Comparing Two Dynamic JSON Objects

[aeisenhart]

I'm working a Retrieve Audit Details Response message from the Dynamics WEB API. I can get the correct data from Dynamics, but I can't figure out how to process it in a Flow.

Here's a sample of the entire response:

{
    "body": {
        "@odata.context": "https://xxx.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.2/$metadata#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.RetrieveAuditDetailsResponse",
        "AuditDetail": {
            "@odata.type": "#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.AttributeAuditDetail",
            "InvalidNewValueAttributes": [],
            "LocLabelLanguageCode": 0,
            "DeletedAttributes": {
                "Count": 0,
                "Keys": [],
                "Values": []
            },
            "OldValue": {
                "@odata.type": "#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account",
                "websiteurl": "http://w.com",
                "fax": "555-1234567"
            },
            "NewValue": {
                "@odata.type": "#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account",
                "websiteurl": "http://www.com",
                "fax": "555-555-1234",
                "new_companytype": 500000000
            }
        }
    }
}

I want to send an email with a table that looks like this --

	Old	New
u/odata.type	#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account	#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account
websiteurl	http://w.com	http://www.com
fax	555-1234567	555-555-1234
new_companytype		500000000

The challenge is that the properties inside OldValue and NewValue are dynamic -- any number of the dozens of available columns might be included, so I can't hardcode a lookup by the property name (such as ['NewValue']['fax']). And it is also possible that the column will not be included in OldValue, if the value was previously null. I'd like to do it this way, because we have a lot of columns and some will be very wide, and I want to avoid horizontal scrolling in my email.

I can use a Create HTML Table note, but that gives me a result that is a wide table, like the above, but the rows and columns are transposed, which is not ideal.

I've been playing with string parsing and JSON object manipulation, and I'm leading myself in circles. Does anyone have any advice or pointers?

EDIT: Thinking a little outside the box, I tried using the results of Create HTML Table and applying a CSS transform in the email styles. No luck.

Attempted:

• https://codepen.io/veekungx/pen/MWgvBxe

• http://jsfiddle.net/XKnKL/3/

• https://dbushell.com/2016/03/04/css-only-responsive-tables/

I think the reason this failed is because of the reliance on `display`, which is generally not supported in email clients. https://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/grid/display/

[DamoBird365]

Hi @aeisenhart 

Initialise a new string variable and add the <table> and header tags:

<table>
  <tr>
    <th></th>
    <th>Old</th>
    <th>New</th>
  </tr>

Create an apply to each on the body and append string in each loop with both string and dynamic values

  <tr>
    <td>item()?['pathtokey/value']</td>
    <td>item()?['pathtokey/value']</td>
    <td>item()?['pathtokey/value']</td>
  </tr>

Outside of the apply to each, append a closing table tag to the variable </table>

You now have your bespoke html table in the variable.

Cheers
Damien

Please take a look and subscribe to my YouTube Channel for more Power Platform ideas and concepts. Thanks

[eliotcole]

I came at this from a slightly different angle, @aeisenhart, which was to treat OldValue and NewValue as if they were both entries in the same array (table), but one or the other just has blank entries where the other may have more.

Simply place the Create HTML table action straight after wherever the data comes in, and this will do the job :

union( createArray( addProperty( variables('jsonObjectVAR')?['body/AuditDetail/OldValue'], 'oldNew', 'Old' ) ), createArray( addProperty( variables('jsonObjectVAR')?['body/AuditDetail/NewValue'], 'oldNew', 'New' ) ) )

Replace variables('jsonObjectVAR')?['body/AuditDetail/OldValue'] & NewValue with a reference to where yours are.

Essentially all that is happening is that you are adding an extra property to Old/New to identify each of them, then you are telling it to make that one object a single item in an array, then you are telling it to join both arrays together. (I'll break this down a bit more in an edit in a second)

The HTML table action is then intelligent enough to be able to create the blank values as and where it needs them.

If you wish to do more with the blank fields, you could process the union in a select, perhaps ... but I'd have to confirm that.

[aeisenhart]

Thank you so much for such a detailed response! This worked very well to add "old" and "new" to the attributes.

The problem that I'm running into is that I want to transpose or rotate the resulting table, and that's what I'm not sure how to do.

There are several dozen properties that might be in this JSON string, so I don't want to hardcode lookups for each possible value, such as the following:

variables('jsonObjectVAR')?['body/AuditDetail/OldValue/new_productline'],

Here's a sample of my output, after making your suggestion (which was very appreciated!):

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>@odata.type</th>
            <th>new_productline</th>
            <th>_ownerid_value</th>
            <th>oldNew</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account</td>
            <td>100000000</td>
            <td>0bf23b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1</td>
            <td>Old</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>#Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.account</td>
            <td>500000000</td>
            <td>d9f13b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1</td>
            <td>New</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

Is there a way to "rotate" the table so that the table grows taller instead of wider as new properties are added? Here's a sample of what I'd like the result to be:

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th></th>
            <th>Old</th>
            <th>New</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>new_productline</td>
            <td>100000000</td>
            <td>500000000</td>
            
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>_ownerid_value</td>
            <td>d9f13b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1</td>
            <td>0bf23b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

empty	Old	New
new_productline	100000000	500000000
_ownerid_value	d9f13b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1	0bf23b2e-fad8-e611-80fe-e0071b69ffe1

[eliotcole]

It's doable, @aeisenhart, and potentially just inside one or two actions. However, it will probably involve some complicated expressions, and logic there-in.

I honestly don't think it's worth your time handling it, frankly. You're at the point where you're now just really talking about aesthetics, and I would advise against handling data based on purely on the aesthetics, even though I *totally* understand where you're coming from.

Plus you run the risk of wandering back in to the realm of making it less data agnostic (working regardless of how many additional fields there are), which means it's more susceptible to breaking.

But it's doable ... it's just a bit of work, that (not meaning to sound rude) you would technically not be doing ... and if someone has to handle this after you have gone ... they'll need to know what they're looking at.

Explaining this within the context of the flow will be half the battle, really, as you should always approach these things as to how will someone else use this in the future ... and add the appropriate annotations there-in.

---

On the flip-side, if you're comfortable with a little bit of CSS work (which - unlike javascript - you should be able to use within an HTML email) you could use something like what's been done here:

https://codepen.io/veekungx/pen/MWgvBxe

Maybe take a stroll online for more transposed HTML tables?

[aeisenhart]

Hey eliotcole,

Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that it's down to aesthetics and readability, so I probably won't sink a huge amount of time into it. I was just hoping that there was a quick and straightforward solution that I wasn't aware of.

Thanks for the CSS idea -- I mentioned that I tried that idea in my original post, but unfortunately the CSS elements aren't widely supported yet. I think the issue is reliance on the grid and use of the display element. https://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/grid/display/ . But CSS would have been an awesome solution if that worked.

Thanks again for all of your help!

[eliotcole]

So is it just a case that the html email can't display grid CSS values?

That sounds bizarre to me. I don't have the time (or energy) to try to fiddle with that right now ... but I DO want to fiddle with it, so I'll try to take a look, mate.

[aeisenhart]

Hey eliotcole! I just got back from PTO.

Yeah, long story short, I've read that most email clients (mobile, Windows, iOS, web browsers) don't render the grid CSS properties correctly. I tested this myself with Outlook on Windows (which is used by my primary user base). If I build a sample static HTML file (using the code from the jsfilddle link we both referenced), it will render the table transposed correctly. I can take the exact same HTML content, throw it in an email, and the CSS is not applied correctly.

In the end, I think I have to live with a horizontal instead of a vertical table, but I'm thankful for all of your ideas!