[SOLVED] How do I conditionally send a body param in my curl request

Issue

I am creating a simple bash script. I have this curl request, and I only want to send objects_count in my raw data body if it is non empty.

I know that this line of code works: '[ ! -z "$objects_count" ] && echo "not empty"'

However when I implement it in my curl request, I get an error

    objects='[]'
    objects_count=''

    curl --location --request POST 'http://0.0.0.0:5000' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --data-raw '{
        "objects":'$objects',
        '[ ! -z "$objects_count" ] && "objects_count":$objects_count'
    }'

curl: (3) URL using bad/illegal format or missing URL
curl: (3) unmatched close brace/bracket in URL position 1:
]
 ^

Solution

Bash doesn't have a conditional operator that can be used in expressions. Use a simple if statement to set a variable to the data you want to send.

if [ -z "$objects_count" ]
then
    data='{"objects":'$objects'}'
else
    data='{"objects":'$objects', "objects_count":'$objects_count'}'
fi

curl --location --request POST 'http://0.0.0.0:5000' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --data-raw "$data"

Answered By - Barmar

Answer Checked By - Mary Flores (WPSolving Volunteer)