JSON Parser should serialize repeating objects to arrays

While the working of the JSON parser is documented to NOT DO this serialization, it is definitely the way it SHOULD work.

The currently constructed JSON is unconsumable/unusable by receivers using a wide range of available parsing libraries. (We are currently on IB10 but migrate to ACE very soon)

We see no point in producing JSON that nobody can easily parse and consume.

Idea priority

Urgent

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Admin

Ben Thompson

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| Mar 9, 2022

RFE Review. Thank you for taking the time to submit this idea for enhancement. Unfortunately on this occasion we do not intend to take this idea forward. By the looks of the example provided in the "Additional details" section of this enhancement request, the logical tree may have been formed from XML or some other wire format, where that particular parser may well come with its own set of rules which are different to those of JSON. If you used the JSON parser then the logical tree which we generate looks like this:
(0x01000000:Object):JSON = ( ['json' : 0x2574775a510]
(0x01000000:Object):Data = (
(0x01000000:Object):AllocList = (
(0x03000000:NameValue):NoAllocs = 3 (INTEGER)
(0x01001000:Array ):AllocGroup = (
(0x01000000:Object):Item = (
(0x03000000:NameValue):AllocAccount = '000000xx9814:2120xx01' (CHARACTER)
(0x03000000:NameValue):AllocShares = 9 (INTEGER)
)
(0x01000000:Object):Item = (
(0x03000000:NameValue):AllocAccount = '000000xx9815:2120xx01' (CHARACTER)
(0x03000000:NameValue):AllocShares = 5 (INTEGER)
)
(0x01000000:Object):Item = (
(0x03000000:NameValue):AllocAccount = '000000xx9816:2120xx01' (CHARACTER)
(0x03000000:NameValue):AllocShares = 6 (INTEGER)
)
)
)
)
)
Note in this example that AllocGroup has correctly been interpreted as a JSON array, and that each of its children has been classified correctly as a JSON Object (our parser gives each of these elements in the array the "Item" classification). This JSON logical tree is non-ambiguous and correctly serializes. Users also of course have full control if they have brought in data from XML (or other wire formats) which exhibit different rules to JSON ... so if you don't like the default beahviour for how XML trees are "converted" to JSON trees (I'm jumping to a conclusion here about how you created your logical tree) then you could also edit that within your flow under the flow developer's control. This behaviour is preferential to attempting to "guess" the intention of the XML structure - in some cases the the XML structure could deliberately have children within AllocGroup which have different structures ... and in that situation they should be interpreted as a set of different JSON objects rather than an array.

For more detail on how to interact with JSON Objects and Arrays using mid-flow transformation nodes, in ACEv12 we have a set of new tutorials and worked examples (Help menu > Tutorial Gallery then do a search for "JSON"):

JSON - Using a Compute node to create a JSON Object message
JSON - Using a Compute node to create a JSON Array message
JSON - Using a Mapping node to create a JSON Object message
JSON - Using a Mapping node to create a JSON Array message
JSON - Using a JavaCompute node to create a JSON Object message
JSON - Using a JavaCompute node to create a JSON Array message

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