Ansible uri POST with body containing as key value JSON - ansible

Question

I have a config_file with values in the format: key-value pair
e.g. a: "{\"type\": \"some_type\"}"
Everything is ok. Util I tried to pass this JSON value as value inside uri utility:
- name: 'Push config values'
uri:
url: '{{ uri }}/api/{{ item.key }}'
method: POST
body: '{"alias":"{{ item.key }}","key":"{{ item.key }}","value":"{{ item.value }}"}'
body_format: json
validate_certs: no
status_code: 204
headers:
X-Token: "{{ token }}"
with_dict: '{{ config_overrides_file }}'
register: response
I tried different way of escaping, also filter combination | from_json | to_json. But nothing is working. I got 'failed to parse JSON input: invalid character ''t'' after object key:value pair' in case of escaping
Probably, exist some standard approach to handle it?
I found just one way to achieve what I want: instead of a: "{\"type\": \"some_type\"}" this value in config file it could be a: {"type": "some_type"} and in uri it will be body: {"alias":"{{ item.key }}","key":"{{ item.key }}", "value": {{ item.value | to_json }}}. It's working approach but I would like not create additional task for json and non-json properties for such type of request.
P.S. When I hardcode this value everything is ok

Answer 1

You're getting bitten by ansible's "helpful" behavior of coercing any string it finds that starts with { back into a dict; the usual fix for that is to send it explicitly through |string to indicate to ansible you do not wish for that to happen. For sure any loop-ish behavior on a task (with_dict: being one of them) makes that problem much worse, because ansible gets really, really weird about coercion and recursive jinja2 templates in that circumstance
- name: test data for SO
set_fact:
config_values_file:
a: '{"type": "some_type"}'
- name: 'Push config values'
uri:
url: '{{ uri }}/api/{{ item.key }}'
method: POST
body: >-
{{ {"alias": item.key,
"key": item.key,
"value": item.value|string
} }}
body_format: json
validate_certs: no
status_code: 204
headers:
X-Token: "{{ token }}"
with_dict: '{{ config_overrides_file }}'
register: response
POSTs:
{"alias": "a", "key": "a", "value": "{\"type\": \"some_type\"}"} which I believe is what you were asking for