JSON Formatter

Overview

You can use this Snap to read JSON document data from its input view, format and write it as JSON binary data to its output view. This is a Transform Snap type. A schema file can also be attached to the Snap that allows it to share the schema with upstream Snaps like the Mapper Snap.


JSON Formatter Configuration Settings

  • Format-type Snap
  • Works in Ultra Tasks if Format each document property is selected.

Prerequisites

  • A valid account with the required permissions.

Limitations and known issues

None.

Snap views

View Description Examples of upstream and downstream Snaps
Input JSON document data to be formatted. JSON Generator
Output JSON binary data stream. Group By Fields

Mapper
Error

Error handling is a generic way to handle errors without losing data or failing the Snap execution. You can handle the errors that the Snap might encounter when running the pipeline by choosing one of the following options from the When errors occur list under the Views tab. The available options are:

  • Stop Pipeline Execution Stops the current pipeline execution when an error occurs.
  • Discard Error Data and Continue Ignores the error, discards that record, and continues with the remaining records.
  • Route Error Data to Error View Routes the error data to an error view without stopping the Snap execution.

Learn more about Error handling in Pipelines.

Snap settings

Legend:
  • Expression icon (): Allows using JavaScript syntax to access SnapLogic Expressions to set field values dynamically (if enabled). If disabled, you can provide a static value. Learn more.
  • SnapGPT (): Generates SnapLogic Expressions based on natural language using SnapGPT. Learn more.
  • Suggestion icon (): Populates a list of values dynamically based on your Snap configuration. You can select only one attribute at a time using the icon. Type into the field if it supports a comma-separated list of values.
  • Upload : Uploads files. Learn more.
Learn more about the icons in the Snap settings dialog.
Field / Field set Type Description
Label String

Required. Specify a unique name for the Snap. Modify this to be more appropriate, especially if more than one of the same Snaps is in the pipeline.

Default value: JSON Formatter

Example: Document Format
Schema Button Upload the JSON schema files, especially when the formatted JSON has to follow a certain schema. This is particularly useful when used with the Mapper Snap, the schema from the JSON Formatter Snap will be back-propagated to the Mapper Snap. This is a suggestible property, click on the browse button to select file from your project folder.
Note: The pipeline should be validated once when the schema file has been uploaded in order for the schema to be visible in the upstream Snap.

Default value: N/A

Example: File number upload
Binary header properties Use this field set to add properties to the binary document's header. The properties in the header of a binary document can be accessed in expression properties of downstream Snaps. For example, a 'content-location' property added to the header in this Snap can be referenced in the file name property of a File Writer snap with the expression: $['content-location']. When this Snap is configured to output a single binary document, the headers are computed from the first input document. When the "Format each document" option is enabled, the headers are computed separately for each binary output.
Expression String/Expression Specify the function to be used to transform the data such as combine, concat or flatten.

Default value: N/A

Example:
Target Path String/Suggestion Specify the target JSON path where the value from the expression will be written.

Default value: N/A

Example: $person.firstname to write the field 'firstname' of the 'person' object.
Content String/Suggestion Specify the input object or field whose data must be written to the output stream. Use $ to write the entire data.

Default value: $

Example: $payload; $emp_salary; $group
Ignore empty stream Checkbox Select this checkbox to ignore empty stream when no document is received at the input view throughout the Pipeline execution.

Deselect this checkbox to enable the Snap to write an empty array to the output stream.

Default status: Deselected
Format each document Checkbox Select this checkbox to enable the Snap to create one binary output stream for every document on its input view.
Deselect this checkbox to write one binary output stream for all documents on its input view which are enclosed by a JSON array element [ .. ]. See the example: Using JSON Formatter Snap to render outputs from Group By Snaps, for a simple but less-frequent scenario.
Note: For Data Groups in Input View

Select this checkbox along with JSON lines checkbox and set the Content field to $group to output one document per group with member in the group as a separate JSON line.

Default status: Deselected
JSON lines Checkbox Select this checkbox to enable the Snap to write all documents to a single output file, with each document appearing as a single line followed by a new line. This field cannot be used with Pretty-print checkbox. See the example: Using JSON Formatter Snap to render outputs from Group By Snaps, for a simple but less-frequent scenario.
Note: For Data Groups in Input View

Select this checkbox along with Format each document checkbox and set the Content field to $group to output one document per group with member in the group as a separate JSON line.

Default status: Deselected
Pretty-print Checkbox Select this checkbox to format the output to make it more readable/printable.

Default status: Deselected
Derive Schema from a Sample Size of * Dropdown list Select the size of the number of initial input documents to be used when deriving the schema to be added to the binary output header. The sizing that you choose depends on the uniformity of the source schema. For example, if the schema is uniform across the documents, then choose Small. If the schema differs from document to document, then choose a larger size (Medium or Large) to attain a more accurate sampling of your schema. The performance impact on the Pipeline execution/validation is greater, the larger the sample size is. If you select None, then the schema is not sampled.

Default value: None

Example: Small
Support Type Extensions Checkbox/Expression Select this checkbox to enable the Snap to format/parse the Snaplogic-specific syntax indicating objects of the special types, such as byte arrays and date objects in JSON.

Default status: Deselected
Snap execution Dropdown list
Choose one of the three modes in which the Snap executes. Available options are:
  • Validate & Execute: Performs limited execution of the Snap and generates a data preview during pipeline validation. Subsequently, performs full execution of the Snap (unlimited records) during pipeline runtime.
  • Execute only: Performs full execution of the Snap during pipeline execution without generating preview data.
  • Disabled: Disables the Snap and all Snaps that are downstream from it.

Default value: Validate & Execute

Example: Execute only

Troubleshooting

Unexpected character ('{' (code 123)

Possible Causes

The array entries in the JSON file do not follow the syntax. A comma ',' is expected before the beginning of every second array—'{'.

Possible Solutions

Verify the array at the row and column mentioned beside the error message using the Edit JSON feature and add a comma appropriately.