Serverconnect formatter not working on api-returned data

[Akayy]

Wappler Version : 2.5.5
Operating System : Mac OSX Mojave v10.14.5
groupBy.php.zip (1.3 KB)

Hi all,

I have attached the server action file (uses public api sample data) for the below bug report.

Details

1. I have an public api that returns a dataset which is an array of objects

2. The api data is assigned to variable array_of_objects1, output is printed

3. The api data is also put through a repeat and the two properties of each object is printed

The output of both steps 2 & 3 are exactly the same:

[{
	"name": "dept1",
	"staff": "john"
}, {
	"name": "dept1",
	"staff": "jack"
}, {
	"name": "dept2",
	"staff": "joe"
}, {
	"name": "dept3",
	"staff": "jim"
}]

.
In the last two steps, I tried using the groupBy formatter on the above two “array of objects”:

4. When the groupBy is tried on the variable array_of_objects1 that holds the api data, I’m getting the following error:

   

5. When the groupBy is tried on the repeat array_of_objects2 that outputs the same data, the group by seems to work just fine. The output prints correctly as ["dept1","dept2","dept3"]

It’s exactly the same data, while the groupBy formatter works on a repeat output (step-3, which is my current workaround), its not working directly on api returned data (expected & ideal).

Also, not sure if this issue is only with the groupBy formatter not working on api-returned “array of objects”.

[Akayy]

I also tried using the back-ticks in the expression & got the following error.

"message":"Unexpected character ` at column 26 in expression {{array_of_objects1.groupBy(`name`).keys()}}"

[Akayy]

Any luck looking into this bug?

If not a bug, I just want to know if I have missed something. Thanks in advance.

[Akayy]

@patrick, are you able to advise on this bug please. Thanks in advance!

[patrick]

Test if this update solves the problem, replace the file dmxConnectLib/lib/formatters/collections.php.

collections.zip (1002 Bytes)

[Akayy]

Hi @patrick, no it didn't work, throwing the following error:

"code":0,"file":"/Users/akayy/Wappler/myapp/myapp_alpha/dmxConnectLib/lib/formatters/collections.php","line":72,"message":"syntax error, unexpected '(array)' (array) (T_ARRAY_CAST)","trace":"#0

I'm attaching the test server-action file (uses a public api) used in my original bug report. Clicking on "Open in Browser" should open the output of the file. groupBy.php.zip (1.3 KB)

[patrick]

Problem is that PHP doesn’t really have objects, sometimes they are created as keyed arrays and sometimes they derive from the stdClass. An array is accessed as $item[$prop] and a class $item->$prop. We normally use arrays internally in Server Connect, but the API seems to have returned a class instead. In the file I tried to case item as file in the foreach ($val as (array)$item), this seems not to be allowed there. So we could try to put the cast on the next line as $item = (array)$item;.

Full code for the function becomes:

function formatter_groupBy($val, $prop) {
    if (!is_array($val)) return NULL;
    $groups = array();
    foreach ($val as $item) {
        $item = (array)$item;
        $key = strval($item[$prop]);

        if (!array_key_exists($key, $groups)) {
            $groups[$key] = array();
        }

        $groups[$key][] = $item;
    }
    return (object)$groups;
}

[Akayy]

@patrick

$item = (array)$item;

Thanks a ton @patrick, this worked Also, thanks for the extra write-up, great learning!