Parsing Json in Robot Framework

Question

{
  "data": [
    {
      "name": "John",
      "mobile_phone": false,
      "carrier": "none"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jim",
      "mobile_phone": true,
      "carrier": "T-Mobile"
    }
  ],
  "result": 0
}

Hi, will it be possible to parse such JSON response in Robot Framework in a way where I will create kind of 'sub' list for each value ? I would like to separate John from Jim and get for example information about carrier for Jim only (via another get request later in test). Thanks !

Solution

Say the source text (the json) is stored in a variable ${source data}:

${source data}=    Evaluate     json.loads("""${source data}""")    json
# the variable ${source data} is now a python dictionary - the same as the original json, but only - accessible as dictionary in robotframwork

${all data members}=    Set Variable     ${source data['data']}

${user_phone}=    Create Dictionary

:FOR    ${member}     IN      @{all data members}   # iterate through the 'data', each ${member} is a dictionary in the source list
\    ${name}=    Get From Dictionary   ${member}     name    # will assign to the variable ${name} the value of the key 'name'; if there is no such key - the keyword will fail
\    Log    The user ${name} has a mobile phone: ${member['mobile_phone']}    # Will print "The user John has a mobile phone: False", "The user Jim has a mobile phone: True"
\    Set To Dictionary    ${user_phone}    ${name}   ${member['mobile_phone']}    # will fill-in a dictionary in the form "name": boolean_does_the_person_has_phone

This commented code sample shows how you can work with json/dictionary objects in robotframework.

The Evaluate keyword on line 1 runs arbitrary python code (its first argument, which calls the loads() method of the json module); its 2nd argument is any extra libraries that need to be imported - like json in our case.

The 4th line, Set Variable shows the Extended variable syntax - in this case, knowing that source data is a dictionary, getting the value of that key. At the end of this line execution, the variable all data members is the list that's inside the json's 'data' key.

Line 8 starts a loop, over that same list; the variable member will hold the value of each list's member on every iteration.

Line 9 uses a different (more orthodox) way to get the value of a dictionary's key - by using the keyword Get From Dictionary from the Collections library.

Line 10 logs a message, by employing a normal (name) and extended syntax (member['mobile_phone']) variables.

And on line 11, a dictionary entry is created, where the name is used as a key, and the boolean member['mobile_phone'] as a value (if there is already a key with the same name - it is overwritten). This keyword is again in the Collections library.

Comments

[Tony Montana]

Hi, this is an excellent comment which explain a lot. But anyway, line 9 will fail everytime because dictionary is empty. I would say that it should be first created, or ?

[Todor Minakov]

Those dictionaries are already created - they are the list members in the 'data' value.