Solved: Re: JSON usage with vCO 5.1 REST API

asnodgrass · ‎12-05-2012

I'm trying to develop a simple REST client to execute a workflow in vCO. I'm using perl and the REST::Client module, which is pretty straight forward. I can retrieve the inventory and definition objects for my target workflow, but when I try to POST an execution, I get an error report back stating:

The request sent by the client was syntactically incorrect ().

I am using JSON (as that is both the default output from vCO if no Content-Type is specified and my personal preference), and the documentation on JSON formatting is quite sparse compared to the supplied XML documentation. The docs describe the execution-context as follows:

{ "parameters" : [ { "name" : "...", "type" : "...", "description" : "...", "scope" : "local", "value" : { } }, ... ] }

My workflow accepts two string parameters for input and returns one string parameter as output. I've read that the scope and description fields are optional, and I am omitting both. Clearly however, I am missing something necessary about the structure of the execution-context. Can anyone help shed some light on this?

Full debugging:

POST https://orchestrator:8281/api/workflows/8E808080808080808080808080808080B482808001343295959091aebf2a...

Accept: application/json

Accept-Encoding: gzip, x-gzip, deflate, x-bzip2

Authorization: *******

User-Agent: REST::Client/249

Content-Length: 137

Content-Type: application/json

{"parameters":[{"value":"10.0.0.0/24","name":"network","type":"string"},{"value":"test-hostname.dom","name":"hostname","type":"string"}]}

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request

Connection: close

Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:01:11 GMT

Server: vCO Server

Content-Length: 965

Content-Type: text/html;charset=utf-8

Client-Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:06:21 GMT

Client-Peer: ******:8281

Client-Response-Num: 1

Client-SSL-Cert-Issuer: /C=US/O=VMware/OU=VMware/CN=localhost.localdom

Client-SSL-Cert-Subject: /C=US/O=VMware/OU=VMware/CN=localhost.localdom

Client-SSL-Cipher: DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA

Client-SSL-Socket-Class: IO::Socket::SSL

Client-SSL-Warning: Peer certificate not verified

Title: JBossWeb/2.0.1.GA - Error report

<html><head><title>JBossWeb/2.0.1.GA - Error report</title><style></style> </head><body><h1>HTTP Status 400 - </h1><HR size="1" noshade="noshade"><p><b>type</b> Status report</p><p><b>message</b> <u></u></p><p><b>description</b> <u>The request sent by the client was syntactically incorrect ().</u></p><HR size="1" noshade="noshade"><h3>JBossWeb/2.0.1.GA</h3></body></html>

igaydajiev · ‎12-12-2012

There was an issue with the deserialization of the value from JSON format, it is fixed and will be available in 5.1 U1 release.

View solution in original post

BillSkulley · ‎12-07-2012

This is a total shot in the dark, because I don't know JSON, but the returns I get from XML gets on previous executions of workflows return string parameters similiar to this:

{"parameters":[{"name":"network","value":{"value":"10.0.0.0/24", "objectType":"string" }, "type":"string" },{"name":"hostname","value" { "value":"test-hostname.dom", "objectType":"string" }, "type":"string" }]}

I suspect the real issue is the format of value is "value":{....} but again... I don't know JSON.

HTH

BillSkulley · ‎12-07-2012

Just noticed a critical typo in my reply, dropped a colon... corrected below

{"parameters":[{"name":"network","value":{"value":"10.0.0.0/24", "objectType":"string" }, "type":"string" },{"name":"hostname","value":{ "value":"test-hostname.dom", "objectType":"string" }, "type":"string" }]}

FWIW this is the actual return from a workflow for a string parameter named "description":

{"name":"description","value":{"value":"Your text goes here","objectType":"string"},"type":"string","scope":"LOCAL"}

asnodgrass · ‎12-10-2012

Good insight on the structure of the value parameter, BillSkulley, thank you for that. Sadly, the documentation completely omits this detail. However, I tried amending my code accordingly and am still getting the same error back from Orchestrator. I think I will follow this up with a ticket to my support representative.

POST https://********:8281/api/workflows/8E808080808080808080808080808080BA82808001343295959091aebf2a6a5a...

Accept: application/json

Accept-Encoding: gzip, x-gzip, deflate, x-bzip2

Authorization: Basic **********

User-Agent: REST::Client/249

Content-Length: 128

Content-Type: application/json

{"parameters":[{"value":{"objectType":"string","value":"10.0.0.0/8"},"name":"network","type":"string"},{"value":{"objectType":"string","value":"test-hostname.dom"},"name":"hostname","type":"string"}]}

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request

Connection: close

Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:22:03 GMT

Server: vCO Server

Content-Length: 965

Content-Type: text/html;charset=utf-8

Client-Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:27:34 GMT

Client-Peer: x.x.x.x:8281

Client-Response-Num: 1

Client-SSL-Cert-Issuer: /C=US/O=VMware/OU=VMware/CN=localhost.localdom

Client-SSL-Cert-Subject: /C=US/O=VMware/OU=VMware/CN=localhost.localdom

Client-SSL-Cipher: DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA

Client-SSL-Socket-Class: IO::Socket::SSL

Client-SSL-Warning: Peer certificate not verified

Title: JBossWeb/2.0.1.GA - Error report

<html><head><title>JBossWeb/2.0.1.GA - Error report</title><style></style> </head><body><h1>HTTP Status 400 - </h1><HR size="1" noshade="noshade"><p><b>type</b> Status report</p><p><b>message</b> <u></u></p><p><b>description</b> <u>The request sent by the client was syntactically incorrect ().</u></p><HR size="1" noshade="noshade"><h3>JBossWeb/2.0.1.GA</h3></body></html>

igaydajiev · ‎12-12-2012

There was an issue with the deserialization of the value from JSON format, it is fixed and will be available in 5.1 U1 release.

asnodgrass · ‎12-13-2012

Thank you for the information! Looking forward to U1's release.

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JSON usage with vCO 5.1 REST API