# json\_query/jmespath filtering question **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [March 10, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/json-query-jmespath-filtering-question/32437 "2020-03-10T20:31:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nschende](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/nschende/32/1681_2.png) [@nschende](https://forum.ansible.com/u/nschende)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/json-query-jmespath-filtering-question/32437/1 "2020-03-10T20:31:41Z")
Trying to wrap my head about how to query json results from a URI call & could use some guidance. I am guessing there are plenty in this group which this will be an easy question for. I am registering the json response from a URI call to our backup system to ‘snapshotlist’ Here is an example chunk of the json: “json”: { “vmwareTagList”: , “isCorrupt”: false, “snapshotDiskDetails”: [ { “virtualDiskId”: “23478e90-0228-4tab-ba99-d3894f94c8c837-vm-98-2001”, “deviceKey”: 2001, “size”: 214748364800, “id”: “83fecf84-26db-42db-9f33-ec7e10b5f736”, “fileName”: “[DC1\_LINUX\_VM\_STORAGE] host2restore/host2restore\_1.vmdk” }, { “virtualDiskId”: “23478e90-0228-4tab-ba99-d3894f94c8c837-vm-98-2002”, “deviceKey”: 2002, “size”: 214748364800, “id”: “1a9c094f-f19b-4ea7-1406-ab145b0ec2f1”, “fileName”: “[DC1\_LINUX\_VM\_STORAGE] host2restore/host2restore\_2.vmdk” }, { “virtualDiskId”: “23478e90-0228-4tab-ba99-d3894f94c8c837-vm-98-2000”, “deviceKey”: 2000, “size”: 42949672960, “id”: “83182b0a-bc21-4ef8-8582-7ec95465380b”, “fileName”: “[DC1\_LINUX\_VM\_STORAGE] host2restore/host2restore.vmdk” } ], “date”: “2020-03-10T05:42:32.675Z”, “cloudState”: 0, I am trying to get the value of “id” for the object with fileName that ends with host2retore\_1.vmdk This is what I currently have to try to pull that value out based on some example I found on a blog somewhere. However I get errors. Anyone able to help me figure out what I am doing wrong? - name: set variable for disk\_snap\_id set\_fact: disk\_snap\_id: “{{ json\_query(‘snapshotdetails.json.snapshotDiskDetails[?fileName.contains(@, ‘host2restore\_1.vmdk’)].virtualDiskId’) }}” ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 9:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/json-query-jmespath-filtering-question/32437/2 "2020-03-10T21:04:45Z")
You need to filter a variable through json\_query. Also, I don’t see any key called ‘snapshotdetails’. And that json string should be filtered through from\_json, ideally. It looks like your “json” var isn’t really what you are using. If I shuffle things around slightly, then below playbook works: ---
**Author:** ![nschende](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/nschende/32/1681_2.png) [@nschende](https://forum.ansible.com/u/nschende)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/json-query-jmespath-filtering-question/32437/3 "2020-03-10T21:15:54Z")
Oops I said the wrong register variable name in my question. snapshotlist is the registered output of a previous task, snapshotdetails is the register of the task right before this particular task. the chunk of json I pasted in is pulled from the previous task’s output. I was previously able to use snapshotdetails.json.snapshotDiskDetails[1].virtualDiskId to get a value in the play, it was the filtering that I have been struggling with. Thanks for the reply I will give that a shot. ---
**Author:** ![nschende](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/nschende/32/1681_2.png) [@nschende](https://forum.ansible.com/u/nschende)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 10:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/json-query-jmespath-filtering-question/32437/4 "2020-03-11T22:24:39Z")
Still struggling to get this working. Posting my entire playbook in case it can help understand what I might be doing wrong: - hosts: ‘{{inventory\_hostname}}’ gather\_facts: no vars: cluser\_ip: “{{ rubrik\_hostname }}” tasks: - name: login to rubrik to generate token uri: url: https://{{ cluser\_ip }}/api/v1/session # URL to generate an auth token to be used by subsequent calls force\_basic\_auth: yes user: ‘{{ lookup(“env”, “rubrik\_username”) }}’ password: ‘{{ lookup(“env”, “rubrik\_password”) }}’ method: POST status\_code: 200 return\_content: yes validate\_certs: yes register: authtoken # token is available as authtoken.json.token delegate\_to: localhost become: no - name: get target vm id uri: url: https://{{ cluser\_ip }}/api/v1/vmware/vm?name={{ inventory\_hostname\_nfq }} headers: Content-Type: “application/json” Authorization: “Bearer {{ authtoken.json.token }}” # pass authentication token from earlier rather than basic auth method: GET status\_code: 200 return\_content: yes validate\_certs: yes register: vminfo delegate\_to: localhost become: no - name: set variable for target\_vm\_id set\_fact: target\_vm\_id: “{{ vminfo.json.data[0].id }}” - name: get list of snapshots uri: url: https://{{ cluser\_ip }}/api/v1/vmware/vm/{{ source\_vm\_id }}/snapshot headers: Content-Type: “application/json” Authorization: “Bearer {{ authtoken.json.token }}” # pass authentication token from earlier rather than basic auth method: GET status\_code: 200 return\_content: yes register: snapshotlist delegate\_to: localhost become: no - name: get info on the snapshot to be used uri: url: https://{{ cluser\_ip }}/api/v1/vmware/vm/snapshot/{{ snapshotlist.json.data[0].id }} headers: Content-Type: “application/json” Authorization: “Bearer {{ authtoken.json.token }}” # pass authentication token from earlier rather than basic auth method: GET status\_code: 200 return\_content: yes register: snapshotdetails delegate\_to: localhost become: no - name: set variable for disk\_snap\_id set\_fact: disk\_snap\_id: “{{ snapshotdetails | from\_json | json\_query(‘json.snapshotDiskDetails[?fileName.contains(@, ‘host2restore\_1’)].virtualDiskId’) }}” Error I am getting currently: TASK [set variable for disk\_snap\_id] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* **task path: /tmp/awx\_56722\_7ypjkkvu/project/oracle\_refresh\_fixorder.yml:67** fatal: [host2]: FAILED! =\> { “msg”: “template error while templating string: expected token ‘,’, got ‘host2restore\_1’. String: {{ snapshotdetails | from\_json | json\_query(‘json.snapshotDiskDetails[?fileName.contains(@, ‘host2restore\_1’)]’) }}” } I also attempted setting the actual query string in a separate var, and passing that to the json\_query as I have seen in many examples but that also did not work. not sure what I am doing wrong. A few permutations I have tried have run successfully but then returned a blank value. As you can see from the playbook snapshotdetails is a registered variable from the previous task. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/json-query-jmespath-filtering-question/32437/5 "2020-03-11T22:31:57Z")
The query for json\_query is between single quotes. But you also use single quotes to quote 'host2restore\_1' - that doesn't work. You need to use backticks instead. If you look closely you can see that those were in the previous example. I agree that it's not easy to spot 🙂 Dick ---
**Author:** ![nschende](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/nschende/32/1681_2.png) [@nschende](https://forum.ansible.com/u/nschende)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/json-query-jmespath-filtering-question/32437/6 "2020-03-11T23:01:15Z")
Yup I absolutely did not notice that, thank you for pointing it out. now I am getting the following error: fatal: [host2]: FAILED! =\> { “msg”: “Unexpected templating type error occurred on ({{ snapshotdetails | from\_json | json\_query(‘json.snapshotDiskDetails[?fileName.contains(@, `host2restore_1`)].virtualDiskId’) }}): expected string or buffer” } ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Visser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@Dick\_Visser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Visser)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 11:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/json-query-jmespath-filtering-question/32437/7 "2020-03-11T23:30:29Z")
Can you put a debug task between the uri and set\_fact tasks and post what that outputs? - debug: var=snapshotdetails If you put this in your ansible.cfg then it's more readable: stdout\_callback = yaml bin\_ansible\_callbacks = True ---
**Author:** ![nschende](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/nschende/32/1681_2.png) [@nschende](https://forum.ansible.com/u/nschende)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 11:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/json-query-jmespath-filtering-question/32437/8 "2020-03-11T23:39:44Z")
managed to get it working with this: - name: set variable for disk\_snap\_id set\_fact: disk\_snap\_id: “{{ snapshotdetails | to\_json | from\_json | json\_query(‘json.snapshotDiskDetails[?fileName.contains(@, `host2restore_1`)].virtualDiskId’) }}” after finding this: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48318708/unexpected-templating-type-error-occured-on-ec2-instances-from-json-exp](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48318708/unexpected-templating-type-error-occured-on-ec2-instances-from-json-exp)