Ruby

The Ruby action runs a piece of Ruby code that you write, as one step of your process. Use it for data manipulation, JSON and XML parsing, templating, statistics or any custom logic that no ready-made action covers. The value your code returns becomes an output you can use in the next steps.

Add the action

In the Process Designer toolbox, open Scripting and pick Ruby (or type Ruby in the search box).

Inputs and outputs

How your code is run

Your code runs as the body of a function:

• return <value> sends the value to Single Result, or to List Result when the value is an array. Only one of the two is filled. As in any Ruby method, the value of the last line is also returned, so 1 + 2 on its own gives 3.
• puts does not set a result; it writes to Stdout.

Examples

Fill a text template (Liquid)

require "liquid"

tpl = Liquid::Template.parse("Hello, {{ user }}! You have {{ count }} new messages.")
return tpl.render("user" => "Ana", "count" => 3)

Single Result: Hello, Ana! You have 3 new messages.

Read and total JSON values (JSONPath)

require "json"
require "jsonpath"

doc = JSON.parse('{"store":{"book":[{"price":8.95},{"price":12.99},{"price":5.50}]}}')
prices = JsonPath.new("$..book[*].price").on(doc)

return { count: prices.size, min: prices.min, max: prices.max, sum: prices.sum }

Single Result: {"count": 3, "min": 5.5, "max": 12.99, "sum": 27.44}

Parse XML (Nokogiri)

require "nokogiri"

doc = Nokogiri::XML("<root><x>1</x><x>2</x></root>")
return doc.xpath("//x").map(&:text)

List Result: ["1", "2"]

Convert HTML to Markdown

require "reverse_markdown"

return ReverseMarkdown.convert("<h1>Title</h1><p>Hello <strong>world</strong></p>")

Single Result: # Title followed by Hello **world**.

Statistics

require "descriptive_statistics"

arr = [1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21]
return({ mean: arr.mean, median: arr.median })

Single Result: {"mean": 6.875, "median": 4}

Sign and read a JWT

require "jwt"

token = JWT.encode({ user: "ana" }, "my-secret", "HS256")
decoded = JWT.decode(token, "my-secret", true, { algorithm: "HS256" })
return decoded.first

Single Result: {"user": "ana"}

Find duplicates

arr = ["a", "b", "a", "c", "b"]
return { unique: arr.uniq, duplicates: arr.tally.select { |k, v| v > 1 }.keys }

Single Result: {"unique": ["a", "b", "c"], "duplicates": ["a", "b"]}

Use process variables in the code

You can insert process variables into the code. Before the code runs, PROCESIO replaces each variable with its value, as plain text. So:

• a number variable can be used as it is: total = <your number variable> * 2;
• a text variable needs quotes around it in your code: name = "<your text variable>".

Good to know

• A failing script does not stop the process. When your code raises an error or runs longer than Timeout, the step still finishes: Error holds the message and both results are empty. Add a Decisional after the action that checks whether Error is empty.
• The code runs in a sandbox: it cannot read files from the machine, and the sandbox can block calls to the internet. To call a web API, use Call API or CURL and pass the response to the script.
• Files: a script cannot take a file directly. Convert the file to text with File To Base64 and pass the text to the script. To create a file from a script, return Base64 text and convert it with Base64 To File.

Available gems

Besides the Ruby standard library (for example json, date, time), you can require these gems:

Related actions

• Python, Node, Javascript, CURL