Unable to gather JSON id from an Ansible playbook - ansible

Question

I'm facing a problem when trying to get the id of one group in Ansible tower using a playbook and inside the playbook I am using the tower-cli command.
The problem is that when I get the output of this tower-cli command:
tower-cli group list -i {{ inventory_id }} --name {{ get_specific_group_hosts }} -f json -a
I register this in one variable group_id and then I tried to get the id from the output which is a JSON.
{
"stderr_lines": [
"/var/lib/awx/venv/ansible_ibm/lib/python2.7/site-packages/OpenSSL/crypto.py:12: CryptographyDeprecationWarning: Python 2 is no longer supported by the Python core team. Support for it is now deprecated in cryptography, and will be removed in the next release.",
" from cryptography import x509"
],
"changed": true,
"end": "2022-01-28 15:54:34.901091",
"_ansible_no_log": false,
"_ansible_delegated_vars": {},
"cmd": "tower-cli group list -i 1283 --name grp_infrastructure -f json -a",
"stdout": "{\n \"count\": 1, \n \"next\": null, \n \"previous\": null, \n \"results\": [\n {\n \"id\": 6707, \n \"type\": \"group\", \n \"url\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/\", \n \"related\": {\n \"created_by\": \"/api/v2/users/1338/\", \n \"modified_by\": \"/api/v2/users/1338/\", \n \"variable_data\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/variable_data/\", \n \"hosts\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/hosts/\", \n \"potential_children\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/potential_children/\", \n \"children\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/children/\", \n \"all_hosts\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/all_hosts/\", \n \"job_events\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/job_events/\", \n \"job_host_summaries\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/job_host_summaries/\", \n \"activity_stream\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/activity_stream/\", \n \"inventory_sources\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/inventory_sources/\", \n \"ad_hoc_commands\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/ad_hoc_commands/\", \n \"inventory\": \"/api/v2/inventories/1283/\"\n }, \n \"summary_fields\": {\n \"inventory\": {\n \"id\": 1283, \n \"name\": \"inventory\", \n \"description\": \"inventory\", \n \"has_active_failures\": true, \n \"total_hosts\": 562, \n \"hosts_with_active_failures\": 68, \n \"total_groups\": 30, \n \"has_inventory_sources\": false, \n \"total_inventory_sources\": 0, \n \"inventory_sources_with_failures\": 0, \n \"organization_id\": 142, \n \"kind\": \"\"\n }, \n \"created_by\": {\n \"id\": 1338, \n \"username\": \"\", \n \"first_name\": \"\", \n \"last_name\": \"\"\n }, \n \"modified_by\": {\n \"id\": 1338, \n \"username\": \"\", \n \"first_name\": \"\", \n \"last_name\": \"\"\n }, \n \"user_capabilities\": {\n \"edit\": true, \n \"delete\": true, \n \"copy\": true\n }\n }, \n \"created\": \"2020-09-17T10:47:16.910421Z\", \n \"modified\": \"2020-09-17T10:47:16.910437Z\", \n \"name\": \"grp_infrastructure\", \n \"description\": \"\", \n \"inventory\": 1283, \n \"variables\": \"\"\n }\n ]\n}",
"start": "2022-01-28 15:54:34.289617",
"delta": "0:00:00.611474",
"stderr": "/var/lib/awx/venv/ansible_ibm/lib/python2.7/site-packages/OpenSSL/crypto.py:12: CryptographyDeprecationWarning: Python 2 is no longer supported by the Python core team. Support for it is now deprecated in cryptography, and will be removed in the next release.\n from cryptography import x509",
"rc": 0,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"warn": true,
"executable": null,
"_uses_shell": true,
"strip_empty_ends": true,
"_raw_params": "tower-cli group list -i 1283 --name grp_infrastructure -f json -a",
"removes": null,
"argv": null,
"creates": null,
"chdir": null,
"stdin_add_newline": true,
"stdin": null
}
},
"stdout_lines": [
"{",
" \"count\": 1, ",
" \"next\": null, ",
" \"previous\": null, ",
" \"results\": [",
" {",
" \"id\": 6707, ",
" \"type\": \"group\", ",
" \"url\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/\", ",
" \"related\": {",
" \"created_by\": \"/api/v2/users/1338/\", ",
" \"modified_by\": \"/api/v2/users/1338/\", ",
" \"variable_data\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/variable_data/\", ",
" \"hosts\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/hosts/\", ",
" \"potential_children\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/potential_children/\", ",
" \"children\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/children/\", ",
" \"all_hosts\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/all_hosts/\", ",
" \"job_events\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/job_events/\", ",
" \"job_host_summaries\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/job_host_summaries/\", ",
" \"activity_stream\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/activity_stream/\", ",
" \"inventory_sources\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/inventory_sources/\", ",
" \"ad_hoc_commands\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/ad_hoc_commands/\", ",
" \"inventory\": \"/api/v2/inventories/1283/\"",
" }, ",
" \"summary_fields\": {",
" \"inventory\": {",
" \"id\": 1283, ",
" \"name\": \"inventory\", ",
" \"description\": \"inventory\", ",
" \"has_active_failures\": true, ",
" \"total_hosts\": 562, ",
" \"hosts_with_active_failures\": 68, ",
" \"total_groups\": 30, ",
" \"has_inventory_sources\": false, ",
" \"total_inventory_sources\": 0, ",
" \"inventory_sources_with_failures\": 0, ",
" \"organization_id\": 142, ",
" \"kind\": \"\"",
" }, ",
" \"created_by\": {",
" \"id\": 1338, ",
" \"username\": \"\", ",
" \"first_name\": \"\", ",
" \"last_name\": \"\"",
" }, ",
" \"modified_by\": {",
" \"id\": 1338, ",
" \"username\": \"\", ",
" \"first_name\": \"\", ",
" \"last_name\": \"\"",
" }, ",
" \"user_capabilities\": {",
" \"edit\": true, ",
" \"delete\": true, ",
" \"copy\": true",
" }",
" }, ",
" \"created\": \"2020-09-17T10:47:16.910421Z\", ",
" \"modified\": \"2020-09-17T10:47:16.910437Z\", ",
" \"name\": \"grp_infrastructure\", ",
" \"description\": \"\", ",
" \"inventory\": 1283, ",
" \"variables\": \"\"",
" }",
" ]",
"}"
]
}
So when I used different types of JSON strings and methods nothing worked, sometimes I get an error and other times I get an empty string like when I tried this:
- name: "get the json list"
debug:
msg: "{{ group_id | json_query('stdout.results.id') }}"
The output is like this`:
TASK [get the json list] *****************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": ""
}

