{{ transformations:ImportJsonAction.png}}
======IMPORT JSON FILE======
Category: Import / File\\

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=====Description=====

Import a JSON object from a text file.\\

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=====Action settings=====
^ Setting  ^ Description  ^
|Load file<sup>*</sup>| Fully-qualified file name of the dataset (includes relative or absolute path).  |
|JSONPath<sup>*</sup>|Select the path in the JSON document to import from. The list contains the paths found in the file; //<Root>// imports the whole document. The objects or array items at the selected path become rows of the resulting table. [[https://support.smartbear.com/alertsite/docs/monitors/api/endpoint/jsonpath.html|Learn more about the path syntax.]]|
|Column names|The method used to name columns in the incoming dataset.\\ Options: //Property name//, //Full JSON path//|
|Import only selected JSON properties|Check this to import only some properties under the selected JSONPath, then select them in the list. //<Selected JSONPath>// stands for the value at the path itself.|
<sup>*</sup> Setting can be specified using a [[:parameters|parameter]].

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====Advanced options====
^ Setting  ^ Description  ^
|Encoding|ASCII, ANSI (with code page), and other types of encoding. If you're not sure what to choose, try UTF-8 as it's the\\ most common Unicode encoding.|
|Parsing mode|Select how nested JSON objects and arrays are turned into rows and columns.  Options:  //Dense//, //Sparse// (see "Parsing modes" below).|

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===Parsing modes===
^Mode ^Description ^
|Dense|Default option. Properties of nested objects are placed in the same row as their parent's properties, and a new row is created only for each array item. See Example #1 below.|
|Sparse|Each nested object gets its own row, and an empty column is added for each array, so the result has more rows and more empty cells.|

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=====Examples=====
====Example #1====

> Import a JSON file with nested objects and arrays.

**Source file:**
<code json>
[
  {
    "order": 1001,
    "customer": { "name": "Anna", "city": "Oslo" },
    "items": [
      { "sku": "A1", "qty": 2 },
      { "sku": "B2", "qty": 1 }
    ]
  },
  {
    "order": 1002,
    "customer": { "name": "Ben", "city": "Rome" },
    "items": [
      { "sku": "C3", "qty": 5 }
    ]
  }
]
</code>

**Action settings:**
> JSONPath is <Root>
> Column names is "Property name"
> All properties are imported
> Parsing mode is "Dense"

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**Result:**
^order  ^name  ^city  ^sku  ^qty  ^
|1001  |Anna  |Oslo  |A1  |2  |
|1001  |Anna  |Oslo  |B2  |1  |
|1002  |Ben  |Rome  |C3  |5  |

The properties of the nested //customer// object are placed in the same row as the order number. A new row is created for each item, and the order and customer values are repeated in it.

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=====Remarks=====
This action can import multiple files.  See [[import:fileimportmodes|Importing Multiple Files]] for more information.\\

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=====See also=====

  * [[transformations:importxml|Import XML]]
  * [[transformations:importplaintext|Import plain text]]
  * [[transformations:constructjson|Construct JSON]]
  * [[transformations:parsejson|Parse JSON]]