Parse JSON data

#1

I am trying to parse JSON data, I have reviewed a few posts, but I think they are “further” along than I am, I need to understand the “basics” of it first. The data is coming from a weather station (Weather Flow Tempest). They have an API that will give JSON data.

When I go to the URL of my API into a web browser, it returns the following:

{“status”:{“status_code”:0,“status_message”:“SUCCESS”},“device_id”:120809,“type”:“obs_st”,“source”:“cache”,“summary”:{“pressure_trend”:“rising”,“strike_count_1h”:7,“strike_count_3h”:59,“precip_total_1h”:0.0,“strike_last_dist”:36,“strike_last_epoch”:1623277854,“precip_accum_local_yesterday”:9.347867,“precip_accum_local_yesterday_final”:5.600681,“precip_analysis_type_yesterday”:1,“feels_like”:25.3,“heat_index”:25.3,“wind_chill”:25.3},“obs”:[[1623278933,0,0,0,0,3,1011.9,25.3,95,6621,0.61,55,0,0,0,0,2.69,1,8.096712,null,null,0]]}

I understand that I have to use the do Make a GET request to the URL. But I am just not sure of what I am supposed to do next and how to “use” any of the data that was received.

test
test.png1178×973 109 KB

I know that this is asking a lot at this point because I have so little of an understanding of what to do next, but I think that if I could get pointed in the right direction, I might be able to figure the rest out. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

#2

I haven’t done this for a long while, but as I recall, the response to your web request should appear in the $response variable and it is assumed to be in JSON format so you don’t have to do any specific conversion. So you should be able to access the results using e.g. $response.status.status_message, $response.obs[0][0] etc.

#3

I concur, webCore does automatically parse JSON data into the $response variable accessible using an expression as mentioned above $response.status.status_message

I would only add that the $response variable is only valid during that one execution of the piston, it will read as null at all other times.

My general process is to set the variable first then proceed with any data processing.

#4

Great. Thank you both. I will try playing around with this tonight when I am home!

#5

For complex JSON, sometimes I use a site like https://jsoneditoronline.org/ to understand the structure of the JSON a bit easier. Just paste a sample output on the left, and then use the display on the right.

You can also quickly test data points from that page by clicking on the filter icon temp

pic

(just remember to add
$response.
to the beginning when back in webCoRE)

Note: I had to add a few quotation marks to your snippet above for that site to work.