Question Re: toJSON for RAW data in Technology Q&A

toJSON for RAW data

OhMySAP33 — Wed, 31 May 2023 19:44:58 GMT

Hello,

Here is the scenario: I execute a JCo call on a function module and call the toJSON() on the output Table or Structure. All the data prints fine except for fields which are of type "RAW".

Here is an example where I am looking at the output of SWNC_GET_WORKLOAD_STATRECS and the field DISPCNT shows up as:
"DISPCNT":"AAE="

If you check the metadata, DISPCNT is of type RAW as shown in the screenshot below. The same happens for few other fields (ex: "WPID":"AAA=", "TASKTYPE":"Cw==", "LUW_INFO":"Fw==") and all of them are of type RAW. I am using JCo version 3.1.7.

Any pointers are very much appreciated!

Re: toJSON for RAW data

HAL9000 — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 11:54:29 GMT

The RAW data bytes are serialized as Base64 string.

Re: toJSON for RAW data

OhMySAP33 — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 20:55:24 GMT

Thanks stefan.gass

Any pointers on how to go about decoding it? I have tried java.util.Base64 decoder as well Apache commons without any luck.

Using Apache Commons: org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;

String encodedString = "sGwAAA==";
Base64 base64 = new Base64();
String decodedString = new String(base64.decode(encodedString.getBytes()));
System.out.println(decodedString);

The above prints output as: �l

Using the java.util.Base64 library

 String encodedString = "sGwAAA==";
 byte[] decodedBytes = Base64.getDecoder().decode(encodedString);
String decodedString = new String(decodedBytes);
System.out.println(decodedString);

Prints the output as �l

Re: toJSON for RAW data

HAL9000 — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 05:23:48 GMT

So the decoding worked and you got the raw byte[] again.
What else do you expect when printing raw bytes to the stdout stream?

Re: toJSON for RAW data

OhMySAP33 — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 16:04:24 GMT

stefan.gass - The problem is that the output (after decoding) does not match the expected String. Here is another example:
Here is a snapshot of the raw JSON output received after calling toJSON() on the MAINRECS table received from SWNC_GET_WORKLOAD_SNAPSHOT

{“MAINREC”:{“RECNO”:2,“DISPCNT”:“AAE=“,”ZTTADATE”:“2023-06-02”,“STARTDATE”:“2023-06-02”,“STARTTIME”:“14:06:41”,“STARTTIMESTAMP”:20230602180641,“ENDDATE”:“2023-06-02",“ENDTIME”:“14:06:41",“ENDTIMESTAMP”:20230602180641,“TARGETTIMEZONE”:“EST”,“RESPTI”:3213,“CPUTI”:0,“QUEUETI”:50,“WPID”:“AAA=“,”TASKTYPE”:“Cw==“,”TABLOAD”:“AA==“,”ACCOUNT”:“SAPSYS”,“MANDT”:“000”,“ROLLKEY”:“KT0AAA==“,

As you can see, ROLLKEY shows up as: KT0AAA==

If you look in SAPGUI for this data, ROLLKEY is displayed as 293D0000. Below is a screenshot.

Now when I decode KT0AAA== using either java.util.Base64 or org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64 (same java code snippet pasted in earlier comment) in both cases the output is )=

Wondering how do I get what SAP GUI shows: 293D0000

Thanks again!

Re: toJSON for RAW data

HAL9000 — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 16:18:28 GMT

Base64 string "KT0AAA==" represents the 4 bytes: 0x29 0x3D 0x00 0x00
So what is done by this ABAP transaction for the SAP GUI output, is to convert the RAW bytes into a hex string.
If you would like to achieve the same in Java, decode the Base64 string into a byte[], and afterwards convert the byte[] into a hex string.

-- Or simply call myMainrec.getString("ROLLKEY") on the respective JCoStructure object. The JCoRecord.getString() API will also do an on-the-fly conversion from RAW/BYTE type fields to hex strings.

Re: toJSON for RAW data

OhMySAP33 — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 13:52:20 GMT

I get it now and can decode it.

Thanks a lot! stefan.gass

Re: toJSON for RAW data

HAL9000 — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 14:32:32 GMT

No problem.
If your questions are answered, it would be nice, if you upvote this answer and mark it as the correct answer.
Thanks.