Variables and Values

As a rule, while the script is running, you need to store some values and get them when they are needed. Variables are used for this purpose. By default, the values of variables are stored as strings. You can assign values to variables using commands (e.g. Set Variables) or special functions. A variable name may consist of letters and numbers and must not contain service characters. Variable names are case-sensitive. For example, MyName and myname are different variables.

Scope of visibility

The scope of the variable is limited by the script where it was defined. This is so that the scripts cannot influence each other. For example, you assigned the variable name the value John and called another script. This script also creates a variable with the same name name and value Alex for its purposes. If you do not limit the scope of the variables, in this case the value of your variable will change to Alex, which you would not want at all.

It should be noted that the new scope is created when executing scripts in the Script tab, but all code that is defined in the Source code tab works with the scope of the parent script. Therefore, it is not recommended to assign values to variables there.

Getting the values

To substitute a variable value in any field, just enclose the variable name between characters #. For example, #name#, #myValue#. All found variable values will be substituted during parameter processing. Value substitution occurs during script execution and is performed recursively. Let us define the following variables:

1firstname = "John"
2lastname = "Doe"
3name = "#firstname# #lastname#"

In this case, Name: #name# will return Name: John Doe because all nested values are recursively substituted. If no variable is found, the string remains unchanged. For example, if you specify #name# #address# for the above example, you will get John Doe #address# because the variable address does not exist.

Note that in fields like Variable Name, Resulting Variable, Variable Index etc. you only need to specify the variable names without # characters. You can only use #varname# if another variable (in this case varname) contains your variable name.

Object variables

Besides usual variables, there are variables that allow to store objects. Objects are necessary to work with JSON, YAML and similar data as well as to work with different lists. An object may contain values of the following types: number, string, floating point number, logical value, array of objects and associative array of objects. Different arrays are used to store the names of ordinary variables and object variables. If you specified #myvar#, then at the beginning there is a search among ordinary variables, if nothing is found, then an object with that name is searched. If the found object is a number, a string or a logical value, then its value will return, otherwise no substitution will occur and #myvar# will remain unchanged. To get the fields of an associative array, you can use square brackets or specify the name of the required field separated by a dot. In the case of a regular array, you need to use square brackets to get the element by its index. You can also use a substitution of values within square brackets. Suppose that the variable myobj contains the following data:

 1{
 2    "root": "/home/user",
 3    "index": 0,
 4    "app": "My Application",
 5    "files": [
 6        {
 7            "file": "myfile.txt",
 8            "size": 2543
 9        },
10        {
11            "file": "test.txt",
12            "size": 257
13        }
14    ]
15}

Then, when accessing the fields, the following values ​​will be returned

1#myobj# = #myobj#
2#myobj.root# = /home/user
3#myobj[app]# = My Application
4#myobj.files[#myobj.index#].file# = myfile.txt
5#myobj[files][1].size# = 257

Reading files

If you want to get the content of a file as a value, you do not need to use the command to read the file beforehand. It is enough to specify the path to the file inside the angle brackets as a parameter. For example,

1<#mypath#/myfile.log>
2<c:\temp\package.json>
3<./data/settings.yaml>

Such parameter should not contain any additional text. Otherwise, it will be processed as plain text.