json-next
json-next gem - read generation y / next generation json versions (HanSON, SON, JSONX/JSON11, etc.) with comments, unquoted keys, multi-line strings, trailing commas, optional commas, and more
- home :: github.com/json-next/json-next
- bugs :: github.com/json-next/json-next/issues
- gem :: rubygems.org/gems/json-next
- rdoc :: rubydoc.info/gems/json-next
Usage - HANSON.parse, SON.parse, JSONX.parse
HanSON
HanSON - JSON for Humans by Tim Jansen et al
HanSON is an extension of JSON with a few simple additions to the spec:
- quotes for strings are optional if they follow JavaScript identifier rules.
- you can alternatively use backticks, as in ES6's template string literal, as quotes for strings. A backtick-quoted string may span several lines and you are not required to escape regular quote characters, only backticks. Backslashes still need to be escaped, and all other backslash-escape sequences work like in regular JSON.
- for single-line strings, single quotes (
'') are supported in addition to double quotes ("") - you can use JavaScript comments, both single line (
//) and multi-line comments (/* */), in all places where JSON allows whitespace. - Commas after the last list element or object property will be ignored.
Example:
{
listName: "Sesame Street Monsters", // note that listName needs no quotes
content: [
{
name: "Cookie Monster",
/* Note the template quotes and unescaped regular quotes in the next string */
background: `Cookie Monster used to be a
monster that ate everything, especially cookies.
These days he is forced to eat "healthy" food.`
}, {
// You can single-quote strings too:
name: 'Herry Monster',
background: `Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.
He's mostly retired today.`
}, // don't worry, the trailing comma will be ignored
]
}Use HANSON.convert to convert HanSON text to ye old' JSON text:
{
"listName": "Sesame Street Monsters",
"content": [
{ "name": "Cookie Monster",
"background": "Cookie Monster used to be a\n ... to eat \"healthy\" food."
},
{ "name": "Herry Monster",
"background": "Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.\n ... today."
}
]
}Use HANSON.parse instead of JSON.parse to parse text to ruby hash / array / etc.:
{
"listName" => "Sesame Street Monsters",
"content" => [
{ "name" => "Cookie Monster",
"background" => "Cookie Monster used to be a\n ... to eat \"healthy\" food."
},
{ "name" => "Herry Monster",
"background" => "Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.\n ... today."
}
]
}SON
SON - Simple Object Notation by Aleksander Gurin et al
Simple data format similar to JSON, but with some minor changes:
- comments starts with
#sign and ends with newline (\n) - comma after an object key-value pair is optional
- comma after an array item is optional
JSON is compatible with SON in a sense that JSON data is also SON data, but not vise versa.
Example:
{
# Personal information
"name": "Alexander Grothendieck"
"fields": "mathematics"
"main_topics": [
"Etale cohomology"
"Motives"
"Topos theory"
"Schemes"
]
"numbers": [1 2 3 4]
"mixed": [1.1 -2 true false null]
}
Use SON.convert to convert SON text to ye old' JSON text:
{
"name": "Alexander Grothendieck",
"fields": "mathematics",
"main_topics": [
"Etale cohomology",
"Motives",
"Topos theory",
"Schemes"
],
"numbers": [1, 2, 3, 4],
"mixed": [1.1, -2, true, false, null]
}Use SON.parse instead of JSON.parse to parse text to ruby hash / array / etc.:
{
"name" => "Alexander Grothendieck",
"fields" => "mathematics",
"main_topics" =>
["Etale cohomology", "Motives", "Topos theory", "Schemes"],
"numbers" => [1, 2, 3, 4],
"mixed" => [1.1, -2, true, false, nil]
}JSONX
JSON with Extensions or JSON v1.1 (a.k.a. JSON11 or JSON XI or JSON II)
Includes all JSON extensions from HanSON:
- quotes for strings are optional if they follow JavaScript identifier rules.
- you can alternatively use backticks, as in ES6's template string literal, as quotes for strings. A backtick-quoted string may span several lines and you are not required to escape regular quote characters, only backticks. Backslashes still need to be escaped, and all other backslash-escape sequences work like in regular JSON.
- for single-line strings, single quotes (
'') are supported in addition to double quotes ("") - you can use JavaScript comments, both single line (
//) and multi-line comments (/* */), in all places where JSON allows whitespace. - Commas after the last list element or object property will be ignored.
