How to convert an item to List ?

Question

Hello, 
 I'm working with ARAS for few years now. I'm sending AML queries and receiving ITEMS back. Every case requires a new method of deciphering the data using getProperty or getPropertyItem calls. 
 
 Is there any way to convert any item to array or list? 
 
 Regards 
 OCohen

Christopher Gillis · Answer

Hello,

With the introduction of the RESTful API in 11.0 SP12, you can now get data from Innovator in a JSON format. This JSON can be easily serialized into an object in JavaScript by using the standard JSON.parse() function or in C# by using Newtonsoft's Json.NET library. I think this is the easiest way to handle the data since you can look up properties using code like item.id or item.item_number. However, this does require a bit of a learning curve and might require more significant changes than it's worth.

As a simpler alternative, I think you'd be better suited using a data structure that has a Key-Value pair like a Dictionary as opposed to an array or a list. This will make it easier to both create and look up the data. You can see an example of how to build a Dictionary like this in the sample code below.

// We'll assume a single item has been stored in a variable called myItem

Dictionary<string, string> neutralDict = new Dictionary<string, string>();

// Get the raw XML of the item object and loop through it to get the property names and values

var nd = myItem.node;

foreach (XmlNode child in nd.ChildNodes)

{

neutralDict.Add(child.LocalName, child.InnerText);

}

// We can now easily retrieve our data

string itemConfigId = neutralDict["config_id"];

string itemCreatedOn = neutralDict["created_on"];

This sample code is just intended to show the general idea of mapping an Aras Item into a Dictionary, so it's not intended to handle cases like relationships or item properties.

Chris

How to convert an item to List ?

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