Search API Response Behavior Changed Over Past Week

[donnytheguy]

Hello Cisco Team,

I've been using the Search API over the past few months in order to check the number of repeat callers over a specified time period. Initially in the flow designer, we had an HTTP request which would save the "Total Calls" for a customer ANI as a string, and then we used a set variable block in flow designer in order to convert that string into an Integer so we could compare that value with other integers. 

Initially that set variable block would get rid of surrounding characters such as "List:(30)" for example and simply return only 30. I've noticed in the last week however the Cisco Search API now returns "[30]" instead of something like "List:(30)".

Was there a change to the API response or is something bugging on my end. There was a Cisco video documenting how to use the replace function to remove the surrounding characters "List" and etc from the Search API response. It doesn't seem to respond this way anymore however.

Best Regards,

Donny Miller

[Arunabh Bhattacharjee · Accepted solution]

Hi Donny

It seems like this changed as there is JSON support from within Flow Designer now – so it will natively be able to support complex data types.

https://help.webex.com/en-us/article/a1gx3h/What's-New-in-Webex-Contact-Center
01 December 2022

Support JSON object as a variable type in flow control

Flow developers can create custom variables of type JSON and use these variables in various activities such as HTTP Request, Parse and Set Variable. For example, in HTTP Request and Parse activities, you can extract data using JSON path filter expression and store it in JSON variable.

For more information, see Create Custom Variables in Flow Designer<>.


If you have a Support case open it is highly likely that the recommendation would be to use the newer format, and include the JSON object directly instead of the Stringified version and other workarounds. Essentially the previous version, including the videos were to workaround the limitations of the parser which are now resolved.