API PATCH

MD2050

Hello Everyone-

We have been struggling with this issue for few hours now and would really appreciate if we could get some direction (i read all the blogs posted and reached up to this point) . What we are trying to do here is to update 3 field values using a PATCH process , below snippet shows the AWF. Instead of building a JSON string using the tool we built the TEST string inside the formula tool looks like below , we are trying to update 3 values - "Code", "ShortName" and "LongName".

{"Culture":{"Code":"en-US","ShortName":"Eng(US)","LongName":"Eng(US)"}}

Field schema is correct as we extracted it from the input data (which is in JSON format which gets parsed using JSON parser.)

I have also pasted the "Download Tool" configuration screens below - we tried using Basic>>Output>>string , Basic>>Output>>Blob , we got following message

{"Message":"The request entity's media type 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' is not supported for this resource."}

so we tried adding Name = Content-Type and Value = application/x-www-form-urlencoded or Name = Content-Type and Value = application/json.

Upon using the Basic>>Output>>Blob and Name = Content-Type and Value = application/json we didn't see any error under download data but do see below which means the PATCH process didnt work. Any idea what we are missing here ? Is it the string schema which we are trying to push that is not excepted or something else ?

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Length: 339
Expires: Wed, 20 Oct 2021 20:46:33 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2021 20:46:33 GMT
Connection: close
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000 ; includeSubDomains

Thank you,

Developer

API

Accepted answers

BrandonB

Excellent, well that resolves what was probably the main issue. Now the reason that it isn't being patched in the back end is likely due to the JSON format and/or additional headers or parameters that need to be passed. I'm not as familiar with the PATCH function other than instead of PUT it works more like an update. Maybe try the similar troubleshooting steps you took previously with different ways of entering the JSON as a first step. If you put it manually hard coded in first that is generally your best bet because then you can test out all of the other things with that the same. Without the API documentation it is tough to give any other recommendations, but I can say that with your authentication taken care of now you are in a much better spot because there is no chance data would update if it wasn't properly authenticating.

All comments

BrandonB

Hi @MD2050

Do you happen to have a link to the API documentation? Also, have you tried pasting the JSON directly in the "Use Following for Query String/Body" option at the bottom? A 400 bad request error generally means that your JSON isn't formatted properly, although I'm not sure if that is the case here. A quick look at the documentation might point the community in the right direction to help.

BrandonB

Also, when you changed the Content-Type, you did this in the headers tab, correct?

MD2050

Gm @BrandonB -

Thank you very much for your reply.

Apologies, I don't have the link to the API documentation .

Correct, I changed the content type under Header tab .

I just tried your recommendation and received the following message - Initially, I didn't add any setting under the header tab for content-type although when I saw the message it mentioned content-type = application/json . I added the same under header tab and processed the code again , message after (*****) is what I got then not it shows BAD REQUEST with a different content type.

I also formatted the string and pasted it under the "Use Following for Query String/Body" shown in the subsequent snippet with proper indentation from MS code writer tool

HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
Content-Length: 0
WWW-Authenticate: Basic
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Expires: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 13:02:27 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 13:02:27 GMT
Connection: close
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000 ; includeSubDomains

HTTP/1.1 415 Unsupported Media Type
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 117
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Expires: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 13:02:28 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 13:02:28 GMT
Connection: close
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000 ; includeSubDomains

*******************************************************************************************

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Length: 339
Expires: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 13:08:07 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 13:08:07 GMT
Connection: close
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000 ; includeSubDomains

Thank you ,

BrandonB

Do you happen to have a working example in POSTMAN? If so, I have found the easiest way to translate it into the Alteryx equivalent is by looking at the code snippet that is accessible on the right side of POSTMAN. I put together a blog article that covers some of this: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Engine-Works/APIs-for-Beginners-Integrate-All-the-Systems/ba-p/807437

My other question is regarding the "HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized" which seems that the credentials also may not be passing correctly. It looks like it is leveraging basic authentication which I have an example of in the link above.

apathetichell

add Content-Type: application/json as a name/value pair in your header. as @BrandonB noted - I don't see anything regarding authorization in your workflow - is it in the URL? Is it in base64?

MD2050

Thank you @BrandonB -

I have not used Postman , i am going through some videos to recreate this scenario in postman. When you say "credentials", i am assuming you mean connection details - is that correct ? if yes, then i have them configured and they are working fine as i use them for GET procedure too.

Please advise if i am missing anything or have an incorrect configuration.

Thank You, M

apathetichell

Try it in postman and see if it works.

MD2050

Thank you @apathetichell

Yes, i manually entered the name/value pair under "Header" tab and when i processed the code i got another message which has a different "content-type" .

apathetichell

can you show me a screen grab of your header name/value config? I know... It sounds silly. Also - have you tried with encode url checked?

MD2050

Sure, Np-

Added the snippet below.

I think i made some progress , i built the JSON using the tool instead of pasting it as a Sting - subsequent snippet shows AWF. I am getting below message now - notice i am getting a valid 200 OK and it says Connection- Alive which i was not getting in the prior messages... although even after getting a 200 OK my data is not getting patched. Is there anything you could suggest that i might be missing ? Thank you very much.

HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
Content-Length: 0
WWW-Authenticate: Basic
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Expires: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:22:50 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:22:50 GMT
Connection: close
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000 ; includeSubDomains

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 0
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Expires: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:23:00 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:23:00 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000 ; includeSubDomains

BrandonB

I'm pretty sure that this API is expecting Basic authentication which is a Base64 encoded username:password string with the word Basic in front of it passed in as a value for an Authorization header. I could be wrong here, but if this is the case the issue is that it needs to be passed in as shown below rather than in the connection tab:

MD2050

Thank you @BrandonB -

You are correct the Authentication is Basic which is in the message i am getting below. I also got a copy of API documentation which is not super helpful although the specific syntax for the patch along with an example is pasted below. Thank you very much.

HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
Content-Length: 0
WWW-Authenticate: Basic
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Expires: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:40:06 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:40:06 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000 ; includeSubDomains

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Content-Encoding: gzip
Expires: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:40:07 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:40:07 GMT
Content-Length: 554
Connection: keep-alive
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000 ; includeSubDomains

BrandonB

Perfect, so rather than entering your credentials in the connection tab, can you instead create a value using the formula tool that is your username:password. Then, use a Base64 Encoder tool to turn this string into a base 64 encoded string. Then use another formula tool to make a field called Authorization that says "Basic asld;hfasdifo" where the characters are the base 64 encoded string from the step prior. Then in your download tool that will come after this, please check the box in the headers tab for the Authorization field. This will pull the base 64 encoded Authorization string in as a header which will successfully authenticate against the API. It should look almost identical to my workflow example above.

MD2050

Thank you @BrandonB -

I followed your steps and now I am getting a HTTP 200 - OK 🙂 , unfortunately the data is still not getting PATCHED in the back-end. Thank you very much.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 0
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
Expires: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 20:10:30 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 20:10:30 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=15768000 ; includeSubDomains

BrandonB

MD2050

Thank you @BrandonB and @apathetichell -

I was actually able to update one of the field which was not a part of parent-child hierarchy.

Thank you very much for helping me on this, really appreciate your feedback.

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