Facing issue in the Velocity Script to trim Date, Time and Timezone from one Attribute.

[Chintandoshi25]

Hey,

I want to trim the Date, time and timezone from single Attribute of the Marketo.

When I used static value it approves the email without error but when I am using Marketo Attribute for the same one it shows the correct value in Preview but shows error while approving the email.

The value of the ${lead.appointmentStartDateTimeText} is 03/04/2020 01:30:00 PM MST
I wan to fetch the Time 01:30:00 PM from the above value.

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Below is the script:

#set ($string = "${lead.appointmentStartDateTimeText}")
#set ($s= $string.split(" "))
$s.get(1)

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Below is the error:

Validation Error approving Test_program_shweta.EFE_Test_Email — <div>An error occurred when procesing the email Rendered_Email_Velocity_Error_Area_?! </div> <p>Invocation of method 'get' in class [Ljava.lang.String; threw exception java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException near</p> <div><pre >?</pre></div>  

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Would anyone be able to help me here? We would need to Approve the email in order to use it in smart campaign.

Attached the screenshots of the script and errors.

  

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

First, pleases don't use generic variable names like $string and $s. This is the wrong way to start w/coding. Use informative names that help your code be self-documenting.

Also, rather than trying to write your own parser for a well-known date format, use Velocity's built-in date awareness.

The direct reason for your error is you haven't coded defensively for the case when the field is empty, as is the case during approval.

You want:

#if( !$display.alt($lead.appointmentStartDateTimeText,"").isEmpty() )
#set ( $appointmentStart = $date.toDate("dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss a", $lead.appointmentStartDateTimeText) )
${date.format("hh:mm:ss a", $appointmentStart)}
#end

Note in this particular case I'm not including the timezone (z) in parsing. This is only okay because you can both parse and output in the system timezone for this case. In most other cases, preserving the timezone of the original value is absolutely critical, and without timezone-awareness date code will always be buggy.

[Chintandoshi25]

Hey Sanford, Thanks for the solution.

This solution works for the string/text Data Type but my attribute's Data Type is DateTime and its a constraint under Marketo activity. So using this script I don't see any value in the Preview.

#if( !$display.alt($Activity_Marketo__cList.get(0).Appointment_Start_Date_Time_Text__c,"").isEmpty() )
#set ( $Appointment_Start = $date.toDate("yyyy-MM-DD hh:mm:ss a", $Activity_Marketo__cList.get(0).Appointment_Start_Date_Time_Text__c) )
${date.format("hh:mm:ss a", $Appointment_Start)}
#end

The output of the above script is : ${date.format("hh:mm:ss a", $Appointment_Start)}

but If I remove get(0) from above attribute it shows nothing.

Can you please help for the same when Data Type is DateTime.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Please remember to highlight your code so I don't have to edit your post each time, thanks.

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This solution works for the string/text Data Type but my attribute's Data Type is DateTime

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Doubt it. If you were using split() on it before at all, it's a String (stringified DateTime) in Velocity. DateTimes don't have split().

Since you've now added more to the problem space (you didn't mention anything about Custom Objects before) you also have to make sure the List is not empty.