CODEWITHSUNDEEP
jsoncurlpostx-www-form-urlencoded
k314159
k314159

Reputation: 11100

Convert complex object to x-www-form-urlencoded

I have an object like this:

{
    "someList": [
        {
            "accountNumber": 123456,
            "balance": 3.14
        },
        {
            "accountNumber": 7890,
            "balance": 2.72
        }
    ],
    "numErrors": 0,
    "duration": 12345
}

How do I convert it to x-www-form-urlencoded in order to send it in a POST request using e.g. the curl command line? I know about "key1=value1&key2=value2" but I'm particularly buffled about how to send whole lists containing structures.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1016

Answers (1)

Reino
Reino

Reputation: 3423

I guess it all depends on the server you're POSTing to.
If it accepts your prettified JSON in urlencoded form, then --data-urlencode @input.json would suffice for curl. If it doesn't and you have to minify / serialize it first, then a JSON-parser like can help:

$ xidel -s input.json -e 'serialize($json,{"method":"json"})'
{"someList":[{"accountNumber":123456,"balance":3.14},{"accountNumber":7890,"balance":2.72}],"numErrors":0,"duration":12345}

$ xidel -s input.json -e 'serialize($json,{"method":"json"})' | \
  curl -s --data-urlencode @- "<url>"

$ xidel -s input.json -e 'uri-encode(serialize($json,{"method":"json"}))'
%7B%22someList%22%3A%5B%7B%22accountNumber%22%3A123456%2C%22balance%22%3A3.14%7D%2C%7B%22accountNumber%22%3A7890%2C%22balance%22%3A2.72%7D%5D%2C%22numErrors%22%3A0%2C%22duration%22%3A12345%7D

$ xidel -s input.json -e 'uri-encode(serialize($json,{"method":"json"}))' | \
  curl -s -d @- "<url>"

xidel can also do POST requests:

$ xidel -s \
  -d '{uri-encode(serialize(json-doc("input.json"),{"method":"json"}))}' \
  "<url>" \
  -e '$raw'

$ xidel -s input.json -e '
  x:request({
    "post":uri-encode(serialize($json,{"method":"json"})),
    "url":"<url>"
  })/raw
'
  • -e '$raw' shows the raw output, similar to curl.
  • xidel -s input.json -d '...$json...' doesn't work, because -d is evaluated before the input is read, hence json-doc() to open files/urls in-query.

Upvotes: 1

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