How to map repeating elements from BOD XML to JSON

I have a BOD XML with repeating elements. This could be any repeating element - the example does not matter.

In the manual mapping box above we have the following code using IonApiRef and XPATH for retrieving the data from XML.

According the documentation it is possible to user index numbers if the second or more elment should be retrieved from XML.

But the number elementis varies per BOD, this could 1, 2 or any number.

I cannot find the correct syntax for retrieving any / all occurrences of the input document.

{ "docId": {"IonApiRef" : "SyncDeclarationOfCompliance/DataArea/DeclarationOfCompliance/DocumentID/ID"},

"rawMaterial": [{

"id": {"IonApiRef": "SyncDeclarationOfCompliance/DataArea/DeclarationOfCompliance/RawMaterials[2]/Item"},

"name": {"IonApiRef": "SyncDeclarationOfCompliance/DataArea/DeclarationOfCompliance/RawMaterials[2]/Description"}}],

"masterbatch": [{

"id": {"IonApiRef": "SyncDeclarationOfCompliance/DataArea/DeclarationOfCompliance/MasterBatches[*]/Item"},

"name": {"IonApiRef": "SyncDeclarationOfCompliance/DataArea/DeclarationOfCompliance/MasterBatches[*]/Description"}}]

}

For example * as wildcard is not working. Does anyone has the correct syntax?

Thanks a lot!

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Legacy Contributor

One way to rapidly sidestep the issue is to generate a BOD that matches the target json format, then use the mapper to transform to the new BOD structure and call the api using JSON from BOD option.

steps:

1) create the base XML from the JSON sample - I usually use https://www.freeformatter.com/json-to-xml-converter.html

2) use that XML to generate a BOD Schema (there are a number of ways to do this but the fastest is usually file templates. NOTE: typically (but depending on the json) you'll get a "<root>" tag which needs to removed before you generate the new BOD. Yes you may be generating your new BOD from "invalid xml" (too many root level nodes) but the noun name of your new BOD will solve that

3) create a map with the ION Mapper from Source BOD to New BOD

4) adjust your api connection point documents' Request Body to reflect JSON from BOD

When you have it set up you can use the test feature in the connection point and view the "Request Parameters" tab to see if it looks right

Cheers,

David

P.S. There are a other ways - including using a transformation policy with the ION API endpoint and using 'handlebars', but I found the above method the simplest.

Legacy Contributor

Hello David, many thanks for your reply. We already followed this creative route and I just tested it once more, but doing this we subsequently got another issue. The automatic converter JSON from BOD does not add the array brackets ([ ]) in case the source document only has one occurrence (so in fact is not repeating for that example BOD). This may sound logical but our API accepts only arrays, so using the brackets in the format. Therefore we came back to the original issue of not being able to read all repeating elements. Hope I am clear. What do think? Should the API accept the JSON without brackets as well or any other thought? for some reason I expect IonApiRef to be able to handle "all" or "any", even when this 0, 1 or multiple occurrences etc.

Legacy Contributor

Hi,

you can try scripting to convert BOD XML into required JSON format and send this JSON as AnyDocument. I have given high level flow diagram for your reference. Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Udaya Kumar Balla

Legacy Contributor

Right

the connection point is using a "straight conversion" and not referencing the actual schema so it can't see the difference due to the XML structure not including any mechanism to identify it as an array. An array of one is still an array, however some parsers will accept ...

As an alternative you can use the approach identified by UdayaKumar (nice!), or a similar approach of creating an ION API Flow that first calls a script then calls the target endpoint. Of course the script means you need to write the Python and avoid the same issue

Legacy Contributor

Please find the script below and see if it can help you, I also send you an example XML in sequence to test the script I'm sending:

import json

from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET

root = ET.fromstring(input_var_1)

# PAI --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pais = root.findall('.//compositeRequest/Pai')

lstPai = list()

for Pai in Pais:

elem = dict()

for element in Pai.findall('./*'):

sub = dict()

if element.tag not in ['body']:

elem[element.tag] = element.text

else:

for subelement in element.findall('./*'):

sub[subelement.tag] = subelement.text

elem[element.tag] = sub

lstPai.append(elem)

# Atributo_Conjunto --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CAs = root.findall('.//compositeRequest/CA')

lstCA = list()

for CA in CAs:

elem = dict()

for element in CA.findall('./*'):

sub = dict()

if element.tag not in ['body']:

elem[element.tag] = element.text

else:

for subelement in element.findall('./*'):

sub[subelement.tag] = subelement.text

elem[element.tag] = sub

lstCA.append(elem)

composite = dict()

composite['compositeRequest'] = lstPai + lstCA

xm = json.dumps(composite, ensure_ascii=False)

output_var_1 = xm.replace('"null"','null')

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

XML EXAMPLE:

