# Using formatted PS JSON in play. **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [November 5, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160 "2020-11-05T22:16:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kzersatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@kzersatz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/kzersatz)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/1 "2020-11-05T22:16:19Z")
So i’m having difficulties and am quite stuck… My goal is to capture details from a UNC paths NTFS ACLS. Important details are below. - name: Teach him to fish - Run it win\_shell: | . C:\Temp\grp\_enum.ps1 enumerate -path “{{ path }}” become: yes become\_method: runas vars: ansible\_become\_user: ‘{{ h\_become\_user }}’ ansible\_become\_pass: ‘{{ h\_become\_pass }}’ register: fishing - name: process fish set\_fact: chum: “{{ fishing.stdout | from\_json }}” - name: plate SamAccountName’s set\_fact: caughtfish: “{{ chum | json\_query(jmesquery) }}” vars: jmesquery: ‘chum.SamAccountName’ - name: serve samaccountnames debug: msg: " Fucking output something already! {{caughtfish}}" Spits out JSON formatted “ansible\_facts”: { “chum”: [ { “DistinguishedName”: “CN=LASTNAME\, FIRSTNAME (USN123),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net”, “SamAccountName”: “USN123” }, { “DistinguishedName”: “CN=LASTNAME1\, FIRSTNAME1 (USN234),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net”, “SamAccountName”: “USN234” } ] }, Yet no matter how I skin this fish… PLATES results ok: [[l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net](http://l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net)] =\> { “ansible\_facts”: { “caughtfish”: “” }, “changed”: false } SERVES results ok: [[l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net](http://l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net)] =\> { “msg”: " Fucking output something already! " } I can’t get this thing to give me any data, what so ever… P.s. google groups sucks in conversion, no format as code is a sin. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2020, 6:09am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/2 "2020-11-06T06:09:14Z")
> So i’m having difficulties and am quite stuck… > > My goal is to capture details from a UNC paths NTFS ACLS. > > Important details are below. > > - name: Teach him to fish - Run it > win\_shell: | > . C:\Temp\grp\_enum.ps1 > > enumerate -path “{{ path }}” > become: yes > become\_method: runas > vars: > ansible\_become\_user: ‘{{ h\_become\_user }}’ > ansible\_become\_pass: ‘{{ h\_become\_pass }}’ > register: fishing > > - name: process fish > set\_fact: > chum: “{{ fishing.stdout | from\_json }}” > > - name: plate SamAccountName’s > set\_fact: > caughtfish: “{{ chum | json\_query(jmesquery) }}” > vars: > jmesquery: ‘chum.SamAccountName’ > > - name: serve samaccountnames > debug: > msg: " Fucking output something already! {{caughtfish}}" > > Spits out JSON formatted > “ansible\_facts”: { > “chum”: [ > { > “DistinguishedName”: “CN=LASTNAME\, FIRSTNAME (USN123),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net”, > “SamAccountName”: “USN123” > }, > { > “DistinguishedName”: “CN=LASTNAME1\, FIRSTNAME1 (USN234),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net”, > “SamAccountName”: “USN234” > } > ] > }, > > Yet no matter how I skin this fish… > > PLATES results > > ok: [[l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net](http://l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net)] =\> { > “ansible\_facts”: { > “caughtfish”: “” > }, > “changed”: false > } > > SERVES results > > ok: [[l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net](http://l1pnchwmgt12.columbuschildrens.net)] =\> { > “msg”: " Fucking output something already! " > } > > I can’t get this thing to give me any data, what so ever… It does give you data, but judging from your comments, not the data you want, or in a different format. But it’s not clear what you want (‘skin fish’??). What are you exactly looking for? What is the expected result? ---
**Author:** ![kzersatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@kzersatz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/kzersatz)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/3 "2020-11-06T14:08:28Z")
No, pretty positive when I’m asking for the value of a variable, I’m expecting for more output than none. - name: plate SamAccountName’s set\_fact: caughtfish: “{{ chum | json\_query(jmesquery) }}” vars: jmesquery: ‘chum.SamAccountName’ - name: serve samaccountnames debug: msg: " Fucking output something already! {{ caughtfish }}" I’m mostly at a loss of what I’m doing wrong with json\_query for it to net me … no results… each time when simply asking for it to query SamAccountName. Either I’m grossly misunderstanding how it functions, or my data/query is boned. ---
**Author:** ![kzersatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@kzersatz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/kzersatz)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2020, 2:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/4 "2020-11-06T14:12:26Z")
Also, the variable names are a bit eclectic I know, but… Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him for a fish, feed him for life. Playbook name is fishing chum the water catch fish, prep fish serve fish, silly I know, but it makes sense. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2020, 3:50pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/5 "2020-11-06T15:50:22Z")
