# To\_json not working in Ansible 2.19.0rc2 **URL:** \ **Category:** Get Help\ **Created:** [July 15, 2025, 11:28am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/to-json-not-working-in-ansible-2-19-0rc2/43879 "2025-07-15T11:28:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![trisha-dell](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/trisha-dell/32/8640_2.png) [@trisha-dell](https://forum.ansible.com/u/trisha-dell)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:28am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/to-json-not-working-in-ansible-2-19-0rc2/43879/1 "2025-07-15T11:28:11Z")
The to\_json filter is not working to covert a string to json. Eg. Input: “msg”: “{‘Key’: ‘\’, ‘DeleteOnCompletion’: ‘false’, ‘InstanceID’: ‘DCIM\_OSDConcreteJob:1’, ‘JobName’: ‘BootToNetworkISO’, ‘JobStatus’: ‘Failed’, ‘Message’: ‘Unable to locate the ISO image on the network share point.’, ‘MessageArguments’: None, ‘MessageID’: ‘OSD18’, ‘Name’: ‘BootToNetworkISO’, ‘Status’: ‘Failed’, ‘retval’: False, ‘file’: ‘/nfsshare/invalid.iso’}” task: - name: Set result\_iso\_invalid message ansible.builtin.set\_fact: result\_iso\_invalid\_msg: “{{ msg | to\_json }}” Actual result: “ansible\_facts”: { “result\_iso\_invalid\_msg”: “"{‘Key’: ‘\’, ‘DeleteOnCompletion’: ‘false’, ‘InstanceID’: ‘DCIM\_OSDConcreteJob:1’, ‘JobName’: ‘BootToNetworkISO’, ‘JobStatus’: ‘Failed’, ‘Message’: ‘Unable to locate the ISO image on the network share point.’, ‘MessageArguments’: None, ‘MessageID’: ‘OSD18’, ‘Name’: ‘BootToNetworkISO’, ‘Status’: ‘Failed’, ‘retval’: False, ‘file’: ‘/nfsshare/invalid.iso’}"” } Expected result: “result\_iso\_invalid\_msg”: { “DeleteOnCompletion”: “false”, “InstanceID”: “DCIM\_OSDConcreteJob:1”, “JobName”: “BootToNetworkISO”, “JobStatus”: “Failed”, “Key”: “\”, “Message”: “Unable to locate the ISO image on the network share point.”, “MessageArguments”: “None”, “MessageID”: “OSD18”, “Name”: “BootToNetworkISO”, “Status”: “Failed”, “file”: “/nfsshare/invalid.iso”, “retval”: false } Instead of to\_json, when from\_yaml is used, this works fine. Has to\_json been deprecated? ---
**Author:** ![shertel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/shertel/32/1241_2.png) [@shertel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/shertel)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 1:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/to-json-not-working-in-ansible-2-19-0rc2/43879/2 "2025-07-15T13:05:11Z")
It sounds like the string is already JSON (in which case, you’d need to use `from_json` not `to_json`). Can you share an example of specifically what was working before 2.19? The quotation marks in your example input are a little ambiguous to me (not valid json). ---
**Author:** ![trisha-dell](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/trisha-dell/32/8640_2.png) [@trisha-dell](https://forum.ansible.com/u/trisha-dell)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 1:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/to-json-not-working-in-ansible-2-19-0rc2/43879/3 "2025-07-15T13:53:24Z")
Hello @shertel, Thank you for responding: This is the set of tasks used: - name: Boot to Network ISO with nfs share (iso\_invalid) idrac\_os\_deployment: share\_name: “{{nfs\_share\_name}}” iso\_image: “invalid.iso” expose\_duration: 5 ignore\_errors: true register: result\_iso\_invalid ``` - name: Set result_iso_invalid message ansible.builtin.set_fact: result_iso_invalid_msg: "{{ result_iso_invalid.msg | from_json }}" ``` The first task returns: { “changed”: false, “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “ca\_path”: null, “expose\_duration”: 5, “idrac\_ip”: “xx.xx.xx.xx”, “idrac\_password”: “VALUE\_SPECIFIED\_IN\_NO\_LOG\_PARAMETER”, “idrac\_port”: 443, “idrac\_user”: “root”, “iso\_image”: “invalid.iso”, “share\_name”: “/nfsshare”, “share\_password”: null, “share\_user”: null, “timeout”: 30, “validate\_certs”: false } }, “msg”: “{‘Key’: ‘\’, ‘DeleteOnCompletion’: ‘false’, ‘InstanceID’: ‘DCIM\_OSDConcreteJob:1’, ‘JobName’: ‘BootToNetworkISO’, ‘JobStatus’: ‘Failed’, ‘Message’: ‘Unable to locate the ISO image on the network share point.’, ‘MessageArguments’: None, ‘MessageID’: ‘OSD18’, ‘Name’: ‘BootToNetworkISO’, ‘Status’: ‘Failed’, ‘retval’: False, ‘file’: ‘/nfsshare/invalid.iso’}” } The second task then returns: { “changed”: false, “msg”: “Task failed: Finalization of task args for ‘ansible.builtin.set\_fact’ failed: Error while resolving value for ‘result\_iso\_invalid\_msg’: The filter plugin ‘ansible.builtin.from\_json’ failed: Expecting property name enclosed in double quotes: line 1 column 2 (char 1)” } In 2.18, the first task returned this: { “changed”: false, “invocation”: { “module\_args”: { “ca\_path”: null, “expose\_duration”: 5, “idrac\_ip”: “xx.xx.xx.xx”, “idrac\_password”: “VALUE\_SPECIFIED\_IN\_NO\_LOG\_PARAMETER”, “idrac\_port”: 443, “idrac\_user”: “root”, “iso\_image”: “invalid.iso”, “share\_name”: “/nfsshare”, “share\_password”: null, “share\_user”: null, “timeout”: 30, “validate\_certs”: false } }, “msg”: { “DeleteOnCompletion”: “false”, “InstanceID”: “DCIM\_OSDConcreteJob:1”, “JobName”: “BootToNetworkISO”, “JobStatus”: “Failed”, “Key”: “\”, “Message”: “Unable to locate the ISO image on the network share point.”, “MessageArguments”: null, “MessageID”: “OSD18”, “Name”: “BootToNetworkISO”, “Status”: “Failed”, “file”: “/nfsshare/invalid.iso”, “retval”: false } } In 2.18, the msg returned was in dict form so the msg keys could be handled without using from\_jsom/from\_yaml. Is this change expected? ---
**Author:** ![shertel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/shertel/32/1241_2.png) [@shertel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/shertel)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/to-json-not-working-in-ansible-2-19-0rc2/43879/4 "2025-07-15T14:09:13Z")
It looks like msg should be a string: [dellemc-openmanage-ansible-modules/plugins/modules/idrac\_os\_deployment.py at collections · dell/dellemc-openmanage-ansible-modules · GitHub](https://github.com/dell/dellemc-openmanage-ansible-modules/blob/collections/plugins/modules/idrac_os_deployment.py#L73). I wonder why it wasn’t before. It might be a bug related to the module, not `to_json`. There’s an open issue here to validate compatibility with 2.19: [Validate compatibility with ansible-core 2.19 · Issue #854 · dell/dellemc-openmanage-ansible-modules · GitHub](https://github.com/dell/dellemc-openmanage-ansible-modules/issues/854). ---
**Author:** ![shertel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/shertel/32/1241_2.png) [@shertel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/shertel)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/to-json-not-working-in-ansible-2-19-0rc2/43879/5 "2025-07-15T14:27:00Z")
@trisha-dell My mistake, I do see auto JSON conversion for string types. We may need to add a porting guide entry if there isn’t already one. I have brought it up internally. ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/to-json-not-working-in-ansible-2-19-0rc2/43879/6 "2025-07-15T14:27:02Z")
I did some tests, ansible-core 2.19 converts `msg` to a string if `AnsibleModule.fail_json()` is called, while 2.18 does not do that. This also does not happen for `AnsibleModule.exit_json()`. (I’m not sure whether this happens in the module or in the controller code, but `-vvv` output already shows the stringified value for `msg` for the task.)