Webhooks JSON seems invalid

Troubleshooting
1

Here is my webhook definition:

{
    "event": "checkin",
    "url": "http://myserveraddress/checkin",
    "requestType": "POST",
        "headers": {
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
        },

    "json": {
        "vbat" : "{{vbat}}",
        "soc" : "{{soc}}",
        "deviceid" : "{{SPARK_CORE_ID}}",
        "published" : "{{SPARK_PUBLISHED_AT}}",
        "event" : "{{SPARK_EVENT_NAME}}"
    },
    "noDefaults": true,
    "mydevices": true
}

In my firmware, i publish like this:

Particle.publish("checkin", "{\"vbat\":" + String(fuel.getVCell()) + ", \"soc\":" + String(fuel.getSoC()) +"}",60, PRIVATE);`

I am using nodejs and when it reaches my server, the req.body looks like this:

{ vbat: '3.945',
  soc: '87.78125',
  deviceid: 'mydeviceid',
  published: '2016-03-01T15:57:50.268Z',
  event: 'checkin' }

This does not parse and JSONLint says it is invalid (due to the lack of quotations). I am sure I ak just missing something. Any help is appreciated :smile:

2

interstingly, when I publish the webhook, it gives me the incorrect json format in the message:

Sending webhook request { uri: ‘/v1/webhooks’,
method: ‘POST’,
json:
{ event: ‘checkin’,
url: ‘http://myserver/checkin’,
deviceid: undefined,
requestType: ‘POST’,
mydevices: true,
headers: { ‘Content-Type’: ‘application/json’ },
json:
{ vbat: ‘{{vbat}}’,
soc: ‘{{soc}}’,
deviceid: ‘{{SPARK_CORE_ID}}’,
published: ‘{{SPARK_PUBLISHED_AT}}’ },
noDefaults: true },
headers: { Authorization: ‘Bearer xxxxxxx’ } }

3

I don’t have an answer to your actual problem, but as for the invalidity of the JSON: yes, it’s technically invalid. But every JSON parser should be able to handle it, because it’s a very commonly used variation.

Strictly following the spec, strings should be indicated by double quotes, not single quotes. And in an object definition, the key is a string, so therefore it should be double-quoted.

However, using single quotes is widely done. And eliminating the quotes on the keys in the object when the key consists only of alphanumeric characters is also widely done.

4

Thanks. It appears that it is parsing correctly. Because I was logging the json to the console and running it through JSONLint, I assumed it was invalid (well I guess technically it is), I was heading down the road of correcting it. After reading what you posted, I started writing the json to a file and of course it is working. Thanks for the response!