy and paste here with the first ~2 or 3 rows worth of data (feel free to sanitize any of it as necessary, i just need the basic structure). I'm trying to assemble an example expression to try to loop over the rows and create dictionaries, however Appian doesn't easily allow for creating arrays-of-arrays like your output contains, thus at this point I'm hitting a dead end.

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 14:55:30 GMT

I just mean that you'd loop over the response rows in your handler Expression Rule and create a formatted dictionary that gets passed back to wherever you need it. For starters:

createDictionary(
  {"State", "Country", "Type", "Date"},
  {
    "Cali",
    "Argentina",
    "AA",
    today()
  }
)

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

rodrigoe0001 — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 14:53:28 GMT

Hello, thanks for your response.

From this response from bigQuery no, the column names do not come in the response anywhere, for that, you need to do another request on a different API from bigquery.

I get what you are saying of doing a loop, however, I have not found a way to create a table or a way to use loops, is it like on the interfaces or somewhere on the design pane?

RE: Convert API response JSON to Array to disaply it on table

Mike Schmitt — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 14:42:12 GMT

Do the column names come back somewhere else in the API response, or are you just expected to know them?

Either way I suspect you'll have to loop over the response rows and manually construct the necessary dictionary from each row's results. If each row will always have the exact same number of columns and you can just hardcode the column/property names, then this should be pretty easy. If there's an expectation that the columns might be variable and/or will need to be named after data that's given in another part of the response, then it's still doable but might be a bit harder.