# Telegraf json parsing with string inputs

**URL:** <https://community.influxdata.com/t/telegraf-json-parsing-with-string-inputs/9337>\
**Category:** Telegraf\
**Created:** [April 5, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/telegraf-json-parsing-with-string-inputs/9337 "2019-04-05T15:28:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Maxhawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/fbc32d/32.png) [@Maxhawk](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Maxhawk)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/telegraf-json-parsing-with-string-inputs/9337/1 "2019-04-05T15:28:30Z")

</div>

I’m using [[inputs.http]] to collect VPN status information using an https API call that returns data in JSON format.

The following is a sample JSON input:

> **JSON input**
>
> ```
> {
> "user": {
> "login": "myusername",
> "register_date": "2018-07-14 22:50:53",
> "register_unix": "1531608653",
> "premium": true,
> "expiration_unix": "1586906223",
> "expiration_date": "2020-04-14 23:17:03",
> "expiration_days": 375,
> "last_attempt_unix": "1554475586",
> "posts": "0",
> "last_post": null,
> "last_visit_unix": "1554387254",
> "last_activity_unix": "1554446767",
> "credits": 0,
> "credit": [],
> "connected": true
> },
> "sessions": [
> {
> "device_name": "Server",
> "device_description": "OVPN Outgoing",
> "vpn_ip": "10.23.44.175",
> "vpn_ipv4": "10.23.44.175",
> "vpn_ipv6": "fde6:7a:7d20:132c::10ad",
> "exit_ip": "64.45.139.43",
> "exit_ipv4": "64.45.139.43",
> "exit_ipv6": "2645:1f50:2000:25:848d:e3b5:8bc8:34f",
> "entry_ip": "64.45.139.42",
> "entry_ipv4": "64.45.139.42",
> "entry_ipv6": "2645:1f50:2000:25:e46c:8e0d:ee6b:38d7",
> "server_name": "Muscat",
> "server_country": "United States",
> "server_country_code": "us",
> "server_continent": "America",
> "server_location": "Dallas, Texas",
> "server_bw": "1000",
> "bytes_read": "1744743821329",
> "bytes_write": "936713144587",
> "connected_since_date": "2019-03-08 05:04:36",
> "connected_since_unix": "1552021476",
> "speed_read": "537.1167",
> "speed_write": "14872.4167"
> },
> {
> "device_name": "Desktop",
> "device_description": "Desktop",
> "vpn_ip": "10.29.204.219",
> "vpn_ipv4": "10.29.204.219",
> "vpn_ipv6": "fde6:7a:7d20:19cc::10d9",
> "exit_ip": "193.37.254.19",
> "exit_ipv4": "193.37.254.19",
> "exit_ipv6": "2a0d:5600:2:6:f362:ba43:29f3:b8a",
> "entry_ip": "193.37.254.18",
> "entry_ipv4": "193.37.254.18",
> "entry_ipv6": "2a0d:5600:2:6:994d:de38:fedf:47a7",
> "server_name": "Chalawan",
> "server_country": "United States",
> "server_country_code": "us",
> "server_continent": "America",
> "server_location": "Phoenix, Arizona",
> "server_bw": "1000",
> "bytes_read": "0",
> "bytes_write": "0",
> "connected_since_date": "2019-04-05 14:46:25",
> "connected_since_unix": "1554475585",
> "speed_read": null,
> "speed_write": null
> }
> ],
> "connection": {
> "device_name": "Server",
> "device_description": "OVPN Outgoing",
> "vpn_ip": "10.23.44.175",
> "vpn_ipv4": "10.23.44.175",
> "vpn_ipv6": "fde6:7a:7d20:132c::10ad",
> "exit_ip": "64.45.139.43",
> "exit_ipv4": "64.45.139.43",
> "exit_ipv6": "2645:1f50:2000:25:848d:e3b5:8bc8:34f",
> "entry_ip": "64.45.139.42",
> "entry_ipv4": "64.45.139.42",
> "entry_ipv6": "2645:1f50:2000:25:e46c:8e0d:ee6b:38d7",
> "server_name": "Muscat",
> "server_country": "United States",
> "server_country_code": "us",
> "server_continent": "America",
> "server_location": "Dallas, Texas",
> "server_bw": "1000",
> "bytes_read": "1744743821329",
> "bytes_write": "936713144587",
> "connected_since_date": "2019-03-08 05:04:36",
> "connected_since_unix": "1552021476",
> "speed_read": "537.1167",
> "speed_write": "14872.4167"
> },
> "result": "ok"
> 
> ```
> 
> }

The fields I want are:

```
expiration_days
device_description
exit_ipv4
exit_ipv6
bytes_read
bytes_write
speed_read
speed_write

```

The following are the relevant lines from my .conf file:

```
tag_keys = ["device_description"]
name_override = "VPN"
json_query = "sessions"
json_string_fields = [
"exit_ipv4",
"exit_ipv6"
]
data_format = "json"

```

The telegraf --test command returns _exit\_ipv4_ and _exit\_ipv6_ for tags ‘OVPN Outgoing’ and ‘Desktop’. It took me a while to figure out why nothing else was being returned – my numbers all have quotes around them making them strings.

To make the data more readable in Grafana, I don’t want a 13-digit number for _bytes\_read_ for example, and would like to set units within Grafana to ‘bytes’ so that it will display ‘1.74 TB’ instead of ‘1744743821329’.

**Is there a way to convert the string format numbers into an actual number?**

Interestingly while I was learning and experimenting with json input, I had my desired fields defined as tag\_keys and _bytes\_read_ for example was treated as a number by Grafana. The problem is this only works when there is one device in sessions (Server is connected 24/7) and once I add a session (Desktop) the parsing gets confused.