Failing to send data from an action to the next

[LMacchi]

Hi all! Super new to Stackstorm, and after reading docs, past discussion threads and googling, I still cannot figure this out.

I have this workflow:

version: 1.0

description: Fake description

input:
  - user
  - pwd

tasks:
  http_call:
    action: core.http method=GET username="{{ ctx().user }}" url="https://redacted?output_mode=json" verify_ssl_cert=false password="{{ ctx().pwd }}"
    next:
      - when: <% succeeded() %>
        publish:
          - my_list: "{{ result().body | jsonpath_query('entry[0].content.[var1,var2]') }}"

output:
  - my_list: {{ ctx().my_list }}

That works great, and I get this result:

output:
    my_list:
    - 'value1'
    - 'value2'

Next I try to add a new step using with to iterate thru the same action:

[...]
tasks:
  http_call:
    action: core.http method=GET username="{{ ctx().user }}" url="https://redacted?output_mode=json" verify_ssl_cert=false password="{{ ctx().pwd }}"
    next:
      - when: <% succeeded() %>
        publish:
          - my_list: "{{ result().body | jsonpath_query('entry[0].content.[var1,var2]') }}"
        do:
          - validate

  validate:
    action: core.noop
    with: 
      items: <% ctx().my_list %>
    next:
      - when: <% succeeded() %>
        publish:
          - item: "<% item() %>"
    
output:
  - my_list: "{{ ctx().my_list }}"
  - item: "{{ ctx().item }}"

But the output indicates that item is empty:

    my_list:
    - 'value1'
    - 'value2'
    item: null

It's worth noting that the validation will end up being more complex than that, I just simplified to try to get the data passing correctly from action to action. I also tried both YAQL and JINJA, the snippet here has a mix of both, which I've read is not in the best practices.

Doc I followed: https://docs.stackstorm.com/orquesta/languages/orquesta.html#with-items-model

I tried the with with and without items:, not sure if that makes a difference. I might have introduced some spacing errors while pasting here, but the workflows works.

I appreciate any help, docs, examples, whatever that will allow me to get unblocked.

Thanks in advance!

Edit for versions:

• st2 3.7.0, on Python 3.6.9
• Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS x86_64
• Python 2.7.17

[LMacchi]

I think I got it for anyway following along:

Seems like the value inside of item() is available just during the command execution and not afterwards. Instead of using core.noop, I switched to core.local and did a bash validation + succeeded() and failed() controls.

My working workflow:

version: 1.0

description: Fake description

input:
  - user
  - pwd

vars:
  - factors: null
  - message: null


tasks:
  http_call:
    action: core.http method=GET username="{{ ctx().user }}" url="https://redacted?output_mode=json" verify_ssl_cert=false password="{{ ctx().pwd }}"
    next:
      - when: "{{ succeeded() }}"
        publish:
          - my_list: "{{ result().body | jsonpath_query('entry[0].[var1,var2]') }}"
        do:
          - validate

  validate:
    action: core.local
    with:
      items: "{{ ctx().my_list }}"
    input:
      cmd: "[ {{ item() }} -eq 'value' ]"
    next:
      - when: "{{ failed() }}"
        do: fail

output:
  - message: "Var1 is {{ ctx().my_list[0] == 'value' }} and Var2 is {{ ctx().my_list[1] == 'value' }}"

Hope that helps someone some day.

[nzlosh]

Well done for identifying your issue. Perhaps you can update the Orquesta documentation to make it clearer about the fact that the item() is only available in the input section and not in the next section to help people who have the same problem as you in the future?

[LMacchi]

I figured a good place to update would be in this doc: https://docs.stackstorm.com/orquesta/languages/orquesta.html#with-items-model, but I cannot locate that particular article in the st2docs repo (https://github.com/StackStorm/st2docs).