Inline functions

Inline functions overview
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Tray's inline functions feature allows you to perform data transformations directly on data that is being pulled into your workflow steps.

This can bring extra functionality, flexibility and efficiency to your workflows.

One of the main benefits is that it can simplify tasks which would normally require multiple core / helper steps in combination with booleans and branches, thus leading to overly-complex workflows.

Creating inline functions
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Inline functions can be used both as single function calls, and as combined function calls which mix multiple functions.

A function call must use the format of functionName(parameter1, parameter2)
The parameters of each function are contained within ( )
Parameters can be hardcoded or can use jsonpaths to reference both data from previous steps via $.steps. and project config variables via $.config.
Functions can contain 1 or more parameters

A single function call would look something like:

formatDate("04/09/2023", "yyyy-MM-dd")

This could be used to e.g. format a date directly in the relevant properties panel field when using the date filter option in an operation such as Salesforce's 'Find records':

Please see the Setting defaults via config section below for guidance on standardized use of timezones and date formats

Combining / chaining inline functions
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For powerful functionality and flexibility, it is possible to chain / combine function calls in a single expression.

A combined function call would look something like:

isBefore(addMonths($.steps.object-helpers-1.result.registered_date, 6), addDays(now("UTC", "yyyy-MM-dd"), 21))

This combined function combines multiple date functions and returns true or false, so could be used directly in a boolean step:

Note that all functions are currently returned stringified, and so in this example you would need to check for a string of "true" rather than an actual boolean

A combined date function call like this would negate the need for multiple use of the date / time helpers connector:

The inline functions editor
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To use inline functions for any string-based field in the connector properties panel, select the function input type from the drop-down:

Then when using the editor you can use = to search for functions by name and description

And you can use / to search for mapped data (via jsonpaths) from previous workflow steps ($.steps.) and project config ($.config.) to add as dynamic arguments:

Setting defaults via config (for date formatting etc.)
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To standardize how you work with dates (and avoid having to repeatedly enter formatting parameters), you can make use of project config to set your timezone and also to set the formats that are required to work with particular services.

For example you could set the following project config to work with Salesforce:

date_format = yyyy-MM-dd
date_time_format = yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ
timezone = PST

This allows us to flexibly adapt to the Valid Date and DateTime Formats of Salesforce whereby some endpoints require date in Date format and some require it in DateTime format.

The project config can then be used in a function such as formatDate($.steps.object-helpers-1.result.launch_date, $.config.date_format) when making calls to the service:

You could also use project config to build your own standarized 'TODAY' function whereby using a timezone and date format (i.e. not date/time) as parameters for the 'now' function will return today's date:

now($.config.timezone, $.config.date_format)

Getting Merlin search to build functions
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Merlin search (the docs knowledge agent) can be used to build complex combined functions for you.

You can ask questions in the following manner:

Using tray's inline functions feature *only* (stringFunctions, numberFunctions and booleanFunctions) how could I create a URL slug from a title by replacing spaces and underscores with hyphens and converting it to lowercase?

Merlin should then return a function which you can directly copy and paste into the inline functions editor:

You may need to subsequently edit for correct jsonpath etc.

stringFunctions
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addBusinessDays
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Adds a specified number of business days to a date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`addBusinessDays("2024-01-01T00:00:00", 1)`	`"2024-01-02T00:00:00+0000"`
`addBusinessDays("2024-01-01T00:00:00", 5)`	`"2024-01-08T00:00:00+0000"`

addDays
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Adds a specified number of days to a date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`addDays("2024-01-01T00:00:00", 10)`	`"2024-01-11T00:00:00+0000"`

addHours
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Adds a specified number of hours to a date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`addHours("2024-01-01T00:00:00", 1)`	`"2024-01-01T01:00:00+0000"`

addMinutes
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Adds a specified number of minutes to a date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`addMinutes("2024-01-01T00:00:00", 1)`	`"2024-01-01T00:01:00+0000"`

addMonths
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Adds a specified number of months to a date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`addMonths("2024-01-01T00:00:00", 2)`	`"2024-03-01T00:00:00+0000"`

addSeconds
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Adds a specified number of seconds to a date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`addSeconds("2024-01-01T00:00:00", 1)`	`"2024-01-01T00:00:01+0000"`

addWeeks
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Adds a specified number of weeks to a date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`addWeeks("2024-01-01T00:00:00", 2)`	`"2024-01-15T00:00:00+0000"`

addYears
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Adds a specified number of years to a date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`addYears("2024-01-01T00:00:00", 2)`	`"2026-01-01T00:00:00+0000`

camelCase
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Converts a string to camelCase

