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What is a HTTP Action?

HTTP actions perform HTTP(S) requests to external APIs and return the response.

Creating HTTP Actions

Click and drag the
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icon from the toolbar onto the canvas
Enter a name for the HTTP action, then select Create Action
In the HTTP action
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on the right, populate the following details:

Field Description Example Value

Name Name given to the HTTP Node. This will be displayed on the Actionflow canvas. BankHolidays

HTTP Method The HTTP method. A drop-down field containing: GET, POST, GET or POST, HEAD, PUT, DELETE, other. If other is specified a text box will allow the entering of a custom value which is not empty and contains only uppercase letters. Get

URL Template

A template that computes the URL of the request.

Expects literal values or expressions encapsulated within ${} syntax, for example ${in.MyValue}.

https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays.json

Body Template

Optional.

If this is provided then it is used to carry the HTTP request data. If a body is provided then usually Content-Type and Content-Length headers lines specify the nature of the body associated.

In PhixFlow if this evaluates to whitespace only then it is not included in the request.

The body expects literal values, or expressions encapsulated within ${} syntax, for example ${in.MyValue}.

Error Expression

Optional.

A JEP expression to determine if the response is an error and so sent on the error output. The expression will have access to the input record (in) and the mapped output response (_result).

Log Traffic

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to logs the response of the HTTP request.

Maximum HTTP Log Length

Available if Log Traffic is toggled on

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Restricts the size of the log traffic.

Use Raw URL

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to send the URL Template value in exactly the format it is provided to the HTTP Node.

If toggled off

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PhixFlow will transpose values to form a valid URL, such as replacing spaces with %20.

4.

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all settings

5. Hover over the

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action on the canvas to see the output connection points

Output Connection Points

A HTTP action has two outputs. A HTTP request will be triggered for each input record and generate one output record, which will be sent on either the out or error output.

The response from the server (headers and body) will be treated as the result record..

Output Connection Point	Description
Out	Contains the resulting record of the request.
Error	Contains the resulting record of the request where it satisfies the error expression specified on the HTTP Node.

The output records contain the attributes specified by the output connection point, successful records are passed down the out connection point and records containing an error are passed down the error connection point. The structure of the records by default are as follows:

body: The content returned by a successful request, for example, JSON content
contentType: The type of response provided by the target HTTP request, for example, application/json; charset=utf-8
status: The returned status code, for example, 200
status message: The returned status message, for example, OK

Adding and Editing

To add a new output connection point, click the
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icon, see Connection Points

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Configuration

The configuration of each output connection point is identical:

Field	Description	Example
Name	Name of the output	`out`
Output Type	A drop-down field containing: String, Raw Data, JSON.	`String`
Skip Invalid Records	Skip attributes which are considered invalid.	`Enabled`
Default Charset	A drop-down field containing character set options, including utf-8.	`utf-8`
Path	The JSON path to apply. If empty this will default to '$' which matches the entire object.	// $ returns everything, this syntax traverses down two levels using two full // stops. `$..events`
JSON Lenient	When enabled this removes JSON specification restrictions, allowing for a degree of leniency in malformed JSON data. When disabled the JSON will be treated strictly.	`Enabled`
Attributes	Contains the attributes which hold the values returned by the Output Connection Point. Result values are obtained using the keyword _result followed by the attribute name.	`_result.status`

Headers

Headers are typically used to specify information for the request, such as character sets, session tokens or passwords. Headers can make use of the Secret Key Details.

For example,

Name: AuthValue
Expression: _datasource.MyKey

Secret Key Details

Secret Keys allow sensitive data, such as passwords or security tokens, to be encrypted and stored in the PhixFlow Database. See Secret Key and Local Secret.

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Worked Example

You may notice that right-clicking the button does not display the option to add an Actionflow. The Actionflow must be created using an event handler. See 2.01 Connecting Actionflows to Events.

Open the for the button and click on the

In the Action Settings section, choose an Action Method of Actionflow

Create a new Actionflow

HTTP Action Setup

Select Click to Connect and
button
Select Click to Connect and choose On Click
Drag a

Excerpt

Here is a worked example using the Shop Data (available from the Learning Centre) and JSON data from the UK government website (https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays.json).

In this example, we are using:

A Shop Shipping screen containing a grid of Orders data, a grid of Order Lines data, an area containing a Date form field and buttons - this screen was created using the Multi-Tile template
A Shop Shipping Popup screen containing a grid of the bank holiday data - this screen was created using the Tile no Buttons template

Tip
If you are completing this chapter as part of the Actionflow course and using a training instance, the data and screens have already been pre-loaded into the Actionflow Intermediate Application. For these example, we'll be working on the Search button on the Shop Shipping screen, and the Shop Shipping Popup screen.

GIF/SCREENSHOT OF FINISHED RESULT

Identify Bank Holiday Dates

In this example, we'll create an Actionflow that retrieves bank holiday dates in the UK from the government website in JSON format and map this onto a screen in a grid.

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Select shipment date date field (date picker), then press Ship Date which changes the status of the order and order lines to completed.
Area underneath showing upcoming bank holidays

Table Setup

Create a new
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on your
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to save the bank holiday data to, and ensure it contains the following attributes:
1. Name: UID
  1. Type: String
  2. Length: 50
  3. Expression: _NULL
2. Name: Name
  1. Type: String
  2. Length: 200
  3. Expression: _NULL
3. Name: Date
  1. Type: Date
    1. Leave the Expression field blank
4. Name: Country
  1. Type: String
  2. Length: 50
    1. Leave the Expression field blank

Initial Configuration

HTTP Action Setup

On the Shop Shipping screen, add an Actionflow to the button ("GetDates")
Add an Actionflow to the button that is triggered by the button click

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name action

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action onto the canvas and give it a suitable name - this will be used to retrieve the bank holidays from the government JSON URL

Drag the

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connection point node onto the

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action

Click on the

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action to open its Properties

HTTP Method: GET
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Drag a

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action onto the canvas and give it a suitable name - this will be used to convert the JSON data into data suitable for our bank holiday table

Connect the out connector from the HTTP node to the JSON node

Click on the connector between the

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Map across all attributes

Map across all attributes
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JSON Action Setup

Click on the
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action to open its Properties
1. Input Expression: in.body
2. Path: $..events
3. Output Attributes:
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  _result.^.^.division
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  title Name: Date, Type: Date
  toDate(_result.date, "yyyy-MM-dd")
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  title Name: ID, Type: String
  toString(_result.date, "yyyyMMdd") + substring(_result.^.^.division, 1,1)
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  title Name: Title, Type: String
  _result.title
Hover over the JSON action and select out
Click on the connector between the JSON action and the Save action
Create a
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action
1. Primary Table: Shop Bank Holidays

Save Action and Open Screen Action Setup

1. Map across the JSON attributes to their relevant attributes on the Save action
  
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Hover over the Save action and choose out
Create an
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action to open the Shop Shipping Popup screen
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Testing

Close all open screens and reopen the Shop Shipping screen
Click the button to run the Actionflow
If the Actionflow is working, the Shop Shipping Popup screen should open containing all of the bank holiday data from the government website

Background Filter and Default Sort Order

Tidy up your Shop Shipping Popup screen by hiding the UID column on the grid, adding a Default Filter to show only bank holidays in the future, and Default Sort Order to show the most recent bank holidays first.

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Right-click on the grid and choose,
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In the Data Retrieval Options section of the Properties:
1. For Background Filter, select the
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3. For Default Sort Order, select the
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  icon to create a new sort order

1.02 Actionflow Principles 2.13 JSON Action Configuration

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What is a HTTP Action?

Creating HTTP Actions