Strategy for handling multiple JSON schemas

[ericonline]

Hello!

I'm a day and a half into this Flow at this point! Wow. Learning a LOT! Feel like I'm down to one final problem to solve (yeah right 🙂 ). Hoping someone can assist here.

Scenario:

• Multiple Sharepoint lists (12) need to be migrated to flat files (for processing)
• Some are > 5k items
• Using the 'Send an HTTP request to Sharepoint' Action to query the lists
• Parse the JSON response of each
• Create a .json file of data on file system

Problem:

• Because there are 12 lists, there are 12 JSON schemas to parse
• I need a method for making the Parse JSON action dynamic so I can populate the schema based on the parsed list

Ideas for this one?

[Pstork1]

I don't think there is a way to make the schemas dynamic.  But you could use a Switch statement on some defining value to select which Parse Json action to use in your stream. 

[ericonline]

Thanks for the reply @Pstork1 . I appreciate you thinking about this. Feels like it would be VERY valuable to be able to add Dynamic Content to the Parse JSON action to accommodate this. 

Example:

• Send an HTTP request to Sharepoint List 1 (to obtain schema)
• Parse JSON 1 and save output as a varSchema
• Later in the Flow...
  • Send an HTTP request to Sharepoint List 1 with full query
  • Parse JSON 2 and pass varSchema
  • Create file/etc.

No need for a Switch statement with 12 (or more!) options. 

Or even more ideal, specify a URL where the schema is stored and have Flow fetch it.

@Anonymous @RezaDorrani, @ScottShearer , @yashag2255 ... thoughts on this one?

[Pstork1]

I agree it would be useful, but it doesn't exist today and I don't think you will see it anytime soon.

[ericonline]

Well lets not get pessimistic! 🙂

[RezaDorrani]

Hi @ericonline 

Switch action for 12 defined parse json actions as suggested by @Pstork1 will work

It can be made dynamic but would involve a lot of work with expressions

For example - when you query the list and get the response

You can run a for loop on the response results using expression:-

body('action_name')?['d']?['results'] - This will point to the array response of items

Next within the for loop to read each item,

use expression item()?['columninternalname']

To make columninternalname - dynamic - you would need to first query the column names and store them also in a collection

so within the loop for the items array

run another loop on the collection(array) of internal names and then use expression

items('Main_loop_name')?[item()]  

Main_loop_name - is the name of the main for loop (body('action_name')?['d']?['results'])

item() - will give you the current column name from the columns array

Regards,

Reza Dorrani

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