Architect Flow - Data Action "createContact" 400 - Missing 'customFields'

Architect & Flows
1

The createContact data action in an Architect flow is failing with a 400 Bad Request when attempting to create a new contact record. The payload serializer in genesyscloud/models/contacts/contact_create_request.py line 58 isn’t correctly encoding nested dictionaries within the customFields key - it’s flattening them into strings. We’ve worked around this locally by manually stringifying the customFields dict before passing it to the action, but that’s… not ideal.

Is this intentional, or should the serializer handle nested dictionaries in customFields? It seems like it should be supported, given the API documentation. Also, does anyone know if there’s a documented limit to the depth of the nested dictionary? I’m on SDK v2.7.0, using Python 3.9.

1 Like
2

It’s like trying to push water uphill with this API - you think you’re sending it the right info, but it’s interpreting it completely wrong. The createContact endpoint wants a very specific format for customFields, and it’s picky. It’s not a matter of if the data is there, it’s how it’s packaged.

  • The serializer is clearly turning dictionaries into strings - that’s what the suggestion above was getting at. It’s flattening everything.
  • Try manually serializing the customFields dictionary to a JSON string before you pass it to the Data Action. Something like this - we have about 200 agents and I’m constantly battling this sort of thing:
$customFields = @{
 "field1" = "value1"
 "field2" = "value2"
}

$customFieldsJson = $customFields | ConvertTo-Json

$params = @{
 Uri = "https://api.mypurecloud.com/api/v2/externalcontacts/contacts/merge"
 Method = "POST"
 Headers = @{ Authorization = "Bearer $env:GC_TOKEN" }
 Body = @{
 firstName = "John"
 lastName = "Doe"
 customFields = $customFieldsJson # Pass the JSON string
 }
}

Invoke-RestMethod @params
  • Double check the schema, too. It’s probably expecting quotes around the keys in that JSON. Seriously, the documentation is a mess.

N.

1 Like
3

You’re absolutely right to focus on how customFields is being serialized- it’s the culprit here! It looks like the serializer isn’t handling nested dictionaries properly, flattening everything into a string, which the API understandably rejects. :astonished_face:

We’ve got around 800 agents, and from what I’ve seen, explicitly JSON-stringifying the customFields dictionary before it hits the data action usually does the trick. Something like json.dumps(your_dict)! It’s a bit of a workaround, but it gets things moving! :tada:

2 Likes
4

tbh, you’re all chasing the right thing with the serializer. it’s… bad. iirc, we ran into this with createCase too - same flattening issue.

the quick-n-dirty fix (until someone actually fixes the python library, which, let’s be real, isn’t happening anytime soon) is to just json.dumps() the whole thing before you pass it to the data action. it’s ugly, yeah, but it works.

something like:

import json

custom_fields = {
 "field1": "value1",
 "nested": {
 "subfield1": "subvalue1"
 }
}

# in your architect flow, before the data action:
custom_fields_string = json.dumps(custom_fields)

# then pass custom_fields_string to the data action as the customFields parameter

it’s a workaround, obviously (afaik, the API expects a dictionary, not a string - but it’s accepting the string because it’s trying to parse it anyway). you’ll probably see some weirdness in the logs (it’ll show the stringified json), but it’ll actually create the contact.

imo, the python library should handle this correctly. it’s supposed to be doing the serialization for you, but… well. you know. it’s genesys. don’t get your hopes up.

we’ve got a bunch of flows doing this now (800 agents? that’s rough, tbh), and it’s been “good enough” for a while. we’ve got a Postman collection to test this now, too, if anyone wants it. i’ve got a pre-request script that handles this for us. it’s just… faster than fighting the python library. (and honestly, less frustrating.)