[en] Configuring JSON filter

[en] JSON Filter

[en] To learn more about filters in general, see section Understanding Filters.

[en] Use the JSON filter if your trigger receives JSON-encoded data. JSON filter allows you to use variables and values from your JSON file. The filter supports data extraction from JSON arrays.

注意

[en] Automation allows you to use all JSON data types. Read more about the available JSON data types here.

[en] While you can define the JSON file structure manually, NiceLabel recommends you to import the structure from the received JSON files.

[en] To import the JSON file structure:

[en] Go to Data Filters and Edit your JSON filter.
[en] Click Structure > Import Data Structure. Navigate to your JSON file and click Open.

[en] After you import JSON files, the Data Preview section displays the JSON contents. The Data Preview also highlights the elements that you define as output fields.

[en] For JSON data examples, see section JSON Data.

[en] Defining Structure

[en] To use the JSON items, configure them as:

[en] Variable value: Specifies that you want to use the selected item as a field. When building the configuration, you manually map values with respective variables in the Use Data Filter action. For more information, see section Defining JSON Fields.
- [en] Optional element: Specifies that the element is not mandatory. The variable mapped to such field will have an empty value if the element does not appear in the JSON file.
[en] Data block: Specifies that the included sub-items occur multiple times and provide data for your labels. Data block can be defined as repeatable area, assignment area, or both. In terms of JSON, the Data block works as an array.
- [en] Repeatable area: Specifies that you want to extract values from all repeatable data blocks, not just from the first one. You can define fields within each data block. Manually map the defined fields to the respective variables in the Use Data Filter action. For more information, see section Defining Repeatable Elements in JSON Filter.
- [en] Assignment area: Automatically creates the variables and assigns them relevant values. Field names and their values are read simultaneously. Mapping to variables is done automatically. Use this feature to accommodate the filter to changing input data, eliminating the maintenance time. For more information, see section Defining JSON Assignment Area.

[en] The Data Preview section simplifies the configuration. The result of a defined filter rule is highlighted in the preview area.

[en] To change the previewed JSON data, click Open and browse for a new sample JSON file.

[en] Defining JSON Fields

[en] If you define JSON fields, you make values of the selected items automatically available. Your filter definition makes such fields available for mapping to variables in actions. This allows you to extract the element values.

[en] To define JSON fields:

[en] Select your element and set its Usage to Variable value.
[en] The element is displayed on the structure list with bold letters, indicating that it is in use.
[en] The element is used as output field name.
[en] The Data Preview section highlights the values of the selected element.

[en] Formatting Options

[en] This section defines string manipulation functions that apply on the selected variables or fields. You can select one or several functions. These functions are applied in the same order as selected in the user interface – from top to bottom.

[en] Delete spaces at the beginning: Deletes all space characters (decimal ASCII code 32) from the beginning of a string.
[en] Delete spaces at the end: Deletes all space characters (decimal ASCII value 32) from the end of a string.
[en] Delete opening and closing character: Deletes the first occurrence of the selected opening, and closing characters that are found in a string.

例 14. 示例

[en] If you use "{" for the opening character and "}" for the closing character, the input string {{selection}} converts to {selection}.
[en] Search and replace: Executes standard search and replace function upon the provided values for find what and replace with. You can also use regular expressions.

注意

[en] There are several implementations of the regular expressions in use. uses the .NET Framework syntax for the regular expressions. For more information, see the Knowledge Base article.
[en] Replace non printable characters with spaces: Replaces all control characters in the string with space character (decimal ASCII code 32). The non printable characters are characters with decimal ASCII values between 0–31 and 127–159.
[en] Delete non printable characters: Deletes all control characters in the string. The non printable characters are characters with decimal ASCII values between 0–31 and 127–159.
[en] Decode special characters: Special characters (or control codes) are characters that are not available on the keyboard, such as Carriage Return or Line Feed. uses a notation to encode such characters in human-readable form, such as <CR> for Carriage Return and <LF> for Line Feed. For more information, see section Entering Special Characters (Control Codes).

[en] This option converts special characters from syntax into actual binary characters.

