Hi,

 

 

strictly speaking, JSON is untyped, so a string representation is actually the correct way of transferring your numeric values.

 

 

Is there any particular reason for needing to transfer these otherwise?

 

 

David

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Just in case, here is a workaround using a PythonCaller to cast an attribute into an integer in FME:

 

 

-----

 

import fmeobjects   def FeatureProcessor(feature):

 

    attribName = "status" # Modify here     value = feature.getAttribute(attribName)     try:         feature.setAttribute(attribName, int(value))     except:         pass

 

-----

 

 

It will silently ignore all type errors.

 

 

David

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Hi,

 

 

True JSON is text, you can always try the string formatter on your attribute.

 

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Hi Itay,

 

 

I tried the StringFormatter before posting, it didn't make any difference in this scenario, FME still considers the result as a string :-)

 

 

David

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Ha David,

 

 

Hurry Python saves the day, but I do feel like we are treading water.....:)

---

Yes, I agree that the PythonCaller feels like overkill in this situation, but I can't see any other way.

 

 

FME really should have an AttributeTypeCoercer

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David, the PythonCaller technique worked great, thanks!

 

 

JSON actually has several data types including numbers, strings, booleans and nulls, and the JSONTemplater seems to automatically use the right type for attributes brought in from readers, it's just attributes created in the workspace that seem to always be interpreted as strings byt he JSONTemplater.

 

 

I wonder what is different about the PythonCaller vs. my ExpressionEvaluator attempt (other than that one is Python and the other is TCL).

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Good to know about those data types, dont use JSON that much hence the glitch.....I would also like to know why python does the job, but TCL (expression evaluator and string formatter) wont.

 

Regards,

 

Itay

---

Hi folks,

 

I got an answer to this directly from the developer.

 

 

Hope it's useful

 

 

Mark

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

 

The short answer is: use an XQuery type cast, in this case xs:int, like so:

 

 

{

 

    "status" : xs:int( fme:get-attribute("int_attr") )

 

}

 

 

The longer answer is this:

 

 

The fme:get-attribute function will return a value whose type corresponds to the underlying type of the FME attribute.  In this case, the attribute is likely a string attribute.  This can be checked by using a Logger transformer.

 

 

A 'cast' can be used to convert a string value to an integer.  The syntax is quite simple, xs:int( "132" ).  Strings can be converted to quite a few numeric types, but for JSON, the most useful casts will be:

 

• xs:int
• xs:double

Using something like @int will probably not work, as the TCL is executed before the XQuery.  In addition, the use of Tcl or FME functions within a JSON/XML template will have a severe negative effect on the performance of the transformer.

 

---

Hi folks,

 

I got an answer to this directly from the developer.

 

 

Hope it's useful

 

 

Mark

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

 

The short answer is: use an XQuery type cast, in this case xs:int, like so:

 

 

{

 

    "status" : xs:int( fme:get-attribute("int_attr") )

 

}

 

 

The longer answer is this:

 

 

The fme:get-attribute function will return a value whose type corresponds to the underlying type of the FME attribute.  In this case, the attribute is likely a string attribute.  This can be checked by using a Logger transformer.

 

 

A 'cast' can be used to convert a string value to an integer.  The syntax is quite simple, xs:int( "132" ).  Strings can be converted to quite a few numeric types, but for JSON, the most useful casts will be:

 

• xs:int
• xs:double

Using something like @int will probably not work, as the TCL is executed before the XQuery.  In addition, the use of Tcl or FME functions within a JSON/XML template will have a severe negative effect on the performance of the transformer.

 

Thanks, usefull. Question: Is there something in FME modern to cast json txt:int ? Or this still be the pratical way of doing it.

 

 

---

Hi folks,

 

I got an answer to this directly from the developer.

 

 

Hope it's useful

 

 

Mark

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

 

The short answer is: use an XQuery type cast, in this case xs:int, like so:

 

 

{

 

    "status" : xs:int( fme:get-attribute("int_attr") )

 

}

 

 

The longer answer is this:

 

 

The fme:get-attribute function will return a value whose type corresponds to the underlying type of the FME attribute.  In this case, the attribute is likely a string attribute.  This can be checked by using a Logger transformer.

 

 

A 'cast' can be used to convert a string value to an integer.  The syntax is quite simple, xs:int( "132" ).  Strings can be converted to quite a few numeric types, but for JSON, the most useful casts will be:

 

• xs:int
• xs:double

Using something like @int will probably not work, as the TCL is executed before the XQuery.  In addition, the use of Tcl or FME functions within a JSON/XML template will have a severe negative effect on the performance of the transformer.

 

It's a syntax conforming to the XQuery/XPath specifications (a kind of global standard). According to the specifications, as far as I know, this is the proper and only way to cast data types in XQuery expressions, including XML/JSON template expressions that can be processed with FME transformers.

 

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