Java Script Object Notation (JSON)

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Compiled by Adnan Sohail Software Engineer i2c inc.

JSON JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language.

Why JSON? Because JSON is lightweight, easy to understand, manipulate and generate, it has almost replaced XML which was used previously as the only data-interchange format. JSON is preferable because of the following reasons: XML is heavier than JSON to parse XML, we have to use xPath which is an overhead removed in JSON because JSON is native to JavaScript XML uses tags to describe user data and tags increase the size of data

JSON Structures JSON is built on two structures: A collection of name/value pairs. In various languages, this is realized as an object , record, dictionary, hash table, keyed list, or associative array. An ordered list of values. In most languages, this is realized as an array , vector, list, or sequence.

Syntax of JSON Object An object is an unordered set of name/value pairs. An object begins with { (left brace) and ends with } (right brace) . Each name is followed by : (colon) and the name/value pairs are separated by , (comma) .

Syntax of JSON Array An array is an ordered collection of values. An array begins with [ (left bracket) and ends with ] (right bracket) . Values are separated by , (comma) .

Syntax of JSON A value can be a string in double quotes, or a number , or true or false or null, or an object or an array . These structures can be nested. A string is a collection of zero or more Unicode characters, wrapped in double quotes, using backslash escapes. A character is represented as a single character string. A string is very much like a C or Java string.

JSON Example { “students” : [ {“id":1, "name":"Adnan Sohail"}, {“id":2, "name":"Irfan Razzaq"} ] }

XML Example <?xml version="1.0" ?> <root> <student> <id>1</id> <name>Adnan Sohail</name> </student> <student> <id>2</id> <name>Irfan Razzaq</name> </student> </root>

Validating JSON & JSON Security JavaScript’s built-in method eval() is used to validate a JSON string. Note: Use eval() only when the source is authentic and trusted which means use it only if you are sure that the string passed to it is a valid JSON string When you’ve security risks use var myObject = myJSONtext.parseJSON(); Which is available in http://www.json.org/json.js but eval() is faster than parseJSON()

Using JSON APIs JSON strings can be easily generated using JSON APIs available at http://json.org There are two main classes available in org.json.* package org.json.JSONObject org.json.JSONArray Strings can be generating from objects of JSONObject or JSONArray using their toString() methods

Benefits of JSON over XML JSON supports data types like string, integer, boolean etc. JSON is native data format for JavaScript and therefore it faster for the browser to read and understand. As JSON contains no tags but data and therefore less data to be transferred between client and the server. So, it’s lighter than XML. Easy for humans to read and write.

JSON References http://www.xul.fr/en-xml-ajax.html http://www.xul.fr/ajax-javascript-json.html http://json.org/ http://www.json.org/java/

Java Script Object Notation (JSON)

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