Parse the JSON String using Velocity Script

[Karthik_Logan1]

Hi Everyone,

Our Goal: Display recommended products from Adobe Target in Marketo emails.

I successfully sent a request to Adobe Target through a Marketo webhook and received a product recommendation JSON response. I need to display the recommended products in Marketo email using Velocity script.

{
    "status": 200,
    "requestId": "74c07edd",
    "client": "ABC",
    "id": {
        "tntId": "1234aaa"
    },
    "edgeHost": "mboxedge34.net",    
    "execute": {
        "mboxes": [
            {
                "index": 1,
                "name": "apitest",
                "options": [
                    {
                        "content": {
                            "recommendedItems": {
                                "key": "key01",
                                "slot01": "product01",
                                "slot02": "product02",
                                "slot03": "product03",
                                "slot04": "product04"
                            }
                        },
                        "type": "json",
                        "sourceType": "target"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
}

I'm storing the response value in a Marketo custom text field, but there's a discrepancy between the actual response and the stored response - additional text like "Map" and "List" has been inserted.

Map(mboxes -> List(Map(index -> 1, name -> apitest, options -> List(Map(content -> Map(recommendedItems -> Map(slot03 -> product03, slot02 -> product02, slot04 -> product04, slot01 -> product01, key -> key01)), type -> json, sourceType -> target)))))

I need assistance with converting/parsing JSON and displaying all slot information in an email using Velocity script.

@SanfordWhiteman please share your valuable inputs here. 

Thanks,

Karthik 

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

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I'm storing the response value in a Marketo custom text field

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Looks like you’re mapping the root property execute specifically.

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I'm storing the response value in a Marketo custom text field, but there's a discrepancy between the actual response and the stored response - additional text like "Map" and "List" has been inserted.

Map(mboxes -> List(Map(index -> 1, name -> apitest, options -> List(Map(content -> Map(recommendedItems -> Map(slot03 -> product03, slot02 -> product02, slot04 -> product04, slot01 -> product01, key -> key01)), type -> json, sourceType -> target)))))

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Not so much a discrepancy. You’re trying to map a complex response property (with nested objects and arrays) to a single Marketo field. When you do that, Marketo stringifies the response — so far so good. But it stringifies it using Java representation, not JSON — which isn’t what you want.

What you want is to map a response property and have it turned into a long JSON string, which can then be parsed by Velocity. Unfortunately, there’s no native way to do that. You’d have to fetch the response via a kind of API gateway which stringifies the response on-the-fly. Very easy to build using AWS API Gateway, for example — though it’s easy for me to say that, having using it for several years!

Let’s take a little step back, though. I’m not familiar with this API, but are you 100% sure that you can’t map execute.mboxes[0].options[0].content.recommendedItems.slot01, execute.mboxes[0].options[0].content.recommendedItems.slot02, etc.? I understand this won’t scale if there are unlimited slots.

[Karthik_Logan1]

Thanks for the quick response.

Definitely I will refer your API gateway Transforming Marketo-incompatible webhook response... - Marketing Nation

I assume that each slot must have product name, product price, product Image and product URL. 

As an alternative approach, I plan to write a custom service script using PHP or Python, host it on an AWS server, and then invoke the web service via a Webhook. I'm unsure if this will resolve our issue.

If there are only a few products, I will use execute.mboxes[0].options[0].content.recommendedItems.slot01 in this manner.

Thanks again.

[SanfordWhiteman]

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I assume that each slot must have product name, product price, product Image and product URL.

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Does it, though? In your example it just seems like a string.

[Karthik_Logan1]

Apologies for the delayed response, Sanford. Yes, slots should include the product name, product price, product image, and product URL. The JSON provided are samples.

[SanfordWhiteman]

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The JSON provided are samples.

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Well, it’s good if sample JSON has the same shape as the real JSON. 🙂