What is a HTTP Action?
HTTP actions performs HTTP(S) requests to external APIs and returns the response.
A HTTP action has two outputs. One input request will generate one output record, which will be sent on either the out or error output. A HTTP request will be triggered for each input record and generate one output record.
The response from the server (headers and body) will be treated as the result record, with the input attributes added as passthrough fields.
URL: A template the computes to the URL of the request (including protocol).
Method: The HTTP method. A drop down containing [GET, POST, GET or POST, HEAD, PUT, DELETE, other]. If other is specified a text box will allow entering of custom, none empty, uppercase letters only.
Headers: A table of name, value pairs. The name will be treated as a case insensitive string, the value will be treated as a template expression. Duplicate names are permitted and should result in each value being sent in the request.
Body: An optional template expression. If this evaluates to only whitespace then it is not include in the request
Error expression: An optional JEP expression to determine if the response is an error and so sent on the error output.
An Output Attributes section will be available on the http action editor. This will work the same way as the calculate and extractor nodes operation.
The attribute expression will have access to the input (in) and an _result record.
The result record will be structured equivalently to the following JSON document (there is no requirement to actually generate a JSON string to produce the document, just conceptually this is what the string would look like and JEP should operate as if it had come from the equivalent string.
Result fields
body: the response body as a string (string)
url: the url the request was sent to (string)
status: the returned status code as an in (getCode()) (int)
status message: the returns status message (getReasonPhase()) (string)
status family: the returned status code family (100, 200, 300, 400, 500) (int)
error: true if internalError is true, or the error expression (or default expression) returned true (TrueFalse)
transmissionError: true if the error was generated internally by PhixFlow (e.g. a pseudo response for connection timed out etc) (TrueFalse)
headers: a map of header names → array of values ( headerName : [value1, value2]} (Structured Data)
The output attributes will default to have:
status: _result.status
status_message : _result.status_message
contentType: _result.headers.”Content-Type”
body _ result.body
Worked Example
Here is a worked example using the Shop Data (available from the Learning Centre).
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.
GIF/SCREENSHOT OF FINISHED RESULT
Identify Bank Holiday Dates
In this example, we'll create an Actionflow that checks if a new customer's name matches any existing customers, then shows this information in a pop up.
Example
Bank Holidays
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
Shop Shipping Screen
Shop Shipping Popup Screen
Table Setup
- Create a new Table on your ERD to save the bank holiday data to, and ensure it contains the following attributes:
- Name:
UID
- Type:
String
- Length:
50
- Expression:
_NULL
- Type:
- Name:
Name
- Type:
String
- Length:
200
- Expression:
_NULL
- Type:
- Name:
Date
- Type:
Date
- Leave the Expression field blank
- Type:
- Name:
Country
- Type:
String
- Length:
50
- Leave the Expression field blank
- Type:
- Name:
Initial Configuration
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
HTTP Action Setup
- Select Click to Connect and choose On Click
- Drag a HTTP 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 input connection point node onto the HTTP action
- Click on the HTTP action to open its Properties
- HTTP Method: GET
- URL: https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays.json
- Log Traffic:
- Maximum HTTP Log Length: 100000
- Drag a JSON 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 HTTP action and the JSON action
- Map across all attributes
JSON Action Setup
- Click on the JSON action to open its Properties
- Input Expression:
in.body
- Path:
$..events
Output Attributes:
Name: Country, Type: String_result.^.^.division
Name: Date, Type: DatetoDate(_result.date, "yyyy-MM-dd")
Name: ID, Type: StringtoString(_result.date, "yyyyMMdd") + substring(_result.^.^.division, 1,1)
Name: Title, Type: String_result.title
- Input Expression:
- Hover over the JSON action and select out
- Create a Save action
- Primary Table: Shop Bank Holidays
Save Action and Open Screen Action Setup
- Click on the connector between the JSON action and the Save action
Map across the JSON attributes to their relevant attributes on the Save action
- Hover over the Save action and choose out
- Create an Open Screen action to open the Shop Shipping Popup screen
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
Tidy up your popup screen by adding a background filter to show the most recent bank holidays.
On the Shop Shipping Popup screen, configure a Background Filter on the View Configuration to only show future dates