topic RE: Utility HTTP in Product Forum

Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 07:32:00 GMT

Hi, With current version of Utility HTTP, we get response body. Is there a reusable VBO in BP to return back response headers and response code as well along with body?

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 12:21:00 GMT

Hi @Mayank Goyal,

The version of the HTTP VBO I have includes the response headers in the output of the actions. What version of Blue Prism are you running?

Cheers,

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 03:51:00 GMT

@ewilson - Kindly share the link for the same. Might be possible I have older version of VBO. Does that include response code as well?
Also I have seen when API end point is not reachable from blue prism, it gives some code stage error of object not referenced, ideally there should be a more specific errors from VBO code code stage for various exception scenarios possible when calling an API. Can you ask someone from your engineering team to work a bit on it and have a new version of it released on DX portal that we can download.

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 15:59:00 GMT

The current VBO is available on the DX. It does not include a separate output parameter for the HTTP response code, but we can look at getting that added.

We'll look into the exception messaging.

Cheers,

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 21:02:00 GMT

@Mayank Goyal,

I just uploaded v3 of the HTTP utility VBO. It now includes an output parameter called "Status Code" that contains the numeric HTTP status code associated with a request.

Cheers,

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 21:54:00 GMT

@ewilson - Thanks a lot for your quick response as always, very helpful. I will try this. Meanwhile want to check if you were able to handle the exception in a better way when API end point is not reachable from BP machine so that we get a more specific message. Its very tough to understand the issue from code stage when it gives general object related error message

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 22:15:00 GMT

@Mayank Goyal we still need to review the exception handling. I just implemented the status code as it was a quick change over lunch. 😁

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 22:34:00 GMT

@ewilson - lot of times we face issues when API works smooth and quick with postman passing simple headers and body. However when we call it from blue prism http we get errors. The exact cause of error will help a lot applying fix accordingly.

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 23:19:00 GMT

@ewilson - We are facing similar issue with one API - https://community.blueprism.com/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=97&MessageKey=c063f3cb-79a1-4563-a789-df844da37c17&CommunityKey=3b501789-976c-4cfa-b9db-88307c6a0a86&tab=digestviewer&ReturnUrl=%2Fcommunities%2Fcommunity-home%2Fdigestviewer%3FCommunityKey%3D3b501789-976c-4cfa-b9db-88307c6a0a86

It works from postman because I can change the settings quickly on postman UI, however not sure how to make this work in code stage of BP HTTP VBO?

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 14:27:00 GMT

@Mayank Goyal - Just uploaded v3.1 of the VBO. This has improved exception messaging. If an exception is encountered when trying to reach a site you should receive the actual exception message and associated HTTP status code (ex. 404) depending on what caused the exception. Previously, the object error you were seeing was due to the way the code was assuming that a WebResponse object would be included in the WebException object. That's not always the case.

Cheers,

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 15:48:00 GMT

@ewilson - Thanks a lot for all your help as always, appreciate it. Can we have one flag data item and a code block in this VBO to handle SSL error as well - https://www.codeproject.com/Tips/321313/Bypass-and-Restore-SSL-Certificate-Validation-in-V
or if you know a better way to avoid SSL error.

In postman there is a direct option on UI - Enable SSL certificate verification which we can make it Yes/No
I want to have similar option in BP utility.

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 16:00:00 GMT

@Mayank Goyal check out this VBO on the DX.

Cheers,

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 18:45:00 GMT

@ewilson - I imported 3.1 vbo, however it has one error in code stage, please help to fix the same.

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 19:42:00 GMT

@Mayank Goyal what error are you seeing?

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 21:45:00 GMT

@ewilson - Please see the below error -

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 21:57:00 GMT

@Mayank Goyal - Hmm, I don't get that error. What version of BP did you say you're running?

Cheers,

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 22:17:00 GMT

I am using BP version 6.4 however i dont know how that will impact it because this is purely code based vbo?

kindly help with a fix.

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 22:44:00 GMT

@Mayank Goyal - It can make a difference as there are occasional changes within Blue Prism that can impact the JIT compilation of code. With that said, the IsNothing() error you're seeing makes no sense as that's a standard method within VB.NET.

However, there is an alternative (and possibly better) approach. You can change that line of code from this:
If Not IsNothing(headers) Then

to this

If Not headers Is Nothing Then

I'll push an update with this change too.

Cheers,

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

MayankGoyal2 — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 03:55:00 GMT

@ewilson - I checked the updated version 3.2, it now has 2 errors due to vbCrLf used in both code stages. The fix is quick we have to include Microsoft.VisualBasic in namespace imports. Kindly update and upload the same so that we can have final version error free on DX portal.

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

RE: Utility HTTP

ewilson — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 12:20:00 GMT

@Mayank Goyal,

Now you've set me on a mission to find out at what point the reference to Microsoft.VisualBasic was added as an implied reference. 🤦‍♂️

v3.3 is posted with the explicit reference.

Cheers,

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------