Parse Zoho Recruit JSON response into a Python dict

zoho_json_utils.py

import json
import pandas as pd

# Input: Zoho JSON response as a string - Output : {'First Name': 'John', 'Last Name': 'Doe', 'Phone': ... }
# To be used like a generator (i.e `for candidate in parse_json_iter(zoho_response):`)
# `get_fields` allows you to specify fields to get, the others will be dismissed.
# `module` = 'Candidates', 'JobOpenings'... (haven't tried with others)

def parse_json_iter(raw_json_response: str, module: str = 'Candidates', get_fields: list = []):
    """Parse through a JSON response of candidates."""
   
    # Load the string into a dictionnary
    json_response = json.loads(raw_json_response)['response']['result'][module]['row']
    
    # If there is a single item, put it in a list with one element
    if json_response and type(json_response) == dict:
        json_response = [json_response]
    
    # Iterate through the rows
    for entry in json_response:
        entry_df = pd.DataFrame.from_records(entry['FL']).set_index('val')
        entry_dict = entry_df.to_dict()['content']

        if not get_fields:
            yield entry_dict
        else:
            if len(get_fields) == 1:
                yield entry_dict[get_fields[0]]
            else:
                yield {field: value for field, value in entry_dict.items() if field in get_fields}

I found that Zoho's structured data responses (XML & JSON) were particularly badly designed, this method could save you a lot of struggle.