Tell Ansible to iterate through a (network camera) configuration json file and update every value via a new api call

Question

I've got a .json file filled with hundreds of configuration values for an Axis network camera. The contents look like this:

          {
              "Name": "HTTPS.Port",
              "Value": "443"
          },
          {
              "Name": "Image.DateFormat",
              "Value": "YYYY-MM-DD"
          },
          {
              "Name": "Image.MaxViewers",
              "Value": "20"
          },

The Axis API, called Vapix, only provides an update function that updates a single value, so I have to circle through the values and trigger a new API call with every iteration:

    name: update parameters
  local_action:
    module: uri 
    user: x
    password: y
    url: "{{ axis_snmp_role.server_url }}?action=update&{{ item }}"
  with_items:
    - "SNMP.V2c=yes"
    - "SNMP.Enabled=yes"
    - "ImageSource.I0.Sensor.ExposureValue=100"

Now the above example requires me to hardcode hundreds of config values into the loop. Is there a way to tell Ansible to go through the camera configuration json, update every value via a new api call and stop when there are no more values left within the json file?

Vladimir Botka · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-11T05:36:04.027

Given the configuration's values is a list. For example

shell> cat data.yml 
config: [
  {"Name": "HTTPS.Port", "Value": "443"},
  {"Name": "Image.DateFormat", "Value": "YYYY-MM-DD"},
  {"Name": "Image.MaxViewers", "Value": "20"}]

The play

- hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - include_vars:
        file: data.json
    - debug:
        msg: "?action=update&{{ item.Name }}={{ item.Value }}"
      loop: "{{ config }}"

gives

ok: [localhost] => (item={u'Name': u'HTTPS.Port', u'Value': u'443'}) => {
    "msg": "?action=update&HTTPS.Port=443"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={u'Name': u'Image.DateFormat', u'Value': u'YYYY-MM-DD'}) => {
    "msg": "?action=update&Image.DateFormat=YYYY-MM-DD"
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={u'Name': u'Image.MaxViewers', u'Value': u'20'}) => {
    "msg": "?action=update&Image.MaxViewers=20"
}

If this is what you want loop the uri module. For example

- local_action:
  module: uri 
    user: x
    password: y
    url: "{{ axis_snmp_role.server_url }}?action=update&{{ item.Name }}={{ item.Value }}"
  loop: "{{ config }}"

Tell Ansible to iterate through a (network camera) configuration json file and update every value via a new api call

1 Answers1