XML Parser

XML related API has been around for some time now in PeopleSoft and this post is not discussing anything new. Just something that I wanted to pen down for future reference. 

So recently I have been working on a requirement where in I have to parse out a XML response and fetch data values in order to process them further. In this case the same tag element names repeat throughout the XML message and there are multiple levels in the message. The requirement was to traverse each "item" tag and fetch the value for "key" and "value" tags.

Format of the XML message is as shown below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <root> <level1> <level2> <level3> <item> <key>FieldName1</key> <value>Value1</value> <type>String</type> </item> <item> <key>FieldName2</key> <value>Value2</value> <type>Date</type> </item> <item> <key>FieldName3</key> <value>Value3</value> <type>Number</type> </item> </level3> </level2> </level1> </root>



Wrote two methods, first one is way longer than the second one.
For both methods I am passing the "field_name_value" and getting back the &fieldvalue value.


Method one - longer.


Local XmlDoc &NewHireXMLDoc;
Local XmlNode &root, &level1, &level2, &level3, &item;
Local number &z, &y, &x, &w, &v;
Local string &sResp, &fieldvalue;
Local boolean &bRet;


rem &sResp is the XML message in string form;
   
&NewHireXMLDoc = CreateXmlDoc();
&bRet = &NewHireXMLDoc.ParseXmlString(&sResp);

&rootNode = &NewHireXMLDoc.DocumentElement;

For &z = 1 To &rootNode.ChildNodeCount
   If &root.GetChildNode(&z).NodeName = "level1" Then
      &level1= &root.GetChildNode(&z);
      For &y = 1 To &level1.ChildNodeCount
         If &level1.GetChildNode(&y).NodeName = "level2" Then
            &level2= &level1.GetChildNode(&y);
            For &x = 1 To &level2.ChildNodeCount
               If &level2.GetChildNode(&x).NodeName = "level3" Then
                  &level3 = &level2.GetChildNode(&x);
                  For &w = 1 To &level3.ChildNodeCount
                     If &level3.GetChildNode(&w).NodeName = "item" Then
                        &item = &level3.GetChildNode(&w);
                        For &v = 1 To &item.ChildNodeCount
                           If &item.GetChildNode(&v).NodeName = "key" And
                                 &item.GetChildNode(&v).NodeValue = "field_name_value" Then
                              &fieldvalue = &item.GetChildNode(&v + 1).NodeValue;
                              &v = &v + 1;
                           End-If;
                       End-For;
                     End-If;
                  End-For;
               End-If;
            End-For;
         End-If;
      End-For;
   End-If;
End-For;



Method two - shorter

Local XmlDoc &NewHireXMLDoc;
Local string &sResp, &fieldvalue;
Local boolean &bRet;

Local array of XmlNode &items;
Local number &y, &z;

rem &sResp is the XML message in string form;
   
&NewHireXMLDoc = CreateXmlDoc();
&bRet = &NewHireXMLDoc.ParseXmlString(&sResp);


&items = &NewHireXMLDoc.DocumentElement.FindNodes("level1/level2/level3/item");
   
   For &z = 1 To &items.Len
      For &y = 1 To &items [&z].ChildNodeCount
         
         If &items [&z].GetChildNode(&y).NodeName = "key" And
               &items [&z].GetChildNode(&y).NodeValue = "field_name_value" Then
            &fieldvalue = &items [&z].GetChildNode(&y + 1).NodeValue;
            Break;
         End-If;
      End-For;

   End-For;

Creating JSON request for REST web services

PeopleSoft provides Document technology to be used to generate JSON request messages but in my experience they are very restrictive especially when working on integrating with 3rd party web services. So following is what I did to generate a JSON request message to post to a 3rd party REST web service. 

The request that I have to generate is in the following form.
[
   {
      "attrib1":"value1",
      "attrib2":"value2",
      "attrib3":{
         "attrib3_1":"values3_1",
         "attrib3_2":"values3_2",
         "attrib3_3":"values3_3",
         "attrib3_4":"values3_4"
      }
   }
]

I am running PT 8.57.x and at this time its not possible to build a document with the root node as an array as shown in the example below. Also I have nested compounds which is also a challenge, the parent compound does not have a label where as the child does. 
So to build something like above I am using the CreateJsonBuilder API provided by PeopleSoft.

