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
icon from the toolbar onto the canvas
Enter a name for the HTTP action, then select Create Action
In the HTTP action
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}`.	`//JSON Example` `[{` `"Industry": "${in.Industry}"` `}]`
Error Expression	Optional. A JEP expression to determine if the response is an error and if so, send on the Error Output Connection Point. The expression will have access to the input record (in) and the mapped output response (_result).	`_result.isError`
Log Traffic	Toggle on to log the response of the HTTP request, e.g. see an error returned, or see the output before specifying a path.
Maximum HTTP Log Length	Available if Log Traffic is toggled on . Restricts the size of the log traffic.	`1000`
Use Raw URL	Toggle on to send the URL Template value in exactly the format it is provided to the HTTP Node. If toggled off PhixFlow will transpose values to form a valid URL, such as replacing spaces with %20.
HTTP Configuration	See HTTP Configuration

4.

all settings

5. Hover over the

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

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
statusMessage: The returned status message, for example, OK

Additional attributes are available by default on all output connections in PhixFlow v11.1.1+

cookies: Returns an array of cookie name, domain, etc.
isError: Returns true if the response contains a 400+ error code
headers: Returns an array of header values
statusFamily: Returns the status family code, for example if status returns 202, then statusFamily will return 200
transmissionError: Returns true if the request failed, e.g. timed out

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.

Worked Example

Here is a worked example using the Retail 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

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.

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.

Table Setup

Create a new
on your
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

HTTP Action Setup

On the Shop Shipping screen, add an Actionflow to the
("GetDates") button
Select Click to Connect and choose On Click
Drag a
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
connection point node onto the
action
Click on the
action to open its Properties
1. HTTP Method: GET
2. URL: https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays.json
Drag a
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
1. Map across attribute, body

JSON Action Setup

Click on the
action to open its Properties
1. Input Expression: in.body
2. Path: $..events
3. Output Attributes:
  Name: Country, Type: String
  _result.^.^.division
  Name: Date, Type: Date
  toDate(_result.date, "yyyy-MM-dd")
  Name: ID, Type: String
  toString(_result.date, "yyyyMMdd") + substring(_result.^.^.division, 1,1)
  Name: Title, Type: String
  _result.title
Hover over the JSON action and select out
Create a
action
1. Primary Table: The Bank Holidays table you created earlier
2. Map across the JSON attributes to their relevant attributes on the Save action
Hover over the Save action and choose out
Create an
action to open the Shop Shipping Popup screen

Screen Setup

Open the Shop Shipping Popup screen
Click on
in the toolbar, then select the Bank Holidays table you created earlier
In the Available Attributes selector, select all attributes and drag them onto the screen, then choose to display the data as a

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.

2.13 HTTP Action Configuration