# Struggling with string, arrays and JSONobjects

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/struggling-with-string-arrays-and-jsonobjects/54879>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [8 December 2021 14:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/struggling-with-string-arrays-and-jsonobjects/54879 "2021-12-08T14:13:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Melliott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Melliott](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Melliott)\
**Post date:** [8 December 2021 14:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/struggling-with-string-arrays-and-jsonobjects/54879/1 "2021-12-08T14:13:00Z")

</div>

I've been trying to set up a flow to look at a certain website, extract a value and then return a colour based on what was on the website. That bit is all fine, but it's the next step where I need to then display this info on a webpage to be viewed by another program.

At the moment the colour it is returning is blue. I need this to be displayed on the webpage in the format:  
[blue]

Currently I can either get it to be displayed as:

blue

or

["blue"]

but never [blue]. In some instances it would need to be multiple colours as well in the format [blue , white], depending on the info from the website.

I've got my flow below - I'm pretty sure the issues are in the last few sections, but not sure where.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

```auto
[{"id":"27f0628ce2b73c52","type":"tab","label":"Flow 1","disabled":false,"info":""},{"id":"eaf43c07ec9fb718","type":"http in","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"mybin","url":"/mybin","method":"get","upload":false,"swaggerDoc":"","x":70,"y":420,"wires":[["b6ac3483fd5bae4e"]]},{"id":"b6ac3483fd5bae4e","type":"function","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"getFromGlobal","func":"//var newMsg = RED.util.cloneMessage(msg);\n//msg.payload = JSON.stringify(global.get('bincolour')).replace(\"/\\\"/g\", \"\");\nlet data = global.get(\"bincolour\")\nlet colours = []\n\n// get colours for first week \ndata[0].bins.forEach(bin => colours.push(bin.colour) )\n\n//msg.payload = colours //or \nmsg.payload = colours.join()\n\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":260,"y":420,"wires":[["fa8ae225fda725b5","9f07250485108c9c"]]},{"id":"d36ea6de71435558","type":"http response","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"success","statusCode":"200","headers":{},"x":860,"y":440,"wires":[]},{"id":"23961d5cc99df3a1","type":"debug","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"payload","targetType":"msg","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":890,"y":220,"wires":[]},{"id":"1b2d275075858684","type":"function","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"add bin Colors","func":"let weeks = msg.payload.collectionWeeks;\n\n\nweeks.forEach(week => {\n week.bins.forEach(bin => {\n if (bin.type === \"General\") { bin.colour = \"white\" }\n if (bin.type === \"Food\") { bin.colour = \"blue\" }\n if (bin.type === \"Garden\") { bin.colour = \"green\" }\n })\n});\n\nmsg.payload = weeks;\n\n\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":680,"y":280,"wires":[["23961d5cc99df3a1","f15cba3869782ec2"]]},{"id":"26c7883944b69ecb","type":"inject","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"","props":[{"p":"payload"}],"repeat":"86400","crontab":"","once":true,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","payloadType":"date","x":110,"y":60,"wires":[["eceb1bf3ac43475d"]]},{"id":"9163284842d130e8","type":"http request","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"auth req","method":"POST","ret":"txt","paytoqs":"body","url":"https://authwebservice.cardiff.gov.uk/AuthenticationWebService.asmx?op=GetJW","tls":"","persist":true,"proxy":"","authType":"","x":320,"y":140,"wires":[["7ca2248be14e34e7"]]},{"id":"eceb1bf3ac43475d","type":"function","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"","func":"msg.headers = {\n \"Content-Length\": \"284\",\n \"Accept-Encoding\": \"gzip, deflate, br\",\n \"Referer\": \"https://www.cardiff.gov.uk/\",\n \"Origin\": \"https://www.cardiff.gov.uk\",\n \"Content-Type\": `text/xml; charset=\"utf-8\"`,\n \"Sec-Fetch-Dest\": \"empty\",\n \"Sec-Fetch-Mode\": \"no-cors\",\n \"Sec-Fetch-Site\": \"same-site\",\n \"Pragma\": \"no-cache\",\n \"Cache-Control\": \"no-cache\"\n}\n\nmsg.payload = `<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?><soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'><soap:Body><GetJWT xmlns='http://tempuri.org/' /></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>`\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":180,"y":140,"wires":[["9163284842d130e8"]]},{"id":"7ca2248be14e34e7","type":"xml","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"","property":"payload","attr":"","chr":"","x":450,"y":140,"wires":[["065ddccc88de3dbd"]]},{"id":"065ddccc88de3dbd","type":"function","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"","func":"let access_token = JSON.parse(msg.payload[\"soap:Envelope\"][\"soap:Body\"][0].GetJWTResponse[0].GetJWTResult).access_token\n\nmsg.payload = {\n \"systemReference\": \"web\",\n \"language\": \"eng\",\n \"uprn\": 10094241834 // code for address ?? you need to find it from browser\n}\n\nmsg.headers = {\n \"Authorization\": `Bearer ${access_token}`\n}\n\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":180,"y":220,"wires":[["f5b04ea719012ec8"]]},{"id":"f5b04ea719012ec8","type":"http request","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"WasteCollection req","method":"POST","ret":"obj","paytoqs":"body","url":"https://api.cardiff.gov.uk/WasteManagement/api/WasteCollection","tls":"","persist":false,"proxy":"","authType":"","x":360,"y":220,"wires":[["1b2d275075858684","83c64eed6c4b6c2d"]]},{"id":"83c64eed6c4b6c2d","type":"debug","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"","active":false,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"false","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":840,"y":100,"wires":[]},{"id":"f15cba3869782ec2","type":"function","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"SaveToGlobal","func":"global.set('bincolour', msg.payload);\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":880,"y":360,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"9f07250485108c9c","type":"template","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"DisplayOnPage","field":"payload","fieldType":"msg","format":"handlebars","syntax":"mustache","template":"{{payload}}","output":"str","x":640,"y":440,"wires":[["d36ea6de71435558","41639f5de536fadd"]]},{"id":"41639f5de536fadd","type":"debug","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"payload","targetType":"msg","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":890,"y":520,"wires":[]},{"id":"fa8ae225fda725b5","type":"debug","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"false","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":710,"y":580,"wires":[]},{"id":"178904c8a0b3fdc4","type":"json","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"","property":"payload","action":"","pretty":false,"x":470,"y":400,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"42184694c94cc7c4","type":"function","z":"27f0628ce2b73c52","name":"getFromGlobal","func":"//var newMsg = RED.util.cloneMessage(msg);\n//msg.payload = JSON.stringify(global.get('bincolour')).replace(\"/\\\"/g\", \"\");\nmsg.payload = global.get(\"bincolour\")\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":240,"y":520,"wires":[[]]}]

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![E1cid](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/e1cid/32/77971_2.png) [@E1cid](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/E1cid)\
**Post date:** [8 December 2021 14:22 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/struggling-with-string-arrays-and-jsonobjects/54879/2 "2021-12-08T14:22:26Z")

</div>

Have you tried

```auto
[{{payload}}]

```

in the template?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Melliott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Melliott](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Melliott)\
**Post date:** [8 December 2021 14:37 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/struggling-with-string-arrays-and-jsonobjects/54879/3 "2021-12-08T14:37:47Z")

</div>

You've gone right to the top of my list of favourite humans. And I've gone right to the bottom of my own list for getting so hung up on such an easy solution for so long!

Cheers!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [22 December 2021 14:38 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/struggling-with-string-arrays-and-jsonobjects/54879/4 "2021-12-22T14:38:45Z")

</div>

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