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Working with JSON and XML

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Description​

This action is used for working with JSON and XML. Most often, these formats are used in service APIs. For example, Captcha recognition services or SMS Services usually work with one of these formats (or sometimes both).

You can only process one JSON or XML object at a time in a project.

If you need to handle several objects, you have to do it one by one.

What is JSON?​

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a simple and easy-to-read data exchange format. It allows you to store data as structured text that's easy for both computers and humans to read.

The main feature is that information is written as "key": value pairs. The key is the data label, and the value can be a string, number, array, logic, or an object.

Example​

{
  "name": "Alexey",
  "age": 28,
  "city": "Moscow",
  "profession": "Programmer",
  "workExperience": 5,
  "languages": [
    "Python",
    "JavaScript",
    "C++"
  ],
  "remoteWork": true,
  "interests": {
    "sport": "Football",
    "music": "Rock",
    "hobbies": ["Photography", "Travel", "Reading"]
  }
}

What is XML?​

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a markup language used for storing and transferring data. The main difference from JSON is that XML uses tags to mark data, while JSON uses key: value pairs.
Unlike HTML, where you have fixed tags like <div>, <p>, in XML you create your own tags that describe your data.

Example​

<CATALOG>
	<CD>
		<TITLE>Imperial Parody</TITLE>
		<ARTIST>Bob Dylan</ARTIST>
		<COUNTRY>USA</COUNTRY>
		<COMPANY>Columbia</COMPANY>
		<PRICE>10.90</PRICE>
		<YEAR>1985</YEAR>
	</CD>
	<CD>
		<TITLE>Hide Your Heart</TITLE>
		<ARTIST>Bonnie Tyler</ARTIST>
		<COUNTRY>United Kingdom</COUNTRY>
		<COMPANY>CBS Records</COMPANY>
		<PRICE>9.90</PRICE>
		<YEAR>1988</YEAR>
	</CD>
	<CD>
		<TITLE>Greatest Hits</TITLE>
		<ARTIST>Dolly Parton</ARTIST>
		<COUNTRY>USA</COUNTRY>
		<COMPANY>RCA</COMPANY>
		<PRICE>9.90</PRICE>
		<YEAR>1982</YEAR>
	</CD>
</CATALOG>

Beautify​

Sometimes services return text that's not formatted nicely (like in the examples above) but all in one line, which makes it hard to read. In such cases, you can use so-called beautifiers. For example, the X/JSON Path Tester already has this built in — just use the Beautify button.

Beautify

However, actions don't care whether the text is formatted nicely or all in one line. The main thing is that it's correct.

How to add to your project?​

Use the context menu: Add Action → Data → Process JSON/XML.

Add to project

Available actions​

Available actions

Parsing​

This action is used to process received data.

Parsing

Variables window​

The result of the action is saved to the project variable Json or Xml. You can check the contents in the Variables window. Since in our previous example we parsed XML, let's look at the XML tab:

Variables window

The Count (1) variable stores the number of items. It's convenient to use as a limiter when looping through the data.

If our example also had <DVD> tags on the same level as <CD>, there would be a CATALOG.DVD.Count variable with the number of <DVD> tags:

CATALOG.DVD.Count

You can use the special buttons (2) to quickly copy the variable's macro to the clipboard.

Macros​

Here's an example macro: {-Xml.CATALOG.CD[1].ARTIST-}.

You can also use other variables inside this macro:

Macros

Quick variable insertion:

Press CTRL+SPACE in any text field to bring up the drop-down menu. Then double-click on JSON or XML to select them and type a ., which will open a menu with the parsed variables.

Quick variable insertion Quick variable insertion

Process JsonPath/XPath​

This option is for selecting a subset from the data you've parsed. To use it, you'll need to create an XPath (for XML) or JsonPath (for JSON) expression. Again, the Tester can help here.

Process JsonPath/XPath

You can use macros in the expression field.

XML Features​

XML Features

XML has node attributes. To access them, use square brackets with the string value in macros: {-Xml.CATALOG.CD[0]["item"]-}.

Node attributes

Processing speed​

Parsing large JSON or XML text while debugging in ProjectMaker can take a long time. But in ZennoDroid, parsing will be much faster.

Add to list​

This action is used to get one specific property from all the data for each item. You can use variables here.

Add to list
The variable {-Variable.item_type-} contains CD

Property​

Here you specify the field you want to treat as an array.

You can use nesting. Set parameters using dots, for example: store.employees.

If the field isn't an array, only one item will be added to the list.

Subproperty​

Sometimes arrays contain complex objects, so you can specify what value to extract from each object for the list.

Add to table​

This action is similar to the previous one, but here you can extract multiple properties at once. You can also use variables.

Add to table
The variable {-Variable.item_type-} contains CD, and {-Variable.property-} contains ARTIST

The columns are named just like in Excel — capital Latin letters in alphabetical order. If you skip a column, it'll just stay empty. For example, column C in the screenshot:

Column C

Working with code​

In C#, JSON and XML are stored in the project object as dynamic types. Because of this, the code editor can't fully show auto-complete hints.

Example 1​

project.Xml.FromString(project.Variables["XmlText"].Value);
return project.Xml.PurchaseOrder.Address[0]["Type"];

Example 2​

var list = new List<string>();
for(int i = 0; i < project.Xml.PurchaseOrder.Address.Count; i++)
{
    list.Add(project.Xml.PurchaseOrder.Address[i].Name.Value);
}
return string.Join(", ", list);

Example 3​

var list = new List<string>();
foreach(dynamic i in project.Xml.PurchaseOrder.Address)
{
    list.Add(i.Name.Value);
}
return string.Join(", ", list);

Same goes for working with JSON. Just keep in mind that you don't need to use Value when accessing properties.
Like this: return project.Json.employees[1].firstName;

Example with JSON​

For testing, let's use the site http://ip-api.com/, which uses a very simple API to return detailed information about your IP address. In real-life scenarios, this is useful for:

  • Checking that your project is running through a proxy, not your main IP.
  • Selecting a country/city when registering.

This site can return data in different formats, but we'll use JSON.

Example with JSON

To get the information, make a GET request to http://ip-api.com/json, then process the result with the Parse action. After that, you can work with the data you receive.

GET request

Example with XML and working with XPath​

Let's say you only need the album titles from all the data. For this, you'd compose an XPath expression: //CATALOG/CD/TITLE.

Example with XML
Action settings and result (right side)