SpEL processing examples

PingAuthorize enhances SpEL expressions with a rich library of custom functions designed to simplify complex tasks and streamline your processor configurations. The following sections introduce some of these functions with examples, focusing on common use cases for working with collections, dates and times, and Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

Collection functions

To help you create and manipulate collections and maps dynamically, PingAuthorize provides a set of functions for common collection transformations in SpEL expressions.

CreateList

Creates a new collection containing the specified items.

Syntax

#CreateList(item1, item2, …, itemN)

Arguments

item1, item2, …, itemN (Type: Any): One or more items of any data type to include in the new collection. These items appear in the new collection in the order they’re provided.

Examples

Creating a collection of strings

SpEL: #CreateList("view_profile", "edit_settings", "delete_account")
Result: ["view_profile", "edit_settings", "delete_account"]

Creating a collection of numbers

SpEL: #CreateList(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Result: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Creating a collection with mixed data types

SpEL: #CreateList("config_A", 100, true)
Result: ["config_A", 100, true]

ConcatLists

Combines two existing collections into a single new collection.

Syntax

#ConcatLists(list1, list2)

Arguments

list1 (Type: Collection): The first collection
list2 (Type: Collection): The second collection

The items in list2 are appended to the end of list1.

Examples

Combining two collections of permissions

SpEL: #ConcatLists(["read_basic"], ["read_extended", "write_comments"])
Result: ["read_basic", "read_extended", "write_comments"]

Combining dynamically created collections

SpEL: #ConcatLists(#CreateList(1, 2, 3), #CreateList(4, 5, 6))
Result: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

CreateMap

Creates a new map from two separate collections: one containing the keys and the other containing the corresponding values. Each key is paired with the value at the same index.

Syntax

#CreateMap(keysList, valuesList)

Arguments

keysList (Type: Collection): A collection of items used as keys in the map
valuesList (Type: Collection): A collection of items used as values in the map

The item at valuesList[i] becomes the value for the key at keysList[i].

If keysList and valuesList have different lengths, the resulting map will only contain key-value pairs up to the length of the shorter collection. Each key in the map must be unique.

Examples

Creating a map of user attributes

SpEL: #CreateMap(#CreateList("username", "email", "status"), #CreateList("jdoe", "jdoe@example.com", "active"))
Result: {"username": "jdoe", "email": "jdoe@example.com", "status": "active"}

Creating a map with numeric keys and values

SpEL: #CreateMap(#CreateList(1, 2, 3), #CreateList(10, 20, 30))
Result: {1: 10, 2: 20, 3: 30}

MergeMaps

Merges two existing maps into a single new map.

Syntax

#MergeMaps(map1, map2)

Arguments

map1 (Type: Map): The first map
map2 (Type: Map): The second map

If both map1 and map2 contain the same key, the value from map2 overrides the value from map1 in the resulting map.

Example: Merging maps with distinct keys

SpEL: MergeMaps({#CreateMap(#CreateList(1, 2), #CreateList(10, 20))}, {#CreateMap(#CreateList(3, 4), #CreateList(30, 40))})
Result: {1: 10, 2: 20, 3: 30, 4: 40}

Date and time functions

PingAuthorize provides a set of functions for common date and time manipulations in SpEL expressions. These functions leverage Java’s java.time API and help you parse, convert, and calculate durations involving dates and times. Learn more in the java.time API specification in the Java documentation.

DateTime

Parses a date-time string using a specified custom format. This function can parse strings into LocalDateTime (date-time without time zone) or ZonedDateTime (date-time with time zone), depending on the input string and format.

Syntax

#DateTime(dateString, formatPattern)

Arguments

dateString (Type: String): The date-time string to be parsed
formatPattern (Type: String): A pattern string that defines the format of the dateString. The pattern should conform to Java’s DateTimeFormatter patterns ("uuuu-MM-dd HH:mm:ss", "MM/dd/uuuu’T’HH:mm:ssXXX").

Example: Parsing a date-time with a custom format

SpeL: #DateTime("11:09:08 07-22-2018", "HH:mm:ss MM-dd-uuuu")
Result: A LocalDateTime object representing July 22, 2018, 11:09:08

ISO8601DateTime

Parses a date-time string that conforms to the ISO 8601 standard. This function can parse strings into LocalDateTime or ZonedDateTime.

Syntax

#ISO8601DateTime(dateString)

Arguments

dateString (Type: String): The date-time string in ISO 8601 format ("2019-01-01T10:01:01", "2019-01-01T10:01:01Z", "2019-01-01T10:01:01+02:00")

Example: Parsing an ISO 8601 local date-time string

SpEL: #ISO8601DateTime("2024-05-30T15:45:00")
Result: A LocalDateTime object representing May 30, 2024, 15:45:00

Date

Parses a date string using a specified custom format into LocalDate (a date without time-of-day and time zone).