例 15. 示例

[en] When you receive the data sequence "<CR><LF>", uses it as a as plain string of 8 characters. Enable this option to interpret and use the received data as two binary characters CR (Carriage Return - ASCII code 13) and LF (Line Feed - ASCII code 10).
[en] Search and delete everything before: Finds the provided string and deletes all characters from the beginning of the data until the string. The found string itself can also be deleted.
[en] Search and delete everything after: Finds the provided string and deletes all characters from the string until the end of the data. The found string itself can also be deleted.
[en] Change case: Changes all characters in your strings to uppercase or lowercase.

[en] Data Preview

[en] This section provides preview of the field definition. If the defined item is selected, the preview highlights its placement in the preview data.

[en] Preview file name: Specifies the file that contains sample data that is going to be parsed by the filter. The preview file is copied from filter definition. If you change the preview file name, the new file name is saved.
[en] Open: Selects another file upon which you want to execute the filter rules.
[en] Refresh: Re-runs the filter rules upon the contents of the preview file name. Automation updates the Data Preview section with the result.

[en] Defining Repeatable Elements in JSON Filter

[en] If a JSON element occurs in your JSON data multiple times, it is a repeatable element. Usually, a repeatable element contains data for a single label template. Repeatable items produce multiple labels populated with relevant data.

[en] To indicate that you want to use data from all repeatable elements, and not just from the first one:

[en] Select the element and define it as a Data block.
[en] Enable the Repeatable element option.

[en] If the filter contains definition of elements defined as data block / repeatable element, the Use Data Filter action displays repeatable elements with nested placeholders. All actions nested below such a placeholder execute only for data blocks at this level.

[en] Example

[en] The "item" element is defined as both – Data block and Repeatable element. This instructs the filter to extract all occurrences of the array, not just the first one. In this case, the "item" should be defined as the sub-level in Use Data Filter action. You must nest the actions Open Label and Print Label under this sub-level placeholder, so they are going to be looped for as many times as there are occurrences of the "item" element. As shown in the example below, for three times.

{
    "NICELABEL_JOB": {
        "TIMESTAMP": "20130221100527.788134",
        "USER": "PGRI",
        "IT_LABEL_DATA": {
            "item": [
                {
                    "LBL_NAME": "goods_receipt.nlbl",
                    "LBL_PRINTER": "Production01",
                    "LBL_QUANTITY": "1",
                    "MAKTX": "MASS ONE",
                    "MATNR": "28345",
                    "MEINS": "KG",
                    "WDATU": "19.01.2012",
                    "QUANTITY": "1",
                    "EXIDV": "012345678901234560"
                },
                {
                    "LBL_NAME": "goods_receipt.nlbl",
                    "LBL_PRINTER": "Production01",
                    "LBL_QUANTITY": "1",
                    "MAKTX": "MASS TWO",
                    "MATNR": "28346",
                    "MEINS": "KG",
                    "WDATU": "11.01.2011",
                    "QUANTITY": "1",
                    "EXIDV": "012345678901234577"
                },
                {
                    "LBL_NAME": "goods_receipt.nlbl",
                    "LBL_PRINTER": "Production01",
                    "LBL_QUANTITY": "1",
                    "MAKTX": "MASS THREE",
                    "MATNR": "27844",
                    "MEINS": "KG",
                    "WDATU": "07.03.2009",
                    "QUANTITY": "1",
                    "EXIDV": "012345678901234584"
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

警告

[en] JSON data filter with nested data block duplicates values from previous assignment area if a variable is defined in the first block but not in the second. For example, you print two labels. In the first assignment area, you defined a variable "manufacturer_serial". In the second assignment area, this variable is not present.

{
  "jobs": [
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "manufacturer_serial": "706583012001",
          "package_code": "AA792CY"
        }
      ],
      "label_filename": "serial_number_label.nlbl",
      "print_quantity": 1,
      "printer_name": "Warehouse_printer_09"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "package_code": "BE273XS"
        }
      ],
      "label_filename": "serial_number_label.nlbl",
      "print_quantity": 1,
      "printer_name": "Warehouse_09"
    }
  ]
}

[en] The expected result would be the second label without "manufacturer_serial" data. But in the actual print, the second label would contain "manufacturer_serial" value from the first label, which is 706583012001.

[en] There are three possible solutions:

[en] Avoid nested data blocks.

