Inconsistency in returned json for chained get and chained create

[johanv]

Hi all,

I noticed something strange today, about the JSON that API calls return.

Suppose I want to get a contact and its websites, using chaining. This is the request I use:

Code: [Select]

/dev1/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/rest.php?entity=Contact&action=get&json={"sequential":1,"id":9076,"api.Website.get":{}}&api_key=yoursitekey&key=yourkey
Here is the result:

Code: [Select]

    {
    "is_error":0,
    "version":3,
    "count":1,
    "id":9076,
    "values":[{
    "contact_id":"9076",
    "contact_type":"Individual",
    // ...
    "api.Website.get":{
    "is_error":0,
    "version":3,
    "count":2,
    "values":[{
    "id":"59",
    "contact_id":"9076",
    "url":"http:\/\/example.com"
    },
    {
    "id":"60",
    "contact_id":"9076",
    "url":"http:\/\/example.org"
    }]
    }
    }]
    }
Now if I create a new contact, and I provide websites using a chained create action like this:

Code: [Select]

/dev1/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/rest.php?entity=Contact&action=create&json={"sequential":1,"last_name":"Smith","contact_type":"Individual","api.Website.create":[{"url":"http://smith.org"},{"url":"http://smath.org"}]}&api_key=yoursitekey&key=yourkey
This is the result I get:

Code: [Select]

    {
    "is_error":0,
    "version":3,
    "count":1,
    "id":9077,
    "values":{
    "0":{
    "id":"9077",
    "contact_type":"Individual",
// ...
    "9077":{
    "api.Website.create":[{
    "is_error":0,
    "version":3,
    "count":1,
    "id":61,
    "values":[{
    "id":"61",
    "contact_id":"9077",
    "url":"http:\/\/smith.org",
    "website_type_id":""
    }]
    },
    {
    "is_error":0,
    "version":3,
    "count":1,
    "id":62,
    "values":[{
    "id":"62",
    "contact_id":"9077",
    "url":"http:\/\/smath.org",
    "website_type_id":""
    }]
    }]
    }
    }
    }
So there are some extra indices ("0") and Id's ("9077"), which makes the parsing of the json harder (for me at least ;-)). It appears to me that 'sequential=1' is ignored.

Is this expected behaviour, or is this a bug? I would like to get a result like this:

Code: [Select]

    {
    "is_error":0,
    "version":3,
    "count":1,
    "id":9077,
    "values":[{
    "id":"9077",
      "contact_type":"Individual",
// ...
  "api.Website.create":[{
"is_error":0,
  "version":3,
  "count":1,
  "id":61,
  "values":[{
  "id":"61",
"contact_id":"9077",
"url":"http:\/\/smith.org",
"website_type_id":""
}]
},
{
"is_error":0,
"version":3,
"count":1,
"id":62,
"values":[{
"id":"62",
"contact_id":"9077",
"url":"http:\/\/smath.org",
"website_type_id":""
}]
}]
    }]
    }
Or even better:

Code: [Select]

    {
    "is_error":0,
    "version":3,
    "count":1,
    "id":9077,
    "values":[{
    "id":"9077",
    "contact_type":"Individual",
// ...
"api.Website.create":{
"is_error":0,
"version":3,
"count":2,
"id":61,
"values":[{
"id":"61",
"contact_id":"9077",
"url":"http:\/\/smith.org",
"website_type_id":""
},
                                {
"id":"62",
"contact_id":"9077",
"url":"http:\/\/smath.org",
"website_type_id":""
}]
}
    }]
    }
Is such a thing doable by adding some API option or something?

Thank you for your advice,
Johan

[johanv]

Some extra info:

If I create only one website, instead of two, I get the desired result.

Request:

Code: [Select]

/dev1/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/rest.php?entity=Contact&action=create&json={"sequential":1,"last_name":"Smithers","api.Website.create":{"url":"http://smith.org"},"contact_type":"Individual"}&api_key=yoursitekey&key=yourkey
Reply:

Code: [Select]

    {
    "is_error":0,
    "version":3,
    "count":1,
    "id":9082,
    "values":[{
    "id":"9082",
    "contact_type":"Individual",
    // ...
    "api.Website.create":{
    "is_error":0,
    "version":3,
    "count":1,
    "id":72,
    "values":[{
    "id":"72",
    "contact_id":"9082",
    "url":"http:\/\/smith.org",
    "website_type_id":""
    }]
    }
    }]
    }

[Coleman Watts]

Would be great if you could submit a PR or patch to fix this.

[Eileen]

So, you are saying that when chaining the top level 'sequential' => 1 is overwritten - which sounds 'likely' as I expect the indice is used in calling the nested function. But presumably could be improved (with a patch). I would say you could log it as a bug in JIRA but unless you provide a unit test or a patch / PR it's likely to be treated as low priority

[xavier]

I'm not sure it's the case for your real code, but you should have most of the params as post, not get (especially the site and api keys). if you use api/class.api.php (that you can copy in your code) it should provide you a wrapper that does the needed.

As for your issue, can you try to put sequential=1 as a post or get param instead of inside of the json param, see if it behave better?

[johanv]

As for your issue, can you try to put sequential=1 as a post or get param instead of inside of the json param, see if it behave better?

I tried this, but it didn't help.

[johanv]

I created an issue for this:
https://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-15891