Local JsonBuilder &jbldr = CreateJsonBuilder();
Local JsonArray &jArray;

Local string &json;
Local message &request, &response;
Local boolean &bRet;

&jbldr.StartArray(""); /* no label */
 &jbldr.StartObject(""); /* no label */
  &jbldr.AddProperty("attrib1", "value1");
  &jbldr.AddProperty("attrib2", "value2");
   &jbldr.StartObject("attrib3"); /* need a label */
    &jbldr.AddProperty("attrib3_1", "value3_1");
    &jbldr.AddProperty("attrib3_2", "value3_2");
    &jbldr.AddProperty("attrib3_3", "value3_3");
    &jbldr.AddProperty("attrib3_4", "value3_4");
   &jbldr.EndObject("attrib3"); /* closing out the compound or JSONObject */
 &jbldr.EndObject("");
&jbldr.EndArray("");


/* this will return the array just like what I want */
&jArray = &jbldr.GetRootNode().GetJsonObject().GetJsonArray("");
&json = &jArray.ToString();

Created a basic non-rowset based message and assigned that as the request message in my service operation. Use this method to set the content for the message segment for a non-rowset-based message only.

&bRet = &request.SetContentString(&json);
&response = %IntBroker.SyncRequest(&request);

That's it, works like a charm.

JSON Parser

PeopleSoft has undocumented JSON related API and this post covers some of the routines that I have tried to dynamically parse a json response. I think this API calls were made available in PT 8.56.x as part of PeopleSoft's inbuilt integration with ElasticSearch. 

I am making a RESTful web service call to a service hosted by a 3rd party vendor from PeopleSoft; so PeopleSoft is a consumer of the service. Focus here is to parse the response from the service so I am not covering how the service is setup and the request part of the service. 

So I have two types of responses. Response 1 as shown below 

{

    "error": {

        "message": "Some message text",

        "detail": "detail text about the error"

    },

    "status": "failure"

}

and Response 2 as follows.

{

   "import_set":"Import set value",

   "staging_table":"tablename",

   "result":[

      {

         "status":"updated",

         "error_message":"Unable to format 01-01-2019 using format string yyyyMMdd  for field hire_dt"

      }

   ]

}

In Response 1, I has 2 children, viz "error" and "status", whereas Response 2 has 3 children, import_set, staging_table and result.

In Response 1, "error" is a JSonObject which has 2 more children, message and detail. In Response 2, "result" is a JSonArray which has 2 children status and error_message.

Local string &content, &propName, &propValue;

Local JsonParser &parser;

Local JsonObject &jsonRoot, &jsonDetails;

Local JsonArray &jArray;

Local boolean &ret; 

Local number &i, &j, &k, &l;

&parser = CreateJsonParser(); /* this is the undocumented API */

&ret = &parser.Parse(&content); /* &content is the json response as a string */

&jsonRoot = &parser.GetRootObject();

For &i = 1 To &jsonRoot.GetChildCount()
/* for Response 1, following will get status tag and its value */
/* for Response 2, following will get import_set, staging_table and its values */

   &propName = &jsonRoot.GetPropertyNameAt(&i);

   &propValue = &jsonRoot.GetProperty(&propName);

   /* if there is a nested value then its either JsonArray or JsonObject */

   Evaluate &propValue

   When = "JsonArray"
/* this will return status and error_message which are in Response 2 */

      &jArray = &jsonRoot.GetJsonArray(&propName);

      For &j = 1 To &jArray.Length()

         &jsonDetails = &jArray.GetJsonObject(&j);

         For &k = 1 To &jsonDetails.GetChildCount()

            &propName = &jsonDetails.GetPropertyNameAt(&k);

            &propValue = &jsonDetails.GetProperty(&propName);

         End-For;

      End-For;

