cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Reply
aeisenhart
Frequent Visitor

Comparing Two Dynamic JSON Objects

I'm working a Retrieve Audit Details Response message from the Dynamics WEB API. I can get the correct data from Dynamics, but I can't figure out how to process it in a Flow.

 

Here's a sample of the entire response:

 

 

{
    "body": {
        "@odata.context": "https://xxx.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.2/$metadata#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.RetrieveAuditDetailsResponse",
        "AuditDetail": {
            "@odata.type": "#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.AttributeAuditDetail",
            "InvalidNewValueAttributes": [],
            "LocLabelLanguageCode": 0,
            "DeletedAttributes": {
                "Count": 0,
                "Keys": [],
                "Values": []
            },
            "OldValue": {
                "@odata.type": "#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account",
                "websiteurl": "http://w.com",
                "fax": "555-1234567"
            },
            "NewValue": {
                "@odata.type": "#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account",
                "websiteurl": "http://www.com",
                "fax": "555-555-1234",
                "new_companytype": 500000000
            }
        }
    }
}

 

 

I want to send an email with a table that looks like this --
 
 
 
 
Old
New
u/odata.type
#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account
#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account
websiteurl
fax
555-1234567
555-555-1234
new_companytype
 
500000000

 

The challenge is that the properties inside OldValue and NewValue are dynamic -- any number of the dozens of available columns might be included, so I can't hardcode a lookup by the property name (such as ['NewValue']['fax']). And it is also possible that the column will not be included in OldValue, if the value was previously null. I'd like to do it this way, because we have a lot of columns and some will be very wide, and I want to avoid horizontal scrolling in my email.
 
I can use a Create HTML Table note, but that gives me a result that is a wide table, like the above, but the rows and columns are transposed, which is not ideal.
 
I've been playing with string parsing and JSON object manipulation, and I'm leading myself in circles. Does anyone have any advice or pointers?
 

EDIT: Thinking a little outside the box, I tried using the results of Create HTML Table and applying a CSS transform in the email styles. No luck.

Attempted:

I think the reason this failed is because of the reliance on `display`, which is generally not supported in email clients. https://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/grid/display/

7 REPLIES 7
DamoBird365
Microsoft
Microsoft

Hi @aeisenhart 

 

Initialise a new string variable and add the <table> and header tags:

<table>
  <tr>
    <th></th>
    <th>Old</th>
    <th>New</th>
  </tr>

 

Create an apply to each on the body and append string in each loop with both string and dynamic values

  <tr>
    <td>item()?['pathtokey/value']</td>
    <td>item()?['pathtokey/value']</td>
    <td>item()?['pathtokey/value']</td>
  </tr>

 

Outside of the apply to each, append a closing table tag to the variable </table>

 

You now have your bespoke html table in the variable.


Cheers
Damien

Please take a look and subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more Power Platform ideas and concepts. Thanks

eliotcole
Super User
Super User

I came at this from a slightly different angle, @aeisenhart, which was to treat OldValue and NewValue as if they were both entries in the same array (table), but one or the other just has blank entries where the other may have more.

 

Simply place the Create HTML table action straight after wherever the data comes in, and this will do the job :

union(
    createArray(
        addProperty(
            variables('jsonObjectVAR')?['body/AuditDetail/OldValue'], 
            'oldNew', 
            'Old'
        )
    ),
    createArray(
        addProperty(
            variables('jsonObjectVAR')?['body/AuditDetail/NewValue'], 
            'oldNew', 
            'New'
        )
    )
)

Replace variables('jsonObjectVAR')?['body/AuditDetail/OldValue'] & NewValue with a reference to where yours are.

simpleJsonMerge.jpg

Essentially all that is happening is that you are adding an extra property to Old/New to identify each of them, then you are telling it to make that one object a single item in an array, then you are telling it to join both arrays together. (I'll break this down a bit more in an edit in a second)

 

The HTML table action is then intelligent enough to be able to create the blank values as and where it needs them.

 

If you wish to do more with the blank fields, you could process the union in a select, perhaps ... but I'd have to confirm that.

Thank you so much for such a detailed response! This worked very well to add "old" and "new" to the attributes.

The problem that I'm running into is that I want to transpose or rotate the resulting table, and that's what I'm not sure how to do.

