Solved: CLI Template Configuration - filtering templates by tags unreliable?

carl.simpson2 · ‎10-03-2016

Hi,

Is anyone else using the CLI Template Configuration API end point to get template IDs based on tag?

The behaviour seems to be inconsistent for me. I've got a bunch of templates with the tag ZEN and as shown below, doing a query with tags=ZEN I get back a list of template IDs:

curl -u carls-username https://myprimeserver.example.com/webacs/api/v2/data/CliTemplate?tags=ZEN

Enter host password for user 'carls-username':

<?xml version="1.0" ?>

</queryResponse>

If I select the last template ID above for a closer look you can see that I've also added an additional tag of CARLSTAG so it has both ZEN and CARLSTAG:

$ curl -u carls-username https://myprimeserver.example.com/webacs/api/v2/data/CliTemplate/16716703

Enter host password for user 'carls-username':

<?xml version="1.0" ?>

<author>the.author</author>

<content>### Content removed as it's not relevant</content>

<description>Example Template Commands</description>

<deviceType>Routers</deviceType>

<name>ZEN-TEMPLATE-HELP</name>

<path>My Templates/Provisioning Templates</path>

<tags>CARLSTAG,ZEN</tags>

<description>Downstream BW in bps</description>

<displayLabel>bpsDown</displayLabel>

<name>bpsDown</name>

<required>false</required>

<type>String</type>

</variable>

</variables>

</cliTemplateDTO>

</entity>

</queryResponse>

If I query for CARLSTAG specifically I get a response count of 0.

$ curl -u carls-username https://myprimeserver.example.com/webacs/api/v2/data/CliTemplate?tags=CARLSTAG

Enter host password for user 'carls-username':

<?xml version="1.0" ?>

Can anyone explain this behaviour, am I missing something?

Carl

Spencer Zier · ‎10-03-2016

The tags response parameter is of the type String. So when you filter with tags=CARLSTAG this is called literal filtering. So the API will look for templates where the tag field is, and only is, "CARLSTAG". In other words, this filters to those templates that exclusively have that tag.

Since you're trying to find templates that have the tag, but could have other tags, use the contains() expression. For example, tags=contains("CARLSTAG") will filter to all templates that have CARLSTAG, even if they have other tags.

https://developer.cisco.com/site/prime-infrastructure/

View solution in original post

Spencer Zier · ‎10-03-2016

The tags response parameter is of the type String. So when you filter with tags=CARLSTAG this is called literal filtering. So the API will look for templates where the tag field is, and only is, "CARLSTAG". In other words, this filters to those templates that exclusively have that tag.

Since you're trying to find templates that have the tag, but could have other tags, use the contains() expression. For example, tags=contains("CARLSTAG") will filter to all templates that have CARLSTAG, even if they have other tags.

https://developer.cisco.com/site/prime-infrastructure/

carl.simpson2 · ‎10-05-2016

Hi Spencer,

Thanks, makes sense. It's a shame matching a full tag name isn't possible, to avoid having to worry about a short tag being a sub-string of a longer tag name.

Cheers,

Carl