[en] Define variable values as empty values ("") if variables are not used in nested data blocks.

      "data": [
        {
          "manufacturer_serial": "",
          "package_code": "AA792CY"
        }

[en] Use conditions on actions to set variables.
[en] Use string manipulations when detected missing variables.

[en] Defining JSON Assignment Area

[en] JSON filter automatically identifies fields and their values in the received data. This eliminates the need for manual variable-to-field mapping.

[en] Dynamic structure functionality is helpful if the trigger receives data with changing structure. In such cases, main data structure remains unchanged (e.g., fields are delimited by a comma), or retains the same structure, but the order and/or the number of fields changes. There might be new fields, or some of the old fields could no longer be available. Because of enabled Dynamic structure, filter automatically identifies structure of the received file. At the same time, filter reads field names and values (name:value pairs) from the data. This eliminates the need for manual mapping of fields to variables.

[en] Use Data Filter action does not offer any mapping possibilities, because it performs the mapping dynamically. You don't even have to define label variables in the trigger configuration. The action assigns field values to the label variables of the same name without requiring the variables to be imported from the label. However, this rule applies to the Print Label action alone. If you want to use the field values in any other action, you have to define variables in the trigger, while still keeping the automatic variable-to-field mapping.

注意

[en] There is no error if the field available in the input data doesn't have a matching label variable. NiceLabel Automation silently ignores the missing variables.

注意

[en] Because there are no optional attributes in JSON, Automation defines Variable names and Variable values automatically.

[en] Formatting Options

[en] Delete spaces at the beginning: Deletes all space characters (decimal ASCII code 32) from the beginning of a string.
[en] Delete spaces at the end: Deletes all space characters (decimal ASCII value 32) from the end of a string.
[en] Delete opening and closing character: Deletes the first occurrence of the selected opening, and closing characters that are found in a string.

例 16. 示例

[en] If you use "{" for the opening character and "}" for the closing character, the input string {{selection}} converts to {selection}.
[en] Search and replace: Executes standard search and replace function upon the provided values for find what and replace with. You can also use regular expressions.

注意

[en] There are several implementations of the regular expressions in use. uses the .NET Framework syntax for the regular expressions. For more information, see the Knowledge Base article.
[en] Replace non printable characters with spaces: Replaces all control characters in the string with space character (decimal ASCII code 32). The non printable characters are characters with decimal ASCII values between 0–31 and 127–159.
[en] Delete non printable characters: Deletes all control characters in the string. The non printable characters are characters with decimal ASCII values between 0–31 and 127–159.
[en] Decode special characters: Special characters (or control codes) are characters that are not available on the keyboard, such as Carriage Return or Line Feed. uses a notation to encode such characters in human-readable form, such as <CR> for Carriage Return and <LF> for Line Feed. For more information, see section Entering Special Characters (Control Codes).

[en] This option converts special characters from syntax into actual binary characters.

例 17. 示例

[en] When you receive the data sequence "<CR><LF>", uses it as a as plain string of 8 characters. Enable this option to interpret and use the received data as two binary characters CR (Carriage Return - ASCII code 13) and LF (Line Feed - ASCII code 10).
[en] Search and delete everything before: Finds the provided string and deletes all characters from the beginning of the data until the string. The found string itself can also be deleted.
[en] Search and delete everything after: Finds the provided string and deletes all characters from the string until the end of the data. The found string itself can also be deleted.
[en] Change case: Changes all characters in your strings to uppercase or lowercase.

[en] Example

[en] The "LIST_ITEM" element is defined as data block and assignment area.

{
  "DELIVERYNOTE": {
    "LIST_CUSTOMER_INFO": {
      "CUSTOMER_INFO": {
        "CUSTOMER_NAME": "Customer A",
        "CUSTOMER_STREET_ADDRESS": "Test St",
        "CUSTOMER_POST_ADDRESS": "1234, Test City",
        "CUSTOMER_NUMBER": "1234",
        "CURRENCY": "EUR",
        "DELIVERY_METHOD": "Express delivery",
        "EDI_INFORMATION": "EDI",
        "ORDER_TYPE": "CSO",
        "ORDER_NUMBER": "123",
      }
    }
  }
}