There are several dozen properties that might be in this JSON string, so I don't want to hardcode lookups for each possible value, such as the following:

 

variables('jsonObjectVAR')?['body/AuditDetail/OldValue/new_productline'],

 

Here's a sample of my output, after making your suggestion (which was very appreciated!):

 

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>@odata.type</th>
            <th>new_productline</th>
            <th>_ownerid_value</th>
            <th>oldNew</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account</td>
            <td>100000000</td>
            <td>0bf23b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1</td>
            <td>Old</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account</td>
            <td>500000000</td>
            <td>d9f13b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1</td>
            <td>New</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

 

 

aeisenhart_0-1656690470937.png

Is there a way to "rotate" the table so that the table grows taller instead of wider as new properties are added? Here's a sample of what I'd like the result to be:

 

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th></th>
            <th>Old</th>
            <th>New</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>new_productline</td>
            <td>100000000</td>
            <td>500000000</td>
            
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>_ownerid_value</td>
            <td>d9f13b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1</td>
            <td>0bf23b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

 

 

emptyOldNew
new_productline100000000500000000
_ownerid_valued9f13b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe10bf23b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1

 

It's doable, @aeisenhart, and potentially just inside one or two actions. However, it will probably involve some complicated expressions, and logic there-in.

 

I honestly don't think it's worth your time handling it, frankly. You're at the point where you're now just really talking about aesthetics, and I would advise against handling data based on purely on the aesthetics, even though I *totally* understand where you're coming from.

 

Plus you run the risk of wandering back in to the realm of making it less data agnostic (working regardless of how many additional fields there are), which means it's more susceptible to breaking.

 

But it's doable ... it's just a bit of work, that (not meaning to sound rude) you would technically not be doing ... and if someone has to handle this after you have gone ... they'll need to know what they're looking at.

 

Explaining this within the context of the flow will be half the battle, really, as you should always approach these things as to how will someone else use this in the future ... and add the appropriate annotations there-in.

 

---

 

On the flip-side, if you're comfortable with a little bit of CSS work (which - unlike javascript - you should be able to use within an HTML email) you could use something like what's been done here:

https://codepen.io/veekungx/pen/MWgvBxe

Maybe take a stroll online for more transposed HTML tables?

Hey eliotcole,

 

Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that it's down to aesthetics and readability, so I probably won't sink a huge amount of time into it. I was just hoping that there was a quick and straightforward solution that I wasn't aware of.

 

Thanks for the CSS idea -- I mentioned that I tried that idea in my original post, but unfortunately the CSS elements aren't widely supported yet. I think the issue is reliance on the grid and use of the display element. https://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/grid/display/ . But CSS would have been an awesome solution if that worked.

 

Thanks again for all of your help!

So is it just a case that the html email can't display grid CSS values?

 

That sounds bizarre to me. I don't have the time (or energy) to try to fiddle with that right now ... but I DO want to fiddle with it, so I'll try to take a look, mate.

Hey eliotcole! I just got back from PTO.

Yeah, long story short, I've read that most email clients (mobile, Windows, iOS, web browsers) don't render the grid CSS properties correctly. I tested this myself with Outlook on Windows (which is used by my primary user base). If I build a sample static HTML file (using the code from the jsfilddle link we both referenced), it will render the table transposed correctly. I can take the exact same HTML content, throw it in an email, and the CSS is not applied correctly.

In the end, I think I have to live with a horizontal instead of a vertical table, but I'm thankful for all of your ideas!

Helpful resources

Announcements

Announcing | Super Users - 2023 Season 1

Super Users – 2023 Season 1    We are excited to kick off the Power Users Super User Program for 2023 - Season 1.  The Power Platform Super Users have done an amazing job in keeping the Power Platform communities helpful, accurate and responsive. We would like to send these amazing folks a big THANK YOU for their efforts.      Super User Season 1 | Contributions July 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022  Super User Season 2 | Contributions January 1, 2023 – June 30, 2023    Curious what a Super User is? Super Users are especially active community members who are eager to help others with their community questions. There are 2 Super User seasons in a year, and we monitor the community for new potential Super Users at the end of each season. Super Users are recognized in the community with both a rank name and icon next to their username, and a seasonal badge on their profile.    Power Apps  Power Automate  Power Virtual Agents  Power Pages  Pstork1*  Pstork1*  Pstork1*  OliverRodrigues  BCBuizer  Expiscornovus*  Expiscornovus*  ragavanrajan  AhmedSalih  grantjenkins  renatoromao    Mira_Ghaly*  Mira_Ghaly*      Sundeep_Malik*  Sundeep_Malik*      SudeepGhatakNZ*  SudeepGhatakNZ*      StretchFredrik*  StretchFredrik*      365-Assist*  365-Assist*      cha_cha  ekarim2020      timl  Hardesh15      iAm_ManCat  annajhaveri      SebS  Rhiassuring      LaurensM  abm      TheRobRush  Ankesh_49      WiZey  lbendlin      Nogueira1306  Kaif_Siddique      victorcp  RobElliott      dpoggemann  srduval      SBax  CFernandes      Roverandom  schwibach      Akser  CraigStewart      PowerRanger  MichaelAnnis      subsguts  David_MA      EricRegnier  edgonzales      zmansuri  GeorgiosG      ChrisPiasecki  ryule      AmDev  fchopo      phipps0218  tom_riha      theapurva  takolota     Akash17  momlo     BCLS776  Shuvam-rpa     rampprakash   ScottShearer     Rusk   ChristianAbata     cchannon   Koen5     a33ik        AaronKnox        Matren        Alex_10        Jeff_Thorpe        poweractivate        Ramole        DianaBirkelbach        DavidZoon        AJ_Z        PriyankaGeethik        BrianS        StalinPonnusamy        HamidBee        CNT        Anonymous_Hippo        Anchov        KeithAtherton        alaabitar        Tolu_Victor        KRider        sperry1625        IPC_ahaas      zuurg     rubin_boer     cwebb365       If an * is at the end of a user's name this means they are a Multi Super User, in more than one community. Please note this is not the final list, as we are pending a few acceptances.  Once they are received the list will be updated. 

