a!fromJson() Function

Function

a!fromJson( jsonText )

Converts a JSON string into an Appian value.

Parameters

Keyword	Type	Description
`jsonText`	Text	The text to convert from a JSON string to an Appian value.

Returns

One of:

Dictionary
List of Integer
List of Decimal
List of Text
List of Dictionary
List of Boolean
List of Variant

Usage considerations

Automatic casting

Certain JSON formats will be converted to Appian Data Types. See the following table for a list of the JSON formats and their associated data types.

JSON Format	Appian Date Type
String	Date (when supported date format is found) Date and Time (when supported datetime format is found) Text (when no supported date or datetime format is found)
Number	Decimal (when number is a decimal) Integer (when number is an integer that fits in a signed 32-bit integer) Text (when number is an integer that doesn’t fit in a signed 32-bit integer, such as 64-bit integers)
Object	Dictionary
Array	List of Variant
Boolean	Boolean
Null	null (Text)

See the example below for an example of how these values are converted.

Cast to a record type

This example shows how to cast a JSON string to the Address record type. When casting JSON data to a record type, Appian automatically matches the keys to the record type's fields. Any non-matching key names are ignored.

cast(
  recordType!Address,
  a!fromJson(
      "{""addressId"":301,""addressLine"":""7950 Jones Branch Dr"",
      ""city"":""McLean"",""stateProvinceId"":75,""postalCode"":""22102""}"
  )
)

Date and datetime formats

If the JSON text includes fields that match the following date and datetime formats, they will be automatically detected and converted to the appropriate Date or Date and Time data type. The following table lists the supported date and datetime formats that will be converted to Appian data types.

Supported Format	Example
ISO Date	2019-03-25
Date with UTC Timezone	2019-03-25Z
Datetime without Timezone	2019-03-25T20:17:46
UTC Datetime	2019-03-25T20:17:46Z
UTC Datetime without Seconds	2019-03-25T20:17Z
UTC Datetime with Decimal Fraction of a Second	2019-03-25T20:17:46.384Z
Offset Datetime	2019-03-25T20:17:46+01:00
Offset Datetime Hour Only	2019-03-25T20:17:46+01
Offset Datetime No Colon	2019-03-25T20:17:46+0100
Offset Datetime with ZoneId	2019-03-25T20:17:46+01:00[Europe/Paris]

Note that the Appian Date and Time data type does not include seconds. If the JSON field includes seconds, it will be ignored.

Also, if a timezone is not explicitly stated, it is assumed to be in Universal Time Coordinated (UTC)/Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). However, it is adjusted to the logged in user's time zone (accounting for daylight saving time) when displayed.

For example 2019-03-25T20:17:46 displays as 3/25/2019 4:17 PM EDT for a user whose time zone is set to (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (America/New_York) and 3/25/2019 8:17 PM GMT+00:00 for a user whose time zone is set to Use system default: (UTC) Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Example

a!fromJson("[{
  ""transId"":9223372036854775807,
  ""submitTimeUTC"":""2019-07-16T14:52:26Z"",
  ""submitTimeLocal"":""2019-07-16T07:52:26"",
  ""transactionOk"":true,
  ""accountType"":""Visa"",
  ""accountNumber"":123456,
  ""settleAmount"":412.97,
  ""product"":"""",
  ""marketType"":[""Business"",""Clothing"",""Child""]
}]")

Returns

List of Dictionary: 1 item
    Dictionary
        /*64-Bit Integer converted to Text*/
        transId: "9223372036854775807"
        /*UTC Datetime without Seconds converted to Date and Time*/
        submitTimeUTC: 7/16/2019 10:52 AM EDT
        /*Datetime without Timezone converted to Date and Time*/
        submitTimeLocal: 7/16/2019 3:52 AM EDT
        /*Boolean data type*/
        transactionOk: true
        /*Text data type*/
        accountType: "Visa"
        /*Number(Integer) data type*/
        accountNumber: 123456
        /*Number(Decimal) data type*/
        settleAmount: 412.97
        /*Null value*/
        product: null (Text)
        /*Array*/
        marketType: List of Text String: 3 items
            "Business"
            "Clothing"
            "Child"

Feature compatibility

The table below lists this function's compatibility with various features in Appian.

Feature	Compatibility	Note
Portals	Incompatible
Offline Mobile	Incompatible
Sync-Time Custom Record Fields	Incompatible
Real-Time Custom Record Fields	Incompatible	Custom record fields that evaluate in real time must be configured using one or more Custom Field functions.
Process Reports	Incompatible	Cannot be used to configure a process report.
Process Events	Incompatible	Cannot be used to configure a process event node, such as a start event or timer event.
Process Autoscaling	Compatible

Old versions

There are older versions of this function . You can identify older versions by looking at the name to see if there is a version suffix. If you are using an old version, be sure to refer to the corresponding documentation from the list below.

Old Versions	Reason for Update
a!fromJson_19r2	Now automatically converts date and datetime fields to the appropriate Date and Date and Time data types instead of a string. Also converts 64-bit integers to string instead of returning null.

To use the latest version of the function, replace the function with a version suffix with a new function reference.

To learn more about how Appian handles this kind of versioning, see the Function and Component Versions page.

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