<SyncSalesForceProduct_LN>
<DataArea>
<SalesForceProductPai_LN>
<compositeRequest>
<Pai>
<method>POST</method>
<referenceId>TEST</referenceId>
<url>/services/data/v50.0/sobjects/Product2</url>
<body>
<Brand__c>CUSTOMER Club</Brand__c>
<CampaignProduct__c>false</CampaignProduct__c>
<Colection__c>null</Colection__c>
<ColorCode__c>12345</ColorCode__c>
<Color__c>azul</Color__c>
<CommercialCollection__c>Spring;Summer</CommercialCollection__c>
<CommercialColorDescription__c>null</CommercialColorDescription__c>
<Composition__c>COTTON</Composition__c>
<CurrencyIsoCode>BRL</CurrencyIsoCode>
<Description>null</Description>
<DisplayUrl>null</DisplayUrl>
<EANBarCode__c>5234543456345</EANBarCode__c>
<ERP_Code__c>TEST.PRODUCT</ERP_Code__c>
<ExternalDataSourceId>null</ExternalDataSourceId>
<ExternalId>null</ExternalId>
<Family>Spiderman</Family>
<FiscalClassification__c>61013000</FiscalClassification__c>
<Gender__c>Male</Gender__c>
<HighSpin__c>false</HighSpin__c>
<IsActive>true</IsActive>
<LightProduct__c>false</LightProduct__c>
<LimitedEdition__c>false</LimitedEdition__c>
<Line__c>Extreme</Line__c>
<Material__c>null</Material__c>
<Model__c>Avulso</Model__c>
<Name>TEST.PRODUCT</Name>
<PieceType__c>Shorts</PieceType__c>
<ProductCode>TEST.PRODUCT</ProductCode>
<QuantityUnitOfMeasure>PC</QuantityUnitOfMeasure>
<RGBCode__c>null</RGBCode__c>
<RecordTypeId>0126s000000GzWuAAK</RecordTypeId>
<Reference__c>1234567</Reference__c>
<SellOutPrice__c>180</SellOutPrice__c>
<SizeGradeDescription__c>453543</SizeGradeDescription__c>
<Size__c>3</Size__c>
<StockKeepingUnit>TEST.PRODUCT</StockKeepingUnit>
<Stock__c>null</Stock__c>
<TrendAlert__c>false</TrendAlert__c>
<Type>base</Type>
</body>
</Pai>
<CA>
<method>POST</method>
<referenceId>escolhendoConjuntoDeAtributoDoProdutoPai</referenceId>
<url>/services/data/v50.0/sobjects/ProductAttributeSetProduct</url>
<body>
<ProductAttributeSet>0iY6s000000CaRvEAK</ProductAttributeSet>
<ProductId>@{TEST.id}</ProductId>
</body>
</CA>
</compositeRequest>
</SalesForceProductPai_LN>
</DataArea>
</SyncSalesForceProduct_LN>

Legacy Contributor

Hey there,

I actually had this exact problem (i.e. requisitions with one to many lines, yet the receiving system required an array to always been an array even if one item exists) BUT I don't have access to scripting in this particular version of ION, so I managed to find a work around without scripting. Consider the following required end result:

"Note": [
{
"@type": "reference",
"value": "INFOR:18854"
}
],

This "Note" property, despite only ever having one note, needs to be an array. What you can do is, in your XSLT mapping, add something like this for things that need to be forced into an array:

Now normally, which you might have noticed in your testing, if something like a for-each loop pops out one item, you would get something like this when using the native JSON from BOD mapping (no manual mapping checked):

"Note": {
"@type": "reference",
"value": "INFOR:18854"
},

In the presence of repeating nodes, however, that Connection Point provide will force an array actually, leaving something like this:

"Note": [
{
"@type": "reference",
"value": "INFOR:18854"
},
{}
],

So it gets you most of the way, but this array forcing leaves behind some "dead objects" which is less than ideal, or even detrimental and causes errors. By using a Request Endpoint Poilcy of the Transformation Type in ION API, clean out dead objects if need be:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jsonTransform continueOnError="false" displayName="JSON transform Policy-example"
enabled="true" name="JSON-Tranform-example" version="1.0"
xmlns="">http://www.infor.com/ion/api"
xmlns:xsi="">www.w3.org/.../XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.infor.com/ion/api jsonTransform.xsd">
<deletions>

<delete path="$.ProcessPurchaseOrder.PurchaseOrder.PurchaseOrderHeader.Note[?(!@.value)]"/>

</deletions>
</jsonTransform>

This also works when utilizing for-each loops for things that can be 1-n number of items. By adding a blank node in your XSLT and an endpoint policy to perform any clean up, you can achieve your desired result without access to scripting!

Legacy Contributor

Hello Richard,

Thanks for this reponse. We appled this knowledge and are having this in test modus now and have the results by monday.

I have the same limitation of not having the scripting possibilities in ION.

regards, Cor

Legacy Contributor

Hello David, I agree that the conversion is straight forward, which is logical as well.

Legacy Contributor

Thanks for this reply Udaya. Unfortunately no scripting possibilies in my version of ION.

Legacy Contributor

Thanks for this reply. Unfortunately no scripting possibilies in my version of ION.

But may use this for another customer going forward!

Legacy Contributor

Hi Udaya, I am trying to this exact thing. What script do you use for this? Do you use an library? Tried the Pandas library, but have not gotten it to work jet.

Legacy Contributor

Hi Maiken,

Are you working on MT cloud? What is the require ment

Legacy Contributor

Hi,

Even if we use python script XML to JSON library won't help the reason is even if you convert in the online it won't help in some situations you can see one of the examples mentioned by Richard Schosky

I used to write a script to convert the XML to JSON without using xmltojson library again it will be BOD specific but if you learn to right one then it will take a max of 4-8 hrs to write one script.

Infor should come up with a solution BOD to JSON conversion on the connection point by validating the XML schema in the object schemas.

antonio-caria

The python script must me prepared for all scenarios (or almost...).

Legacy Contributor

Exactly, But it's tough to write a single script that works for converting XML to JSON. You can create one template that can be rewritten for different XML BODs. In the below XML, the schema is same, but if you convert them to JSON will be different, one will generate with array([]) and another will be generated with an object({}). So the script can be created like a template and reused.

Sample
----------
<customers>
<customer>
<name> antonio </name>
</customer>
<customer>
<name> caria </name>
</customer>
</customers>

Sample2
-------------
<customers>
<customer>
<name> antonio </name>
</customer>
</customers>

antonio-caria

exactly

However "Python Scripts" has some limitations - it's not the Infor nature language wich is Java and C# in some cases.

Not many installations will use Python...

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