Microsoft Power Platform | March 2023 Newsletter

Welcome to our March 2023 Newsletter, where we'll be highlighting the great work of our members within our Biz Apps communities, alongside the latest news, video releases, and upcoming events. If you're new to the community, be sure to subscribe to the News & Announcements and stay up to date with the latest news from our ever-growing membership network who find real "Power in the Community".        LATEST NEWS Power Platform Connections Check out Episode Five of Power Platform Connections, as David Warner II and Hugo Bernier chat with #PowerAutomate Vice President, Stephen Siciliano, alongside reviewing out the great work of Vesa Juvonen, Waldek Mastykarz, Maximilian Müller, Kristine Kolodziejski, Danish Naglekar, Cat Schneider, Victor Dantas, and many more.       Use the hashtag #PowerPlatformConnects on social media for a chance to have your work featured on the show!   Did you miss an episode?  Catch up now in the Community Connections Galleries Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, Power Pages     Power Platform leading a new era of AI-generated low-code development.   **HOT OFF THE PRESS** Fantastic piece here by Charles Lamanna on how we're reinventing software development with Copilot in Power Platform to help you can build apps, flows, and bots with just a simple description! Click here to see the Product Blog         Copilot for Power Apps - Power CAT Live To follow on from Charles' blog, check out #PowerCATLive as Phil Topness gives Clay Wesener Wesner a tour of the capabilities of Copilot in Power Apps.           UPCOMING EVENTS   Modern Workplace Conference Check out the Power Platform and Microsoft 365 Modern Workplace Conference that returns face-to-face at the Espace St Martin in Paris on 27-28th March. The #MWCP23 will feature a wide range of expert speakers, including Nadia Yahiaoui, Amanda Sterner, Pierre-Henri, Chirag Patel, Chris Hoard, Edyta Gorzoń, Erika Beaumier, Estelle Auberix, Femke Cornelissen, Frank POIREAU, Gaëlle Moreau, Gilles Pommier, Ilya Fainberg, Julie Ecolivet, Mai-Lynn Lien, Marijn Somers, Merethe Stave, Nikki Chapple, Patrick Guimonet, Penda Sow, Pieter Op De Beéck, Rémi Riche, Robin Doudoux, Stéphanie Delcroix, Yves Habersaat and many more.  Click here to find out more and register today!     Business Applications Launch 2023 Join us on Tuesday 4th April 2023 for an in-depth look into the latest updates across Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Dynamics 365 that are helping businesses overcome their biggest challenges today. Find out about new features, capabilities, and best practices for connecting data to deliver exceptional customer experiences, collaborating and creating using AI-powered capabilities, driving productivity with automation, and building future growth with today’s leading technology. Click Here to Register Today!       Power Platform Conference 2023 We are so excited to see you for the Microsoft Power Platform Conference in Las Vegas October 3-5th, 2023! But first, let's take a look below at some fun moments from MPPC 2022 in Orlando Florida. 2023 sees guest speakers such as Charles Lamanna, Heather Cook, Julie Strauss, Nirav Shah, Ryan Cunningham, Sangya Singh, and many more taking part, so why not click the link below to register for the #PowerPlatformConf today! Vegas, baby! Click Here to Register Today!      COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS Check out our top Super and Community Users reaching new levels!  These hardworking members are posting, answering questions, kudos, and providing top solutions in their communities.   Power Apps:  Super Users:  @WarrenBelz  |  @iAm_ManCat  Community Users: @LaurensM | @Rusk | @RJM07    Power Automate:   Super Users: @abm  | @Expiscornovus | @RobElliott  Community Users:  @grantjenkins | @Chriddle    Power Virtual Agents:   Super Users: @Expiscornovus | @Pstork1  Community Users: @MisterBates | @Jupyter123 | Kunal K   Power Pages: Super Users:  @OliverRodriguesOliverRodrigues | @Mira_Ghaly  Community Users: @FubarFubar | @ianwukianwuk  LATEST PRODUCT BLOG ARTICLES  Power Apps Community Blog  Power Automate Community Blog  Power Virtual Agents Community Blog  Power Pages Community Blog  Check out 'Using the Community' for more helpful tips and information:  Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, Power Pages 

