I know that I can access the JSON data like so http://base-template.squarespace.com/news/?format=json-pretty. But what I want to access lets says a property on that like news.items? http://base-template.squarespace.com/news/items/?format=json-pretty throw an error. Is there a way to drill into the JSON data via the URL?
Yes, you can access a collection's items using the same format=json-pretty query parameter as you mentioned.
Do note, however, that:
The URL must exist (which in your second 'news' example is not the case)
To get a list of items from a collection, you use the format=json-pretty on the collection, the scope into items from there.
When performing this type of request via Javascript, you'll probably want to simply use format=json since the 'pretty' line breaks and indenting aren't necessary in that case.
For example, using the base-template as you have already mentioned, to get the blog items you would use: https://base-template.squarespace.com/blog?format=json-pretty. Within the JSON, you'll see an 'items' array, which is the data you're looking for (See the image below for a screenshot of this.). If that website had a "/news" collection, you could do similar.
Similarly, if you wanted to view the JSON output from a specific item, you would, for example, use: https://base-template.squarespace.com/blog/2016/7/15/most-recent-sample-blog-post?format=json-pretty
Related
I have this solution that helps me creating a Wizard to fill some data and turn into JSON, the problem now is that I have to receive a xlsx and turn specific data from it into JSON, not all the data but only the ones I want which are documented in the last link.
In this link: https://stackblitz.com/edit/xlsx-to-json I can access the excel data and turn into object (when I print document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = JSON.parse(dataString); it shows [object Object])
I want to implement this solution and automatically get the specified fields in the config.ts but can't get to work. For now, I have these in my HTML and app-component.ts
https://stackblitz.com/edit/angular-xbsxd9 (It's probably not compiling but it's to show the code only)
It wasn't quite clear what you were asking, but based on the assumption that what you are trying to do is:
Given the data in the spreadsheet that is uploaded
Use a config that holds the list of column names you want returned in the JSON when the user clicks to download
based on this, I've created a fork of your sample here -> Forked Stackbliz
what I've done is:
use the map operator on the array returned from the sheet_to_json method
Within the map, the process is looping through each key of the record (each key being a column in this case).
If a column in the row is defined in the propertymap file (config), then return it.
This approach strips out all columns you don't care about up front. so that by the time the user clicks to download the file, only the columns you want are returned. If you need to maintain the original columns, then you can move this logic somewhere more convenient for you.
I also augmented the property map a little to give you more granular control over how to format the data in the returned JSON. i.e. don't treat numbers as strings in the final output. you can use this as a template if it suites your needs for any additional formatting.
hope it helps.
Should I treat all api response as "resource" and return a JSON object or simple array would be appropriate as well ?
for instance are all of the below responses valid?
GET /rest/someresource should return collection of ids
[{id:1},{id:2}]
{{id:1},{id:2}}
[1,2]
GET /rest/someresource?id>0 search for ids bigger than zero and return collection of ids
[{id:1},{id:2}]
{{id:1},{id:2}}
[1,2]
Collection Resources
It is acceptable to return an array of resources - either a list of ids, or object structures - such a thing is commonly known as a 'collection' resource.
See http://51elliot.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/rest-api-best-practices-4-collections.html for an examination of resources and collections.
While not required by REST, it's common to use a plural noun to refer to a collection resource - e.g.
/rest/someresources
REST also requires the use of defined media types, and there are a couple available to assist with collections, e.g.:
Collection+json
Provides a structure with meta data around a list of items wherein you define the structure of each item as your resource
HAL
provides a structure with embedded collections and embedded resources
And many more
All provide a defined structure for including hypermedia links for your resource, or each resource in your collection - and if you are doing REST this is one of the things that the spec says you MUST do (even though many people don't).
Your Proposed Json Structures
Some more specific comments on your proposed json structures:
Option 2 is not valid json. Consider:
{{id:1},{id:2}}
A json object must have a name:value pair, e.g.
{somename:{id:1},someothername:{id:2}}
would be valid - but not very useful!
Also - strictly for json, the name should be enclosed in quotes. the value may be enclosed in quotes if it is a string.
So if you don't want to use a commonly used media type as referenced above, your options are 1 or 3. which should be:
[{"id":1},{"id":2}]
[1, 2]
Both are valid, however option 1 will give you more flexibility to add more properties to each element of the array if you decide in the future you would like to return more than an id. e.g. at some point in the future you might decide to return:
[{"id":1,"name":"fred"},{"id":2,"name":"wilma"}]
Option 3 will only ever be able to return a list of ids.
So personally I would go with option 1.
Depends on how RESTful you're aiming to be.
In addition to what #Chris Simon said, I'll add that if the server would only return IDs at GET /rest/someresource, the client would have to repeatedly call something like GET /rest/someresource/{id} in order to obtain data (it can display on the UI), right? This in turn would just increase the load on the server. If the id would be enough, you can probably get away with the proposed solution.
Also, once you decide you'd better be consistent.
Given that the 2nd option is not even valid, and the last is pretty limiting, I'd also go for the first option, JSON.
Just to make it clear we are talking about different representations of the same resource here:
By GET /rest/someresource both [{id:1},{id:2}] and [1,2] are valid responses, but you should make clear which one you want to see, e.g. with the prefer header. So by Prefer: return=minimal you would return [1,2] and if the header is not present, then [{id:1},{id:2}]. Just make sure that the prefer header is registered by the vary header, or you will have caching troubles.
