How to inspect a json response from Ansible URI call

Question

I have a service call that returns system status in json format. I want to use the ansible URI module to make the call and then inspect the response to decide whether the system is up or down

{"id":"20161024140306","version":"5.6.1","status":"UP"}

This would be the json that is returned

This is the ansible task that makes a call:

 - name: check sonar web is up
   uri:
    url: http://sonarhost:9000/sonar/api/system/status
    method: GET
    return_content: yes
    status_code: 200
    body_format: json
    register: data

Question is how can I access data and inspect it as per ansible documentation this is how we store results of a call. I am not sure of the final step which is to check the status.

You can start with simple `debug: var=data` as next task to see what's inside the registered variable. This will help you to move on. — Konstantin Suvorov, Oct 25 '16 at 08:59
Notice how `register` is indented this resulted in `data is undefined` error to fix this you would need to unindent to same spacing as `uri` — Hafiz, Oct 25 '16 at 10:02

score 47 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 25 '16 at 09:57

47

This works for me.

- name: check sonar web is up
uri:
  url: http://sonarhost:9000/sonar/api/system/status
  method: GET
  return_content: yes
  status_code: 200
  body_format: json
register: result
until: result.json.status == "UP"
retries: 10
delay: 30

Notice that result is a ansible dictionary and when you set return_content=yes the response is added to this dictionary and is accessible using json key

Also ensure you have indented the task properly as shown above.

answered Oct 25 '16 at 09:57

Hafiz

4,921
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This is nice, the fact that result comes in as an Ansible dictionary and there's a Jinja2 JSON parser already there to extract info from it. – ocean Oct 25 '16 at 10:15
1

@Halfiz Thank you, thank you, thank you. My until: condition was not working and it was the indentation that was biting me. – TJA Sep 16 '19 at 00:08
Is it somehow possible using content? For some reason content does not work (probably because of some escaping issues). Could you check that if you have time? – Mohammed Noureldin May 17 '23 at 20:15

ocean · Answer 2 · 2022-06-18T02:39:12.727

6

You've made the right first step by saving the output into a variable.

The next step is to use either when: or failed_when: statement in your next task, which will then switch based on the contents of the variable. There are a whole powerful set of statements for use in these, the Jinja2 builtin filters, but they are not really linked well into the Ansible documentation, or summarised nicely.

I use super explicitly named output variables, so they make sense to me later in the playbook :) I would probably write yours something like:

- name: check sonar web is up
  uri:
    url: http://sonarhost:9000/sonar/api/system/status
    method: GET
    return_content: yes
    status_code: 200
    body_format: json
  register: sonar_web_api_status_output

- name: do this thing if it is NOT up
  shell: echo "OMG it's not working!"
  when: sonar_web_api_status_output.stdout.find('UP') == -1

That is, the text "UP" is not found in the variable's stdout.

Other Jinja2 builtin filters I've used are:

changed_when: "'<some text>' not in your_variable_name.stderr"
when: some_number_of_files_changed.stdout|int > 0

The Ansible "Conditionals" docs page has some of this info. This blog post was also very informative.

edited Jun 18 '22 at 02:39

answered Oct 25 '16 at 09:59

ocean

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1

posted about the same time as my answer :) so now I am not sure which one to mark as correct answer as both seem to work – Hafiz Oct 25 '16 at 10:08
Hehe ok :) Sorry I took a bit to write that. – ocean Oct 25 '16 at 10:12
how to say the site is UP by looking at status_code? – AhmFM Sep 26 '19 at 00:34
1

`register` is too indented, it needs to spaces less – HermanTheGermanHesse Jan 27 '20 at 17:16
The 'Jinja2 builtin filters' link 404s now, sadly, as does the 'Ansible "Conditionals" docs page'. – Jesse Adelman Jun 17 '22 at 21:30
@JesseAdelman Thanks, I’ve updated those links now. – ocean Jun 18 '22 at 02:42

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 05 '20 at 04:19

As per documentation at https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/uri_module.html

Whether or not to return the body of the response as a "content" key in the dictionary result. Independently of this option, if the reported Content-type is "application/json", then the JSON is always loaded into a key called json in the dictionary results.

---
- name: Example of JSON body parsing with uri module
  connection: local
  gather_facts: true
  hosts: localhost
  tasks:

    - name: Example of JSON body parsing with uri module
      uri: 
        url: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users
        method: GET
        return_content: yes
        status_code: 200
        body_format: json
      register: data
      # failed_when: <optional condition based on JSON returned content>

    - name: Print returned json dictionary
      debug:
        var: data.json

    - name: Print certain element
      debug:
        var: data.json[0].address.city

How to inspect a json response from Ansible URI call

3 Answers3