      Break;

   When = "JsonObject"
/* this will return message and detail which are in Response 1 */

      &jsonDetails = &jsonRoot.GetJsonObject(&propName);

      &numCnt = &jsonDetails.GetChildCount();

      For &l = 1 To &jsonDetails.GetChildCount()

         &propName = &jsonDetails.GetPropertyNameAt(&l);

         &propValue = &jsonDetails.GetProperty(&propName);

      End-For;

      Break;

   When-Other;

      /* when not JsonArray or JsonObject, get prop name and value which is at root level */

      Break;

   End-Evaluate;

End-For;

Hope this helps.

PeopleSoft web service response namespace issue

Running PT 8.53.x, wrote a simple custom web service "Hello World". Service works fine but saw one issue where the namespace returned by the response message is not defined in the WSDL. So any other 3rd party solution like a .Net program when they consume and execute this service it fails to receive the response due to the unidentified namespace.

Request 

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:wsa="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2003/03/addressing/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance/">
  <soapenv:Header xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  </soapenv:Header>
  <soapenv:Body xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <HelloWorld xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/Enterprise/Tools/schemas/HELLOWORLD.V1"></HelloWorld>
  </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Response via PeopleSoft SOAP message template

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:wsa="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2003/03/addressing/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance/">
  <soapenv:Header xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  </soapenv:Header>
  <soapenv:Body xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
    <HelloWorldResponse xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/Enterprise/Tools/schemas/HELLOWORLDRESPONSE.V1">
      <HelloWorldResult>XYZ</HelloWorldResult>
    </HelloWorldResponse>
  </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Actual response via SOAPUI or Postman

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <soapenv:Body>
      <HelloWorldResponse xmlns="http://peoplesoft.com/HelloWorldResponseResponse">
         <HelloWorldResult>Success</HelloWorldResult>
      </HelloWorldResponse>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>


As you see the the problem is the namespace value returned for the root tag "HelloWorldResponse".

<HelloWorldResponse xmlns="http://peoplesoft.com/HelloWorldResponseResponse">


PeopleSoft puts the default value (not sure where this is stored)
http://peoplesoft.com/HelloWorldResponseResponse
instead of what is defined in the WSDL which is 
http://xmlns.oracle.com/Enterprise/Tools/schemas/HELLOWORLDRESPONSE.V1

I have a very basic synchronous service operation, with a request and response message and the handler OnRequest peoplecode is doing all the work.

Following was my application package peoplecode initially.

&response = CreateMessage(Operation.HELLOWORLD_SVCOP, %IntBroker_Response);
&xmldata = "<?xml version='1.0'?><HelloWorldResponse/>";
&xmlresponsedoc = CreateXmlDoc(&xmldata);

&HWResponseNode = &xmlNode.AddElement("HelloWorldResult");
&HWResponseNode.NodeValue = "Success";
&response.SetXmlDoc(&xmlresponsedoc);
Return &response;


So when creating the XmlDoc I was not specifying any namespace and I was hoping PeopleSoft will add it based on the schema definition. 

Instead following is what I had to do to correct the issue. (only displaying the change, no change to rest of the code)

&xmlresponsedoc = CreateXmlDoc("");

&docTypeNode = &xmlresponsedoc.CreateDocumentType("", "", "");
&rootNode = &xmlresponsedoc.CreateDocumentElement("HelloWorldResponse", "http://xmlns.oracle.com/Enterprise/Tools/schemas/HELLOWORLDRESSPONSE.V1", &docTypeNode);

&xmlNode = &xmlresponsedoc.DocumentElement;

So I have to use the CreateDocumentElement method of CreateXmlDoc in order to define the namespace. In order to use this method I had to first initialize the &docTypeNode variable by using the CreateDocumentType method.

After making the above change the response comes back correctly.

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <soapenv:Body>
      <HelloWorldResponse xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/Enterprise/Tools/schemas/HELLOWORLDRESSPONSE.V1">
         <HelloWorldResult>Success</HelloWorldResult>
      </HelloWorldResponse>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>