Example inputs	Example outputs
`camelCase("hello world")`	`"helloWorld"`
`camelCase("foo_bar")`	`"fooBar"`

concat
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Concatenates two strings

Example inputs	Example outputs
`concat("Hello, ", "world!")`	`"Hello, world!"`
`concat("foo", "bar")`	`"foobar"`

formatDate
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Formats a date string according to the specified format

Example inputs	Example outputs
`formatDate("2024-05-16", "dd/MM/yyyy")`	`"16/05/2024"`
`formatDate("2024-05-16T12:30:00", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm")`	`"2024-05-16 12:30"`

if
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Returns one of two values based on a condition

Example inputs	Example outputs
`if(true, "yes", "no")`	`"yes"`
`if(false, "yes", "no")`	`"no"`
`if(null, "yes", "no")`	`"no"`

kebabCase
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Converts a string to kebab-case

Example inputs	Example outputs
`kebabCase("hello world")`	`"hello-world"`
`kebabCase("fooBar")`	`"foo-bar"`

lowerCase
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Converts a string to lowercase

Example inputs	Example outputs
`lowerCase("HELLO")`	`"hello"`
`lowerCase("Test")`	`"test"`

now
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Returns the current date and time formatted according to the specified format and time zone

Example inputs	Example outputs
`now("UTC", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")`	`"2024-05-16 12:30:45"`
`now("Europe/London", "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm")`	`"16/05/2024 13:30"`

pascalCase
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Converts a string to PascalCase (upperCamelCase, studlyCase)

Example inputs	Example outputs
`pascalCase("hello world")`	`"HelloWorld"`
`pascalCase("foo_bar")`	`"FooBar"`

removeSpecialCharacters
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Removes special characters from a string, keeping only letters and digits

Example inputs	Example outputs
`removeSpecialCharacters("hello@world!")`	`"helloworld"`
`removeSpecialCharacters("foo_bar123")`	`"foobar123"`

replace
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Replaces occurrences of a substring with another string

Example inputs	Example outputs
`replace("hello world", "world", "scala")`	`"hello scala"`
`replace("abcabc", "a", "x")`	`"xbcxbc"`

snakeCase
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Converts a string to snake_case

Example inputs	Example outputs
`snakeCase("hello world")`	`"hello_world"`
`snakeCase("fooBar")`	`"foo_bar"`

substring
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Extracts a substring from a string

Example inputs	Example outputs
`substring("hello", 0, 2)`	`"he"`
`substring("world", 1, 4)`	`"orl"`

toString
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Converts a value into a string

Example inputs	Example outputs
`toString(1)`	`"1"`
`toString(true)`	`"true"`

trim
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Trims whitespace from both ends of a string

Example inputs	Example outputs
`trim(" hello ")`	`"hello"`
`trim("test")`	`"test"`

upperCase
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Converts a string to UPPERCASE

Example inputs	Example outputs
`upperCase("hello")`	`"HELLO"`
`upperCase("Test")`	`"TEST"`

numberFunctions
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abs
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Returns the absolute value of a number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`abs(-5)`	`5`
`abs(5)`	`5`

add
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Adds two numbers (sum)

Example inputs	Example outputs
`add(1, 2)`	`3`
`add(3.5, 2.5)`	`6`

ceil
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Returns the smallest integer greater than or equal to a number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`ceil(4.2)`	`5`
`ceil(-4.8)`	`-4`

divide
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Divides the first number by the second number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`divide(6, 2)`	`3`
`divide(7, 2)`	`3.5`

floor
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Returns the largest integer less than or equal to a number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`floor(4.8)`	`4`
`floor(-4.2)`	`-5`

if
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Returns one of two values based on a condition

Example inputs	Example outputs
`if(true, 1, 2)`	`1`
`if(false, 1, 2)`	`2`

length
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Calculates the length of a string (size)

Example inputs	Example outputs
`length("Hello")`	`5`
`length("")`	`0`

log
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Returns the natural logarithm (base e) of a number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`log(1)`	`0`
`log(2)`	`0.6931471805599453`

log10
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Returns the base 10 logarithm of a number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`log10(1)`	`0`
`log10(10)`	`1`

mod
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Calculates the remainder of the division of two numbers

