How can I take json and encode into a URL

[Jon Murphy]

I’m looking for assistance encoding a URL.  I am trying to make this msg object:

msg = {"url": "https://api.ecobee.com/1/thermostat?format=json&body=

{

"selection": {

"includeAlerts": "false",

"selectionType": "registered",

"selectionMatch": "",

"includeEvents": "false",

"includeSettings": "false",

"includeRuntime": "true",

"includeSensors": "true"

}

}"

    "method": "GET",

    "headers": {"Content-Type": "application/json;charset=UTF-8",

        "Authorization": "Bearer 12345678901234567890123456789012"

    }};

into this:

msg = {"url": "https://api.ecobee.com/1/thermostat?format=json&body=%7B%22selection%22%3A%7B%22includeAlerts%22%3A%22false%22%2C%22selectionType%22%3A%22registered%22%2C%22selectionMatch%22%3A%22%22%2C%22includeEvents%22%3A%22false%22%2C%22includeSettings%22%3A%22false%22%2C%22includeRuntime%22%3A%22true%22%2C%22includeSensors%22%3A%22true%22%7D%7D",

"method": "GET",

"headers": {"Content-Type": "application/json;charset=UTF-8",

"Authorization": "Bearer 12345678901234567890123456789012"};

The above is pushed into a http request node.

Is there a node-red node to help with this?  Or a javascript command?

[Mark Setrem]

have you looked at the javascript "encode" command?

[Jon Murphy]

Hi Mark!  I found similar commands but I did not locate "encode":

• escape()     will not encode: @*/+
  
• encodeURI()      will not encode: ~!@#$&*()=:/,;?+'
  
• encodeURIComponent()      will not encode: ~!*()'
  

I'll give one of these a try.  Thank you!   Jon

[Dave C-J]

any reason not to just pass in the body as the msg.payload and let the http node take care of it ?

(as per the info on the right - 

• payload is sent as the body of the request

[Dave C-J]

Ah - it's a GET request... - still may be worth a try

[Jon Murphy]

Mark - I did a encodeURIComponent and ended up with and [object] [object] so I added a JSON.stringify.  The stringify escapes each quote and it seems like this is not needed.  So I may remove the escape characters with a replace command.  Overall this seems to work!

    var urlBody = {

        "selection": {

            "includeAlerts": "false",

            "selectionType": "registered",

            "selectionMatch": "",

            "includeEvents": "false",

            "includeSettings": "false",

            "includeRuntime": "true",

            "includeSensors": "true"

        }

    };

    var urlBodyStr = JSON.stringify(urlBody);

    var encodedBody = encodeURIComponent(urlBodyStr);

   msg = {

        "url": "https://api.ecobee.com/1/thermostat?format=json&body=" + encodedBody,

        "method": "GET",

        headers: {

            "Content-Type": "application/json;charset=UTF-8",

            "Authorization": "Bearer " + flow.get('EcobeeAccessToken'),

        }

  

Dave - I think this is what you suggested (see below).  I’ll give it a try!

msg = {

“payload”: urlBody,

"url": "https://api.ecobee.com/1/thermostat?format=json",

        "method": "GET",

        headers: {

            "Content-Type": "application/json;charset=UTF-8",

            "Authorization": "Bearer " + flow.get('EcobeeAccessToken'),

        }

Thank you!

[Jon Murphy]

Dave - I removed the body from the URL:

&body=%7B%22selection%22%3A%7B%22includeAlerts%22%3A%22false%22%2C%22selectionType%22%3A%22registered%22%2C%22selectionMatch%22%3A%22%22%2C%22includeEvents%22%3A%22false%22%2C%22includeSettings%22%3A%22false%22%2C%22includeRuntime%22%3A%22true%22%2C%22includeSensors%22%3A%22true%22%7D%7D

and placed it in payload:

msg.payload = "%7B%22selection%22%3A%7B%22includeAlerts%22%3A%22false%22%2C%22selectionType%22%3A%22registered%22%2C%22selectionMatch%22%3A%22%22%2C%22includeEvents%22%3A%22false%22%2C%22includeSettings%22%3A%22false%22%2C%22includeRuntime%22%3A%22true%22%2C%22includeSensors%22%3A%22true%22%7D%7D";

and I get this error back from the server:

{ "payload": { "status": { "code": 4, "message": "Serialization error. Request contains no body. Ensure body is provided and POST Content-Type specified correctly." } }

I also tried with:

msg.payload = {"selection":{"includeAlerts":"false","selectionType":"registered","selectionMatch":"","includeEvents":"false","includeSettings":"false","includeRuntime":"true","includeSensors":"true"}};

[Dave C-J]

Shame - does the endpoint you are targeting have a POST option as well as GET ? 

[Jon Murphy]

yes, it does.

HTTP Method
API requests are made using the HTTP GET or POST methods, depending on the request type. Retrieving information is accomplished with a GET request whereas updating information is achieved with the POST request.