[8.18](backport #45810) x-pack/filebeat/input/httpjson: allow template termination without logging error

CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc

@@ -237,6 +237,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v8.8.1\...main[Check the HEAD diff]
 - Jounrald input now supports filtering by facilities {pull}41061[41061]
 - Add ability to remove request trace logs from http_endpoint input. {pull}40005[40005]
 - Add ability to remove request trace logs from entityanalytics input. {pull}40004[40004]
+- Add mechanism to allow HTTP JSON templates to terminate without logging an error. {issue}45664[45664] {pull}45810[45810]
 
 *Auditbeat*
 

x-pack/filebeat/docs/inputs/input-httpjson.asciidoc

@@ -230,6 +230,7 @@ Some built-in helper functions are provided to work with the input state inside
 - `parseTimestamp`: parses a timestamp in seconds and returns a `time.Time` in UTC. Example: `[[parseTimestamp 1604582732]]` returns `2020-11-05 13:25:32 +0000 UTC`.
 - `replaceAll(old, new, s)`: replaces all non-overlapping instances of `old` with `new` in `s`. Example: `[[ replaceAll "some" "my" "some value" ]]` returns `my value`.
 - `sprintf`: formats according to a format specifier and returns the resulting string. Refer to https://pkg.go.dev/fmt#Sprintf[the Go docs] for usage. Example: `[[sprintf "%d:%q" 34 "quote this"]]`
+- `terminate`: exits the template without falling back to the default value and without causing an error. It takes a single string argument that is logged in debug logging.
 - `toInt`: converts a value of any type to an integer when possible. Returns 0 if the conversion fails.
 - `toJSON`: converts a value to a JSON string. This can be used with `value_type: json` to create an object from a template. Example: `[[ toJSON .last_response.body.pagingIdentifiers ]]`.
 - `urlEncode`: URL encodes the supplied string. Example `[[urlEncode "string1"]]`. Example `[[urlEncode "<string1>"]]` will return `%3Cstring1%3E`.

x-pack/filebeat/input/httpjson/request.go

@@ -386,6 +386,9 @@ func evaluateResponse(expression *valueTpl, data []byte, log *logp.Logger) (bool
 	if err != nil {
 		return false, fmt.Errorf("error while evaluating expression: %w", err)
 	}
+	if val == "" {
+		return false, nil
+	}
 	result, err := strconv.ParseBool(val)
 	if err != nil {
 		return false, fmt.Errorf("error while parsing boolean value of string: %w", err)

x-pack/filebeat/input/httpjson/value_tpl.go

@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@
 			"urlEncode":           urlEncode,
 			"userAgent":           userAgentString,
 			"uuid":                uuidString,
+			"terminate":           func(s string) (any, error) { return nil, &errTerminate{s} },
 		}).
 		Delims(leftDelim, rightDelim).
 		Parse(in)
@@ -94,6 +95,17 @@
 	return nil
 }
 
+type errTerminate struct {
+	Reason string
+}
+
+func (e *errTerminate) Error() string {
+	if e.Reason != "" {
+		return "terminated template: " + e.Reason
+	}
+	return "terminated template"
+}
+
 func (t *valueTpl) Execute(trCtx *transformContext, tr transformable, targetName string, defaultVal *valueTpl, log *logp.Logger) (val string, err error) {
 	fallback := func(err error) (string, error) {
 		if defaultVal != nil {
@@ -128,6 +140,11 @@
 	}
 
 	if err := t.Template.Execute(buf, data); err != nil {
+		var termErr *errTerminate
+		if errors.As(err, &termErr) {
+			log.Debugw("template execution terminated", "target", targetName, "reason", termErr.Reason)
+			return "", nil
+		}
 		return fallback(err)
 	}
 
@@ -325,7 +342,7 @@
 	case reflect.Float32, reflect.Float64:
 		return int64(vv.Float())
 	case reflect.Uint, reflect.Uint8, reflect.Uint16, reflect.Uint32, reflect.Uint64:
 		return int64(vv.Uint())
 	case reflect.String:
 		f, _ := strconv.ParseFloat(vv.String(), 64)
 		return int64(f)

x-pack/filebeat/input/httpjson/value_tpl_test.go

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 )
 
 func TestValueTpl(t *testing.T) {
 	logp.TestingSetup()
 
 	cases := []struct {
 		name          string
@@ -74,6 +74,14 @@
 			paramDefVal: "25",
 			expectedVal: "25",
 		},
+		{
+			name:        "terminate",
+			value:       `[[if false]]ok[[else]][[terminate "because reasons"]][[end]]`,
+			paramCtx:    emptyTransformContext(),
+			paramTr:     transformable{},
+			paramDefVal: "this should not be seen",
+			expectedVal: "",
+		},
 		{
 			name:          "returns error if result is empty and no default is set",
 			value:         "",