Example inputs	Example outputs
`mod(5, 2)`	`1`
`mod(6, 3)`	`0`

multiply
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Multiplies two numbers (product, times)

Example inputs	Example outputs
`multiply(2, 3)`	`6`
`multiply(3.5, 2)`	`7`

pow
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Raises a number to the power of another number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`pow(2, 3)`	`8`
`pow(4, 0.5)`	`2`

round
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Rounds a number to the nearest integer

Example inputs	Example outputs
`round(4.5)`	`5`
`round(4.4)`	`4`

sqrt
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Returns the square root of a number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`sqrt(4)`	`2`
`sqrt(9)`	`3`

subtract
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Subtracts the second number from the first number (minus, difference)

Example inputs	Example outputs
`subtract(5, 3)`	`2`
`subtract(3.5, 2.5)`	`1`

timestampInMilliseconds
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Returns the current timestamp in milliseconds since the epoch

Example inputs	Example outputs
`timestampInMilliseconds()`	`1621265400123`

timestampInSeconds
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Returns the current timestamp in seconds since the epoch

Example inputs	Example outputs
`timestampInSeconds()`	`1621265400`

toNumber
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Converts a string to a number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`toNumber("123")`	`123`
`toNumber("45.67")`	`45.67`

booleanFunctions
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and
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Performs logical AND operation on two boolean values

Example inputs	Example outputs
`and(true, false)`	`false`
`and(true, true)`	`true`

contains
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Checks if a string contains another string

Example inputs	Example outputs
`contains("hello", "ell")`	`true`
`contains("world", "ell")`	`false`

endsWith
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Checks if a string ends with another string

Example inputs	Example outputs
`endsWith("hello", "lo")`	`true`
`endsWith("world", "lo")`	`false`

eq
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Checks if two values are equal (equals)

Example inputs	Example outputs
`eq(1, 1)`	`true`
`eq(1, 2)`	`false`
`eq("aa", "aa")`	`true`
`eq("aa", "a")`	`false`
`eq(false, false)`	`true`
`eq(true, false)`	`false`
`eq(0, false)`	`false`

greaterThan
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Checks if the first number is greater than the second number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`greaterThan(5, 3)`	`true`
`greaterThan(3, 5)`	`false`
`greaterThan(5, 5)`	`false`

if
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Returns one of two values based on a condition

Example inputs	Example outputs
`if(true, true, false)`	`true`
`if(false, true, false)`	`false`

isAfter
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Checks if the first date is after the second date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`isAfter("2024-05-16", "2024-05-17")`	`false`
`isAfter("2024-05-17", "2024-05-16")`	`true`

isBefore
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Checks if the first date is before the second date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`isBefore("2024-05-16", "2024-05-17")`	`true`
`isBefore("2024-05-16", "2024-05-16")`	`false`

isBlank
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Checks if a string is blank (empty or contains only whitespace)

Example inputs	Example outputs
`isBlank("hello")`	`false`
`isBlank(" ")`	`true`
`isBlank("")`	`true`

isEmpty
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Checks if a string is empty

Example inputs	Example outputs
`isEmpty("hello")`	`false`
`isEmpty(" ")`	`false`
`isEmpty("")`	`true`

isValidDate
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Checks if a string is a valid date

Example inputs	Example outputs
`isValidDate("2024-05-16")`	`true`
`isValidDate("invalid-date")`	`false`

not
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Performs logical NOT operation on a boolean value

Example inputs	Example outputs
`not(true)`	`false`
`not(false)`	`true`

or
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Performs logical OR operation on two boolean values

Example inputs	Example outputs
`or(true, false)`	`true`
`or(false, false)`	`false`

propertyExists
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Checks if a property exists

Example inputs	Example outputs
`propertyExists($.steps.step-1.field)`	`true`

smallerThan
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Checks if the first number is smaller than the second number

Example inputs	Example outputs
`smallerThan(3, 5)`	`true`
`smallerThan(5, 3)`	`false`
`smallerThan(3, 3)`	`false`

startsWith
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Checks if a string starts with another string

Example inputs	Example outputs
`startsWith("hello", "he")`	`true`
`startsWith("world", "he")`	`false`

toBoolean
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Converts a string to a boolean value

Example inputs	Example outputs
`toBoolean("true")`	`true`
`toBoolean("false")`	`false`

Inline functions