Get JSON from internal rest() call

Question

I'm making some REST calls within a custom component. Rather that traverse a nested response object in FreeMarker, I'd prefer to receive a JSON string, which I could insert as a data-* attribute on one of the HTML nodes in my custom component and deal with on the client-side using JavaScript. So I'd like to do something like this:

<div class="hidden my-data" data-board-topics="${
rest("/boards/id/extensions/topiclist?restapi.format_detail=full_list_element&restapi.response_format=json")
}">

However, when I append "&restapi.response_format=json" to the rest parameter, it still returns a nested response object, not a JSON string. I know I can get JSON by making an external REST API call from the client side, but is there a way to get a JSON string from the internal rest function?

yurik · Answer

Hey Shawn-ad,You can do the following (Thanks DougS) in an endpoint (but not in components):
&nbsp;
1) Create an endpoint with your rest call similar to the following (Note: the&nbsp;@@markup&nbsp;call will get you the xml string for the freemarker object):
&nbsp;
${rest("/threads/recent").@@markup}
&nbsp;
2) Set return type to text/plain
&nbsp;
3) call your endpoint with the following query parameter
&nbsp;
?xslt=json.xsl
&nbsp;
This should return the json as a string.
&nbsp;
Hope this helps,
&nbsp;
Yuri
&nbsp;

nathan · Answer

There may be a simpler solution, but you could use a macro to convert the Freemarker object to JSON, for example:http://ericbrandel.com/2013/03/28/freemarker-container-to-json/

dougs · Answer

We will be releasing a couple Freemarker context objects for 14.12 that should help with these types of things. &nbsp;For REST V2, we are releasing a new object named apiv2 that will have two functions in it: apiv2.toJson(&lt;your v2 freemarker object&gt;) and apiv2.toxml(&lt;your v2 freemar object&gt;). &nbsp; You'll be able to take a REST V2 response, navigate its object graph, and then print out the object as a JSON or XML string (kind of similar to .@@markup for REST V1). &nbsp;An example:
&nbsp;
&lt;#assign liql = "SELECT * FROM messages WHERE board.id = 'studio'" /&gt;
&lt;#assign resp = rest("2.0", liql?url) /&gt;
&lt;#-- print out the first item in the list of messages --&gt;
${apiv2.toJson(resp.data.items[0])}
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
We'll also be releasing&nbsp;an object named restd that we already had (just for API V1 XML responses), but that was previously un-documented, and that has been extended&nbsp;to work with JSON for API V1 and V2. &nbsp;The restd object will make a REST API call, but instead of returning a wrapped object response it will return either an XML string or a JSON string, depending on how the call is made.
&nbsp;

${restd("/boards/id/extensions/topiclist")} will return an XML string version of an API V1 response. &nbsp;
${restd("/boards/id/extensions/topiclist", "json")} will return a JSON string version of an API V1 response.
${restd("2.0", "/search?q=SELECT+*+FROM+messages")} will return a JSON string version of an API V2 response.
${restd("2.0", "/search?q=SELECT+*+FROM+messages", "xml")} will return an XML string version of an API V2 response.

&nbsp;
-Doug

shawn-ad · Answer

Thanks, Yuri. It is interesting that I can use your suggestion to convert any XML emdpoint into JSON. However,&nbsp;I was trying to get JSON data rendered inside the page HTML so that I don't have to make a separate HTTP request to the API (or to a custom endpoint).&nbsp;Clearly Lithium has a way to get an API response as XML markup (using @@markup an endpoint). it would be great if I could get JSON using a similar FreeMarker translation method, and do so in a component to get it rendered in-page.

luk · Answer

big +1000, the problem is not to get JSON from an endpoint but inside a component or any type of freemarker code...the rest() lithium context object ALWAYS returns a freemarker node when used in a freemarker template, this makes things much harder as they would need to be =/

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