Get Value from JSON, then display value in a Time Format

[mikedumka]

Hi There, 

I am getting better at building my flows, just parsed my first JSON that was inside another array (Whoa ... I got confused just writing that). But now I have run into a problem with formatting the date time value. 

The value I pull from the JSON is "PublishedTime" with a value of "2018-11-27T22:48:00Z".

The problem is that when I try to use the expression builder I can't access the "PublishedTime" value/identifer.

The only thing availible from the Parse JSON action is "body". 

I am kind of lost ... 

Thanks, Mike

[v-yuazh-msft]

Hi @mikedumka,

Could you please share a screenshot of the configuration of your flow?

Could you please share more details about the JSON that you mentioned.

I have made a test on my side and my flow works fine to get the value in the JSON as below:

The JSON:

[
  {
    "Title": "1",
    "PublishedTime": "2018-11-27T08:00:00Z"
  }
]

The flow:

 

Run history:

Please share more details so we would try to provide a proper workaround for you.

Best regards,

Alice

[mikedumka]

Thanks so much for the help ... 

I should have explained more, I can do everything you laid out, but when it comes to the expression builder, I want to format the time. So I have this ... which has the correct JSON value "PublishedTime"

But as soon as I go into the "Expression" tab and try to format the time, the JSON value changes to "body" like below ... 

What is going on with this ... and again, thank you so much for the help!

[v-yuazh-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @mikedumka,

You could add a Compose action inside the Apply to each, and then refer to screenshot below to create the flow:

The expression in the Body field as below:

formatDateTime(outputs('Compose'),'yyyy-MM-dd')

Best regards,

Alice

[mikedumka]

I tried to accept this as a solution but am getting some strange authentication error, but thank you SO much for yelp. Worked like a charm. My only question is why do I have to use 'compose' rather than working with the value directly?

[Pieter_Veenstra]

HI mike, You can do this an easy way. If you add the Dynamic content that you want in any part of an action ( this could be a compose). Then click in this field . Then Ctrl A and the Ctrl V it into the expressions editor then you will get the json to query what you want. Important note for this approach you will need to remove the @ sign and the curly brackets {} around the expression that you actually want.