What is the proper syntax to read a web request response string?

[Tim Bonney]

Can anyone advise me on what the proper syntax is to be able to read a web request response string?

I am trying to build an automation rule using a send web request action (to establish the account IDs that need to be appended to a work item as participants), followed by simply writing the response string to either the audit trail or a variable/smart tag so I can evaluate it before actually applying the value to the participants field. However, none of the following syntaxes work:

{{webResponse}}
{{webhookResponse}}

{{webRequest.response.body}}
{{webRequest.response}}

{{response.body}}

Can anyone advise what the proper syntax is to obtain the response string from this web request? I did find some tangentially related posts elsewhere in the forum, but none have actually helped me resolve this issue yet.

Thanks in advance.

[Marc - Devoteam · Accepted solution]

Hi @Tim Bonney 

The proper smart value is: {{webResponse.body}}

[Tim Bonney]

Thank you Marc.

I think I have found that {{webhookResponse.body}} is functioning. Is this possibly an either/or scenario, where either one will actually work, or is is absolutely {{webResponse.body}}?

[Marc - Devoteam]

Hi @Tim Bonney 

This depends of you use a webhook trigger or web request action in automation

{{webhookResponse.body}} is for webhook trigger and {{webResponse.body}} for web request action

[Tim Bonney]

Excellent! Thank you for the clarification Marc! (I am using web request, so your initial answer still applies.) Thanks again for sharing.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Tim Bonney 

For a question like this, context is important for the community to help.  Please post the following:

• which REST API endpoint are you calling
• an image of your complete automation rule in a single image for continuity
• images of any relevant actions / conditions / branches
• an image of the audit log details showing the rule execution

Until we see those...

I am glad to learn you are writing the entire {{webResponse.body}} to the audit log as that will help know the structure for the specific endpoint called.

{{webResponse.body}} is likely a list of values for what you describe, and could be iterated over for your participant updates.

Kind Regards,
Bill

[Tim Bonney]

Hi Bill. Thanks for your response and feedback. I apologize for being too vague.

Since posting this, I believe I have determined that the proper syntax is actually webhookResponse.body...and in my particular use-case should be webhookResponse.body.participants. However, it appears to be failing due to security/login issues, not improper syntax as I initially suspected.

What I am doing is trying to append the participants on work items, based on a set schedule, with a 12 hour work day divided amongst 4 different analysts, assigning each as a participant on newly created work items depending on the time of day the work item is created.

Since I do not have the option to store a table or worksheet in JSM, I had to think outside the box and create a Google sheet to house the table and use a Google Apps Script to generate the proper account id for whomever the participant is that needs to be added.

What I have discovered though, is that the web request GET call is unable to get past the login page of the Google app/script because it is housed within our company network and therefore inaccessible to "all/anonymous" users such as JSM when executing the call from the automation rule to obtain the appropriate Account ID to use.

So now I need to figure out how to get over that hurdle instead of the proper syntax to read the call response, which is the one I initially thought I needed to get over.