Register now for the Business Applications Launch Event | Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Join us for an in-depth look into the latest updates across Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform that are helping businesses overcome their biggest challenges today.   Find out about new features, capabilities, and best practices for connecting data to deliver exceptional customer experiences, collaborating, and creating using AI-powered capabilities, driving productivity with automation—and building towards future growth with today’s leading technology.   Microsoft leaders and experts will guide you through the full 2023 release wave 1 and how these advancements will help you: Expand visibility, reduce time, and enhance creativity in your departments and teams with unified, AI-powered capabilities.Empower your employees to focus on revenue-generating tasks while automating repetitive tasks.Connect people, data, and processes across your organization with modern collaboration tools.Innovate without limits using the latest in low-code development, including new GPT-powered capabilities.    Click Here to Register Today!    

Power Platform Connections - Episode 5 | March 16, 2023

Episode Five of Power Platform Connections sees David Warner and Hugo Bernier talk to Vice President of Power Automate, Stephen Siciliano, alongside the latest news, product reviews, and community blogs.     Use the hashtag #PowerPlatformConnects on social media for a chance to have your work featured on the show!      Show schedule in this episode:  0:00 Cold Open  0:34 Show Intro  01:09 Stephen Siciliano Interview  30:42 Blogs & Articles  31:06 PnP Weekly Ep 200  32:51 SharePoint Custom Form Backup  33:38 Power Apps Extreme Makeover  34:56 ChatGPT Control  35:35 Color Data  37:17 Top 7 Features on Dynamics 365 2023 Release Wave 1  38:30 Outro & Bloopers  Check out the blogs and articles featured in this week’s episode:    https://pnp.github.io/blog/microsoft-365-pnp-weekly/episode-200/​ (no tags)   https://grazfuchs.net/post/sharepoint-customform-backup/ @Maximilian Müllerhttps://www.fromzerotoheroes.com/ @Kristine Kolodziejski​ https://github.com/Power-Maverick/PCF-Controls/tree/master/ChatGPTControl @DanzMaverick https://yerawizardcat.com/color/ ​ @CatSchneider https://events.powercommunity.com/dynamics-power-israel/ @VictorDantas  Action requested: Feel free to provide feedback on how we can make our community more inclusive and diverse.  This episode premiered live on our YouTube at 12pm PST on Thursday, 16th March 2023.  Video series available at Power Platform Community YouTube channel.    Upcoming events:  Business Applications Launch – April 4th – Free and Virtual! M365 Conference - May 1-5th - Las Vegas Power Apps Developers Summit – May 19-20th - London European Power Platform conference – Jun. 20-22nd - Dublin Microsoft Power Platform Conference – Oct. 3-5th - Las Vegas  Join our Communities:  Power Apps Community Power Automate Community Power Virtual Agents Community Power Pages Community  If you’d like to hear from a specific community member in an upcoming recording and/or have specific questions for the Power Platform Connections team, please let us know. We will do our best to address all your requests or questions.     

Check out the new Power Platform Communities Front Door Experience!

We are excited to share the ‘Power Platform Communities Front Door’ experience with you!   Front Door brings together content from all the Power Platform communities into a single place for our community members, customers and low-code, no-code enthusiasts to learn, share and engage with peers, advocates, community program managers and our product team members. There are a host of features and new capabilities now available on Power Platform Communities Front Door to make content more discoverable for all power product community users which includes ForumsUser GroupsEventsCommunity highlightsCommunity by numbersLinks to all communities Users can see top discussions from across all the Power Platform communities and easily navigate to the latest or trending posts for further interaction. Additionally, they can filter to individual products as well.   Users can filter and browse the user group events from all power platform products with feature parity to existing community user group experience and added filtering capabilities.     Users can now explore user groups on the Power Platform Front Door landing page with capability to view all products in Power Platform.      Explore Power Platform Communities Front Door today. Visit Power Platform Community Front door to easily navigate to the different product communities, view a roll up of user groups, events and forums.

Microsoft Power Platform Conference | Registration Open | Oct. 3-5 2023

We are so excited to see you for the Microsoft Power Platform Conference in Las Vegas October 3-5 2023! But first, let's take a look back at some fun moments and the best community in tech from MPPC 2022 in Orlando, Florida.   Featuring guest speakers such as Charles Lamanna, Heather Cook, Julie Strauss, Nirav Shah, Ryan Cunningham, Sangya Singh, Stephen Siciliano, Hugo Bernier and many more.   Register today: https://www.powerplatformconf.com/   

Top Solution Authors
Users online (4,835)