# Cannot make even simple JSON commands work

**URL:** <https://community.thunkable.com/t/cannot-make-even-simple-json-commands-work/849551>\
**Category:** Questions about Thunkable X\
**Created:** [September 25, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/cannot-make-even-simple-json-commands-work/849551 "2020-09-25T19:38:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rcherskov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/51bf81/32.png) [@rcherskov](https://community.thunkable.com/u/rcherskov)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/cannot-make-even-simple-json-commands-work/849551/1 "2020-09-25T19:38:33Z")

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Hi all,

I have been trying all morning to use a simple JSON statement just to learn how to pull data from that kind of source. I found this example in another thread. The only difference is that perhaps the old example used the previous version of Thunkable where the “get property of object block”?

Here is my sample JSON which is hardcoded into the block.

[  
{“cat\_id”:“1”,“category”:“Love”,“status”:“1”},  
{“cat\_id”:“2”,“category”:“Romantic”,“status”:“1”},  
{“cat\_id”:“3”,“category”:“Friendship”,“status”:“1”},  
{“cat\_id”:“4”,“category”:“Attitude”,“status”:“1”}  
]

 ![Screenshot 2020-09-25 153352](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/6/3/6383c57a63ef419a53dc2eba5a127deed5a48715.png)

When I click the button in liveview it just clears the test area.

What am I missing here? I started with an actual Airtable API, everything connects fine, but trying to pull objects from it keeps giving me undefined. So I went to the most simple example I could find and I cannot get this to work.

Many thanks for any help anyone can provide.

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**Author:** ![tatiang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tatiang/32/55482_2.png) [@tatiang](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tatiang)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/cannot-make-even-simple-json-commands-work/849551/2 "2020-09-25T21:06:53Z")

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**Edit:** I used the same blocks as you and got it to work.

 ![Screen Shot 2020-09-25 at 2.37.40 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/4/d/4d300dc8eed884dddd0988668f3b5c1d4cb705e2.png)

But I re-build the JSON string. Here’s what I used:

[{“cat\_id”:“1”,“category”:“Love”,“status”:“1”}, {“cat\_id”:“2”,“category”:“Romantic”,“status”:“1”}, {“cat\_id”:“3”,“category”:“Friendship”,“status”:“1”}, {“cat\_id”:“2”,“category”:“Attitude”,“status”:“1”}]

It looks the same as yours, right? There must be something missing in yours, though.

Your JSON includes brackets which designate a list. So when you’re retrieving the data, you’d have to first get the first list item of _app data_ and then get the third item of that list and then get the property (“category”) of that item.

Also, you’ve initialized _app data_ as a list but then turned it into an object. I don’t think you can do list manipulation on objects.

I see where you read this: [How to create Dynamic List View for display all json data - #9 by User81](http://community.thunkable.com/t/how-to-create-dynamic-list-view-for-display-all-json-data/36734/9).

I’m not 100% sure that’s properly-formatted JSON. I use this site to verify JSON strings: [https://jsonformatter-online.com](https://jsonformatter-online.com).

I’m going to see if I can work up a demo…

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**Author:** ![tatiang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tatiang/32/55482_2.png) [@tatiang](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tatiang)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/cannot-make-even-simple-json-commands-work/849551/3 "2020-09-25T21:15:08Z")

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Here, try this:

[https://x.thunkable.com/copy/ec30adcde504bbeb0b62bca3a1dddf4a](https://x.thunkable.com/copy/ec30adcde504bbeb0b62bca3a1dddf4a)

 ![Screen Shot 2020-09-25 at 2.30.21 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/8/1/81a83492e1beab141c106835348f317c11c7e3aa.png)

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**Author:** ![rcherskov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/51bf81/32.png) [@rcherskov](https://community.thunkable.com/u/rcherskov)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/cannot-make-even-simple-json-commands-work/849551/4 "2020-09-25T22:01:03Z")

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Thank you, that was very helpful! I really thought I was losing my mind for a while. If the JSON data is not properly formatted, it stops the whole show.

Thanks again for your help.

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**Author:** ![ioannis](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/ioannis/32/146956_2.png) [@ioannis](https://community.thunkable.com/u/ioannis)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2024, 12:23pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/cannot-make-even-simple-json-commands-work/849551/5 "2024-11-08T12:23:45Z")

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