Load data via REST Service

Since the configuration of this plugin can be complex, we recommend to use format macros to configure this format plugin. Therefore we provide a macro template. You can also find a guide on how to configure format macros here.

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Setup the format plugin

Select the ‘Load data via REST Service’ Format Plugin

Configuration

You can use all placeholders in the format plugin for the URL, payload, additional headers and output path.
 
First fill the URL with the URL parameters to the application into the correct input field.

 

After this, you can select an HTTP method. You can choose between ‘GET’ and ‘POST’

 

If you choose ‘POST’, you get the option to enter a payload which is sent with the request. Enter the payload in a JSON-Format.

 

You can also add additional headers. This is important if you have an authorization which requires a password.
To enter your password you can use the password placeholder {password:ID}

 

For the response of the request you need to select the correct format (JSON or XML).

 

Note: The plugin will NOT convert the response from JSON to XML or vice versa. You need to select the correct format in which your REST service responds to a request.
In the last input field insert the path to the value you want to extract from the request. The format for the path is with pipes ( | ). If you leave the field empty, you will get the whole result.
If you select XML as output format, you can also use xpath.

 

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Example for JSON

Assuming the REST service returns a JSON with a list of products containing one product. You want to extract the price for this product. The complete return value form the REST service looks like this:

 

The configuration to extract the storage capacity would look like this:

 

The result will look like this:

 

You can also extract multiple values, which will be returned in the format of the response.
E.g. extracting the whole ‘Specifications’ block:

 

Result:

 

The result would differ if you put another pipe behind the path. Without a pipe the key (in this example ‘Specifications’ gets also returned in the result. Setting a pipe will just return the entries:

 

Result:

 

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Example for XML

In this example the REST service will provide data in XML format. The return value of the REST service looks like this:

 

First we want to extract the Price, therefore we use the following configuration:

 

The result will look like this:

 

Just like in the JSON Example we can also retrieve a whole block (output in Excel):

 

We can also add a pipe at the end to just get the values in ‘Specifications’:

 

Result:

 

XML Specifications

There are some specifications for XML. For example in the given XML the currency is stored as an attribute. You can load the data from attributes like this:

 

Result:

 

Instead of pipes you can also use xpath in the path input field. Example:

 

Result:

 

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Usage with Format Macros

We provide an example format macro configuration as template. The following guide shows possible configurations for such macro. In this example we set 4 marcro parameters.

 

Then you can add Names for the parameters or even set default values

 

Using the macro in an export can then look like this:
First select the configured Macro

 
Then you can edit the macro configuration and also use placeholders like in the example below

 

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