如何让 json_query 在 Ansible 中搜索模式

Question

I am trying to extract the data from a JSON output obtained from API call using uri module. The data contains some key value pairs. The format is like below

item : "name-of-the-item"
"json" : {
    "data": {
          "First.Name": "First Name"
          "Middle.Name": "Middle Name"
          "Last.Name": "Last Name"
          "Home.Address": "Address "
          "Work.Address": "Address 2"
          "AuthID": ""
           }
}

I am trying to group and output data with extension .Name so that I get the following outputs First.Name, Middle.Name, Last.Name

Or list the Addresses with .Address which would lead to outputs of Home.Address and Work.Address

my playbook

- name: extract json data from url
  uri:
    url: https://api.url
    method: GET
    return_content: true
    Content-Type: application/json
  register: data_from_url

- name: display the names
  debug:
    var: item
  loop: "{{ data_from_url.json.data | json_query ('Name') }}"

however, the query gives me an error. I tried looking into the JMESpath examples, but i cannot find anything which is used to match an extension in the JSON. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

First of all, naming dict elements with an identifier containing a dot is a bad idea in ansible, and more generally in json/yaml. I suggest you change this if you can because it will probably add a lot of confusion in the future on your project.

Meanwhile, taking your current data as is, json_query is not the tool you need in this circumstance. Basically what you have to do is to filter out all the keys which do not have .Name in their name.

Here is a quick example to achieve this. The global idea is to:

1. transform your dict to a list of {key: keyname, value: keyvalue} elements
2. filter out all elements where keyname does not match your criteria with selectattr (or eventually rejectattr )
3. transform the filtered list back to a dictionary.

The following playbook:

---
- hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false

  vars:
    example_data: {
      "First.Name": "First Name",
      "Middle.Name": "Middle Name",
      "Last.Name": "Last Name",
      "Home.Address": "Address ",
      "Work.Address": "Address 2",
      "AuthID": ""
  }

  tasks:
    - name: Show only elements containing ".name"
      debug:
        msg: "{{ example_data | dict2items | selectattr('key', 'match', '.*\\.Name') | list | items2dict }}"

gives:

PLAY [localhost] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Show only elements containing ".name"] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": {
        "First.Name": "First Name",
        "Last.Name": "Last Name",
        "Middle.Name": "Middle Name"
    }
}

PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0