Answer 1

This is because group_id.stdout is a string representing a JSON, not a JSON.
You will have to pass it through the from_json filter.
Also, you don't need a JMESPath expression and a json_query for such a simple requirement, you can use map for this.
So, your task should end up being
- debug:
var: (group_id.stdout | from_json).results | map(attribute='id')
Given the playbook:
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- debug:
var: (group_id.stdout | from_json).results | map(attribute='id')
vars:
group_id:
stdout: "{\n \"count\": 1, \n \"next\": null, \n \"previous\": null, \n \"results\": [\n {\n \"id\": 6707, \n \"type\": \"group\", \n \"url\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/\", \n \"related\": {\n \"created_by\": \"/api/v2/users/1338/\", \n \"modified_by\": \"/api/v2/users/1338/\", \n \"variable_data\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/variable_data/\", \n \"hosts\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/hosts/\", \n \"potential_children\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/potential_children/\", \n \"children\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/children/\", \n \"all_hosts\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/all_hosts/\", \n \"job_events\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/job_events/\", \n \"job_host_summaries\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/job_host_summaries/\", \n \"activity_stream\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/activity_stream/\", \n \"inventory_sources\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/inventory_sources/\", \n \"ad_hoc_commands\": \"/api/v2/groups/6707/ad_hoc_commands/\", \n \"inventory\": \"/api/v2/inventories/1283/\"\n }, \n \"summary_fields\": {\n \"inventory\": {\n \"id\": 1283, \n \"name\": \"inventory\", \n \"description\": \"inventory\", \n \"has_active_failures\": true, \n \"total_hosts\": 562, \n \"hosts_with_active_failures\": 68, \n \"total_groups\": 30, \n \"has_inventory_sources\": false, \n \"total_inventory_sources\": 0, \n \"inventory_sources_with_failures\": 0, \n \"organization_id\": 142, \n \"kind\": \"\"\n }, \n \"created_by\": {\n \"id\": 1338, \n \"username\": \"\", \n \"first_name\": \"\", \n \"last_name\": \"\"\n }, \n \"modified_by\": {\n \"id\": 1338, \n \"username\": \"\", \n \"first_name\": \"\", \n \"last_name\": \"\"\n }, \n \"user_capabilities\": {\n \"edit\": true, \n \"delete\": true, \n \"copy\": true\n }\n }, \n \"created\": \"2020-09-17T10:47:16.910421Z\", \n \"modified\": \"2020-09-17T10:47:16.910437Z\", \n \"name\": \"grp_infrastructure\", \n \"description\": \"\", \n \"inventory\": 1283, \n \"variables\": \"\"\n }\n ]\n}"
This yields:
TASK [debug] *************************************************************
ok: [localhost] =>
(group_id.stdout | from_json).results | map(attribute='id'):
- 6707