It's not getting any clearer to me. Let's take some steps back. Please confirm if I'm on the right track. You end up with this data structure:     "ansible\_facts": {         "chum": [             {                 "DistinguishedName": "CN=LASTNAME\\, FIRSTNAME (USN123),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net",                 "SamAccountName": "USN123"             },             {                 "DistinguishedName": "CN=LASTNAME1\\, FIRSTNAME1 (USN234),OU=Users,OU=ORGANIZATION,DC=CONSONTO,DC=net",                 "SamAccountName": "USN234"             }         ]     }, Is that the correct data? I.e. does it contain everything you need? And if so, what do you want to do/extract from this? You want perhaps to end up with a list of the SamAccountNames, i.e.: - USN123 - USN234 ? Or something entirely different? ---
**Author:** ![kzersatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@kzersatz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/kzersatz)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/6 "2020-11-06T16:20:24Z")
I want to get the samaccountnames in a dictionary list that I can then use in further plays, yes. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2020, 5:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/7 "2020-11-06T17:04:43Z")
You are already piping 'chum' to json\_query, so it should not be part of the query itself again. Also, because it's a list, you need to select all entries first with . And a relatively simple query like this doesn't need a dedicated variable. Try this:   - name: plate SamAccountName's     set\_fact:       caughtfish: "{{ chum | json\_query('.SamAccountName') }}" ---
**Author:** ![kzersatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@kzersatz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/kzersatz)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/8 "2020-11-06T17:29:52Z")
That absolutely worked and made a huge difference. so using like that selects all entries from the variable being piped into it to query? Is there literature I can read to help understand this facet better? Thank you again!. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/9 "2020-11-06T18:39:36Z")
[https://jmespath.org/tutorial.html](https://jmespath.org/tutorial.html) is a good start, the examples have the data in editable forms, so you can quickly test things out. For trial/error with complex data structures that come from expensive/slow APIs or playbooks, I usually make a dummy playbook with hard coded data, to focus on the json\_query part itself, for example: ---
**Author:** ![flowerysong1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@flowerysong1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/flowerysong1)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/10 "2020-11-06T18:59:29Z")
json\_query() is almost never needed, and adds a whole other language to learn (JMESPath) on top of the Jinja that you need to learn in order to use Ansible. You can replace both of your set\_fact calls with: ` - name: plate fish set\_fact: caughtfish: “{{ fishing.stdout | from\_json | map(attribute=‘SamAccountName’) | list }}” ` See [https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/2.11.x/templates/#map](https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/2.11.x/templates/#map) for more information on map(). ---
**Author:** ![vbotka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/vbotka/32/359_2.png) [@vbotka](https://forum.ansible.com/u/vbotka)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2020, 11:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/11 "2020-11-06T23:33:18Z")
FWIW, Let me add to this statement:    "json\_query() is almost never needed when the data is stored in    lists. json\_query() is essential when the data is stored in nested    dictionaries." Sometimes the result of using the nested dictionaries is a cleaner code. Then json\_query() is essential to help with searching. In other words, without json\_query() it might be a trade-off between a clean code and optimal structure. See the examples below. ---
**Author:** ![racke](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/racke/32/4767_2.png) [@racke](https://forum.ansible.com/u/racke)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 11:36am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/12 "2020-11-07T11:36:51Z")
Hello Vladimir, thanks a lot for your exhaustive analysis of json\_query vs. Jinja filters. Very much appreciated!! Regards         Racke ---
**Author:** ![kzersatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@kzersatz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/kzersatz)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-formatted-ps-json-in-play/34160/13 "2020-11-07T17:00:52Z")
Absolutely thank you for the breakdowns and information, I know I’ll be referencing this in the VERY near future 🙂