JSON Field Expressions in v3

[adamfisher]

In v2, we had the ability to specify JSON for the field type and in v3 this is no longer present.

v3 shows has options for field expressions listed below but none for JSON:

No matter what variation I try:

return ["00.Comms", "01.Sales"]; // JavaScript field
return JSON.stringify(["00.Comms", "01.Sales"]); // JavaScript field
return JSON.parse(["00.Comms", "01.Sales"]); // JavaScript field

I get a similar error regarding deserialization no matter what I try:

Failed to deserialize ["00.Comms","01.Sales"] to Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JArray

Here is how the field is defined in my activity:

[Input(
	DisplayName = "Sales Folder Names",
	UIHint = InputUIHints.JsonEditor
)]
public Input<JArray?> SalesFolderNames { get; set; } = default!;

Even better if I could specify a strongly-typed model object directly for the field instead of a JArray? I only did this because v2 didn't seem to let me do it.

[Nekrosis1]

Elsa variables, inputs and outputs are generally ExpandoObjects behind the scenes, so instead of passing in the array as stringified, which results in a string, you might want to try to pass in your list as
return ["00.Comms", "01.Sales"];
and use
public Input<List<string>> SalesFolderNames { get; set; } = default!;
as your input in your activity.
if you wish to pass in more complex objects, which you have a model for, you can define the input as
public Input<object> SalesFolderNames { get; set; } = default!;
or
public Input<List<object>> SalesFolderNames { get; set; } = default!;
you can then do something like

if (context.Get(SalesFolderNames)  is SalesFolderModel salesFolderModel)
{
...
}

If getting a JArray is important, you could pass it as JSON.stringify() and then use Input<string> and tryParse the string into JArray in your activity.

Not sure if I understood the problem correctly, hope this helps.

[adamfisher]

I modified the code to be Input<List<string>> and Input<List<MyCustomObject>> to match the actual types I needed and that worked! In v2 it was problematic because it wouldn't deserialize to my types and I had to settle for JArray and then convert them to the type I needed so this is a nice improvement. Hopefully as v3 roadmap progresses, the dynamic code completion and field validation will improve in Elsa Studio because that seems to be where I spend a good chunk of time trying to figure out what's going on with these types especially now since there is no JSON field type.