By GET /rest/someresource?id>0 you filter your collection. So either the /rest/someresource?id>0 URI identifies a different filtered collection resource or it identifies the same collection resource, but with the filter query string your client indicates that it is waiting for a filtered representation of the resource and not the full representation. You can use the same by the minimal representation if you don't want to use the prefer header: GET /rest/someresource?return=minimal.
Note that if you want your client to query again, then you should send them hyperlinks in your response. The REST client must get the URIs (or URI templates) from these hyperlinks and it should not start to build URIs on its own.
I got an anonymous array which I want to deserialize, here the example of the first array object
[
{ "time":"08:55:54",
"date":"2016-05-27",
"timestamp":1464332154807,
"level":3,
"message":"registerResourcePath ('', '/sap/bc/ui5_ui5/ui2/ushell/resources/')",
"details":"","component":"sap.ui.ModuleSystem"},
{"time":"08:55:54","date":"2016-05-27","timestamp":1464332154808,"level":3,"message":"URL prefixes set to:","details":"","component":"sap.ui.ModuleSystem"},
{"time":"08:55:54","date":"2016-05-27","timestamp":1464332154808,"level":3,"message":" (default) : /sap/bc/ui5_ui5/ui2/ushell/resources/","details":"","component":"sap.ui.ModuleSystem"}
]
I tried deserializing using CL_TREX_JSON_SERIALIZER, but it is corrupt and does not work with my JSON, here is why
Then I tried /UI2/CL_JSON, but it needs a "structure" that perfectly fits the object given by the JSON Object. "Structure" means in my case an internal table of objects with the attributes time, date, timestamp, level, messageanddetails. And there was the problem: it does not properly handle references and uses class description to describe the field assigned to the field-symbol. Since I can not have a list of objects but only a list of references to objects that solution also doesn't works.
As a third attempt I tried with the CALL TRANSFORMATION as described by Horst Keller, but with this method I was not able to read in an anonymous array, and here is why
My major points:
I do not want to change the JSON, since that is what I get from sap.ui.log
I prefere to use built-in functionality and not a thirdparty framework
Your problem comes out not from the anonymity of array, but from the awkwardness of SAP JSON (De)serializer, which doesn't respect double quotes, which enclose JSON attributes. The issue is thoroughly described in this answer.
If you don't want to change your JSON on-the-fly, the only way you have is to change CL_TREX_JSON_DESERIALIZER class like this.
/UI5/CL_JSON_PARSER parses JSONs with unknown format.
Note that it's got "for internal use" written on it so many times that you probably should take it seriously and clone its code to fixate it.
I have created a BC WebApp using the BC Open Platform API's for the back end and everything appears to work fine including rendering the list of items in a sort order of one of my custom fields.
Here is an example of what works on the back end.
var items = new BCAPI.Models.WebApp.ItemCollection(WEBAPP_NAME);
items.fetch({
order: "MyCustomField",
skip: 0,
limit: 1000,
success: onWebpAppListFetch,
error: onAPIError
});
How do I render this list on the front end sorted by one of my custom fields? Here is an example of what I am trying to use on the front end, but it does not order or sort this way.
{module_webapps order="MyCustomField" render="collection" template="/_System/apps/cms-sports-club-manager/club-rooms/layouts/club_rooms_collection.tpl" id="cms-club-roomsx" filter="all"}
Is there something that I am overlooking, or do I need to approach this in my own manual way? Perhaps I could render the list into an array, sort the array and then iterate through that to render the front end listing? The template file uses Liquid to iterate through the collection and render the HTML. Can I define an array variable, fill the array, sort the array and iterate through the array again in that same template file?
Another possibility perhaps is to output all webapp items into a JSON file each time a user creates/edits an item (from the back end), and then use the {module_json} feature on the front end to read that JSON file which "should" allow me to sort it.
Any advice on what to do (as well as what NOT to do) would be appreciated.
I have found one possible answer, but I am not sure it is the best way to do this.
I have implemented a script which performs the following steps:
Create an array holding all items (unsorted at this point)
Sort the array using any custom field
Iterate through the sorted array and document.write() each one
I have tested this a fair bit and it seems to do exactly what I want, however I have not marked this as the correct answer just yet as I would still like to find a "better" way than needing to resort to the above manual work.
So I've read that you cannot expect a default order when requesting json. I've seen this in action making a call to a little api that I built, that will return a jumbled, random order of elements each time I make a different call.
How does a site like ticketfly's api ( call it here http://www.ticketfly.com/api/events/upcoming.json?venueId=57 ) always ensure that the json returned is in a specific order?
The event ids always first, etc.
Thanks for shedding some light on the situation.
If you are in control of the endpoint API then you can hardcode the order in which you render the properties. Though I have to ask why exactly do you need the JSON properties in a particular order? You will finally be accessing the properties via there property names so the order in which they appear in the JSON should not ideally matter.
EDIT : Since your bosses insist on this (what can one say now?):
You can try and see if any of the following suits your needs:
Try hardcoding the display order in the view's representation. This means you will need to echo/print each property name explicitly in the view script. In PHP it could be something like echo $variable_representing_json["id"]; and so forth. Note that with this approach you needn't change the original JSON representation.
If you want the original JSON representation to be changed then depending on how you are doing the process it varies in difficulty:
If it's string concatenation that you are using to represent the json then hard-code the order in which the json properties get concatenated in the string.
In some languages the display order of properties is actually a representation of the order in which the properties were defined. In simple words if $var is an empty json representation then you should define $var["id"] = {some_val} first to display it first.
If you are using a framework for processing the JSON data it may have its own quirks irrespective of how you define your representation. In such cases you will have to try and see if you can work around the issue or if it gives any helper methods.