JSON objects as ARM template function argument - azure

Question

Does the ARM template offers a way to define a JSON object inline, as a template function parameter?
Something that could look like this, where I am mixing references, Azure template functions and JSON object.
"value": "[concat(reference('ArrayMaker').outputs.fooBarArray.value],
[{ "cat": "Tom", "mouse" : "Jerry"}, { "cat":"Garfield", "mouse":"[reference('MouseTrap').outputs.mouseTrap.value]"} ] )]"
Using variables would seem to be a natural fit for this, but since the value is constructed from a reference, variables can't be used.

Answer 1

well, not natively. you can hack around with nested deployments, something like this:
{
"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
"garfiled": {
"type": "string"
},
"catData": {
"type": "object",
"defaultValue": {
"cat": "Tom"
}
}
},
"variables": {
"cat": { <<< if you can\need to construct whole variable in the nested template
"cat": "Garfield",
"mouse": "[parameters('garfiled')]"
},
"t&j": { <<< if you need to pass in part of the variable to the nested template, you can also create another variable to create an object of a proper structure to union with existing object
"mouse": "Jerry"
}
},
"resources": [],
"outputs": {
"garfiled": {
"type": "object",
"value": "[variables('cat')]"
},
"t&j": {
"type": "object",
"value": "[union(variables('t&j'), parameters('catData'))]"
}
}
}
You would then use nested template to pass reference to this template and output the result.