Syntax

#Date(dateString, formatPattern)

Arguments

dateString (Type: String): The date string to be parsed
formatPattern (Type: String): A pattern string that defines the format of the dateString ("uuuu-MM-dd", "MM/dd/uuuu")

Example: Parsing a date with "year-month-day" format

SpEL: #Date("2024-12-25", "uuuu-MM-dd")
Result: A LocalDate object representing December 25, 2024

ISO8601Date

Parses a date string that conforms to the ISO 8601 standard (YYYY-MM-DD) into LocalDate.

Syntax

#ISO8601Date(dateString)

Arguments

dateString (Type: String): The date string in ISO 8601 format ("2019-01-01")

Example: Parsing an ISO 8601 date string

SpEL: #ISO8601Date("2019-01-01")
Result: A LocalDate object representing January 1, 2019

LocalDateTimeFromUnix

Converts a Unix timestamp (seconds since the 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z epoch) to LocalDateTime, representing the date and time in the system’s default time zone.

Syntax

#LocalDateTimeFromUnix(unixTimestamp)

Arguments

unixTimestamp (Type: Long): The Unix timestamp value in seconds

Example: Converting a Unix timestamp

SpEL: #LocalDateTimeFromUnix(1572348852L)
Result: A LocalDateTime object. For the specified timestamp, this corresponds to 2019-10-29T11:34:12.

UnixFromLocalDateTime

Converts LocalDateTime to a Unix timestamp (seconds since the 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z epoch). The conversion assumes the LocalDateTime is in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Syntax

#UnixFromLocalDateTime(localDateTime)

Arguments

localDateTime (Type: LocalDateTime): The LocalDateTime to be converted

Example: Converting a specific LocalDateTime to Unix time

SpEL: #UnixFromLocalDateTime(#ISO8601DateTime('2019-10-29T11:34:12'))
Result: 1572348852L

GetPeriodBetween

Calculates the time period (in years, months, and days) between two LocalDate objects.

Syntax

#GetPeriodBetween(startDate, endDate)

Arguments

startDate (Type: LocalDate): The start date of the period (inclusive)
endDate (Type: LocalDate): The end date of the period (exclusive)

Returns

A Period object representing the duration between startDate and endDate. You can access the result’s components using properties like .years, .months, and .days.

Example: Calculating the period between two dates

SpEL: #GetPeriodBetween(#ISO8601Date("2018-02-15"), #ISO8601Date("2019-04-25"))
Result:
- periodObject.years = 1
- periodObject.months = 2
- periodObject.days = 10

URI functions

PingAuthorize provides a set of functions for parsing and constructing URIs in SpEL expressions. These functions leverage Java’s java.net.URI capabilities to simplify the manipulation of URI components.

URIParse

Parses a URI string into its components and returns a map that associates each component name with its corresponding value.

Syntax

#URIParse(uriString)

Arguments

uriString (Type: String): The complete URI string to be parsed

Examples

Parsing a complex URI

SpEL: #URIParse('https://jane.doe:s3cr3t@api.example.com:8443/v1/resources?type=widget&id=42#details')

Result:

{
  "scheme": "https",
  "userInfo": "jane.doe:s3cr3t",
  "host": "api.example.com",
  "port": 8443,
  "path": "/v1/resources",
  "query": {
    "type": "widget",
    "id": "42"
  },
  "fragment": "details"
}

Parsing a URI with a valueless query parameter

SpEL: #URIParse('http://example.com/search?q=ping&enabled')

Result:

{
  "scheme": "http",
  "host": "example.com",
  "path": "/search",
  "query": {
    "q": "ping",
    "enabled": ""
  }
}

URIBuild

Constructs a URI string from a map containing the URI’s individual components.

Syntax

#URIBuild(componentsMap)

Arguments

componentsMap (Type: Map<String: Any>): A map that associates URI component names with the corresponding values used to construct the URI

The following table describes the allowable URI component names:

Component Data type Description Required

Component	Data type	Description	Required
`scheme`	String	The URI scheme.	Required
`host`	String	The host name or IP address.	Required
`userInfo`	String	Information about the user.	Optional
`port`	Integer	The port number. If this value is `null` or not provided, the port isn’t included in the URI string.	Optional
`path`	String	The path component. For a root path, use `/`. If this value is empty or `null`, the URI will have no path component after the authority.	Optional
`query`	Map<String, Any>	A map of query parameter names and their corresponding values.	Optional
`fragment`	String	The fragment identifier.	Optional

scheme

String

The URI scheme.

Required

host

String

The host name or IP address.

Required

userInfo

String

Information about the user.

Optional

port

Integer

The port number. If this value is null or not provided, the port isn’t included in the URI string.

Optional

path

String

The path component. For a root path, use /. If this value is empty or null, the URI will have no path component after the authority.

Optional

query

Map<String, Any>

A map of query parameter names and their corresponding values.

Optional

fragment

String

The fragment identifier.

Optional

Example: Building a simple URI

SpEL: #URIBuild(#{'scheme': 'http', 'host': 'localhost', 'path': '/status'})
Result: "http://localhost/status"