Command Central 10.15 | Using the Command Line Interface | Options for the Commands | output-format | Recommendations When Selecting a Content Type
 
Recommendations When Selecting a Content Type
Use the information in this topic to determine which of the output content types supported by Command Central to use with different types of clients. The following table specifies the recommended output format for each available client type and describes the considerations, related to each format.
Type of client
Recommended format
Considerations
Web client
JSON
JSON is supported by all browsers.
JSON does not guarantee the order of the properties, because during processing JSON uses the names of the properties and their order is not relevant.
JSON is handled transparently by web clients when new properties are added by the server.
Non-web API client
XML, JSON
Non-web API clients should use either XML, or JSON, based on which content type is better supported in the programming language or platform used by the API client.
The order of the properties in XML is guaranteed, because the order is important during XML processing.
With XML and JSON, the API clients must not fail when unexpected fields are detected and unexpected fields must get ignored.
The XML and JSON output by default include all properties.
Shell script
TSV. CSV
The TSV or CSV content types are well-supported by UNIX (and to some extent Windows) command line shells.
Note:
New command line shells, for example Windows PowerShell, can also process the XML and JSON content types.
With the TSV and CSV content types, the property names remain unchanged, but the order and the set of properties may change.
To prevent errors because of changes between releases, the shell script must not depend on the default set and order of properties, but the script must request a specific set and order of properties. To get a specific set of properties in a particular order, the scripting client must request the properties by name, using the properties=proName,propName2 parameter.
The scripting clients can also remove the header line, using the includeHeaders=false parameter.
Tip:
To list all properties supported by the current version of the Command Central server, use the includeHeaders=properties and properties=* parameters.
CLI end user
TSV
TSV is the default content type when a CLI end-user interaction is involved. With this format, the default set of properties fits into the width of the console and makes the output easy to read for humans.
The default set and order of the properties is not guaranteed, because when properties are added or modified, the order of the columns may change to make the output more user-friendly. However, the TSV content type enables you to determine which properties to show in the output.
By design, the TSV output does not include all object properties, because it is not always possible to map a multi-dimensional object model into a two-dimensional table model.