Plus all JSON extensions from SON:
- comments starts with
#sign and ends with newline (\n) - comma after an object key-value pair is optional
- comma after an array item is optional
Plus some more extra JSON extensions:
- unquoted strings following the JavaScript identifier rules can use the dash (
-) too e.g. allows common keys such ascore-js,babel-preset-es2015,eslint-config-jqueryand others
Example:
{
# use shell-like (or ruby-like) comments
listName: "Sesame Street Monsters" # note: comments after key-value pairs are optional
content: [
{
name: "Cookie Monster"
// note: the template quotes and unescaped regular quotes in the next string
background: `Cookie Monster used to be a
monster that ate everything, especially cookies.
These days he is forced to eat "healthy" food.`
}, {
// You can single-quote strings too:
name: 'Herry Monster',
background: `Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.
He's mostly retired today.`
}, /* don't worry, the trailing comma will be ignored */
]
}
Use JSONX.convert (or JSONXI.convert or JSON11.convert or JSONII.convert) to convert JSONX text to ye old' JSON text:
{
"listName": "Sesame Street Monsters",
"content": [
{ "name": "Cookie Monster",
"background": "Cookie Monster used to be a\n ... to eat \"healthy\" food."
},
{ "name": "Herry Monster",
"background": "Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.\n ... today."
}
]
}Use JSONX.parse (or JSONXI.parse or JSON11.parse or JSONII.parse) instead of JSON.parse to parse text to ruby hash / array / etc.:
{
"listName" => "Sesame Street Monsters",
"content" => [
{ "name" => "Cookie Monster",
"background" => "Cookie Monster used to be a\n ... to eat \"healthy\" food."
},
{ "name" => "Herry Monster",
"background" => "Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.\n ... today."
}
]
}Live Examples
require 'json/next'
text1 =<<TXT
{
listName: "Sesame Street Monsters", // note that listName needs no quotes
content: [
{
name: "Cookie Monster",
/* Note the template quotes and unescaped regular quotes in the next string */
background: `Cookie Monster used to be a
monster that ate everything, especially cookies.
These days he is forced to eat "healthy" food.`
}, {
// You can single-quote strings too:
name: 'Herry Monster',
background: `Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.
He's mostly retired today.`
}, // don't worry, the trailing comma will be ignored
]
}
TXT
pp HANSON.parse( text1 ) # note: is the same as JSON.parse( HANSON.convert( text ))resulting in:
{
"listName" => "Sesame Street Monsters",
"content" => [
{ "name" => "Cookie Monster",
"background" => "Cookie Monster used to be a\n ... to eat \"healthy\" food."
},
{ "name" => "Herry Monster",
"background" => "Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.\n ... today."
}
]
}and
text2 =<<TXT
{
# Personal information
"name": "Alexander Grothendieck"
"fields": "mathematics"
"main_topics": [
"Etale cohomology"
"Motives"
"Topos theory"
"Schemes"
]
"numbers": [1 2 3 4]
"mixed": [1.1 -2 true false null]
}
TXT
pp SON.parse( text2 ) # note: is the same as JSON.parse( SON.convert( text ))resulting in:
{
"name" => "Alexander Grothendieck",
"fields" => "mathematics",
"main_topics" =>
["Etale cohomology", "Motives", "Topos theory", "Schemes"],
"numbers" => [1, 2, 3, 4],
"mixed" => [1.1, -2, true, false, nil]
}and
text3 =<<TXT
{
# use shell-like (or ruby-like) comments
listName: "Sesame Street Monsters" # note: comments after key-value pairs are optional
content: [
{
name: "Cookie Monster"
// note: the template quotes and unescaped regular quotes in the next string
background: `Cookie Monster used to be a
monster that ate everything, especially cookies.
These days he is forced to eat "healthy" food.`
}, {
// You can single-quote strings too:
name: 'Herry Monster',
background: `Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.
He's mostly retired today.`
}, /* don't worry, the trailing comma will be ignored */
]
}
TXT
pp JSONX.parse( text3 ) # note: is the same as JSON.parse( JSONX.convert( text ))
pp JSONXI.parse( text3 ) # note: is the same as JSON.parse( JSONXI.convert( text ))
pp JSON11.parse( text3 ) # note: is the same as JSON.parse( JSON11.convert( text ))
pp JSONII.parse( text3 ) # note: is the same as JSON.parse( JSONII.convert( text ))resulting in:
{
"listName" => "Sesame Street Monsters",
"content" => [
{ "name" => "Cookie Monster",
"background" => "Cookie Monster used to be a\n ... to eat \"healthy\" food."
},
{ "name" => "Herry Monster",
"background" => "Herry Monster is a furry blue monster with a purple nose.\n ... today."
}
]
}More JSON Formats
See the Awesome JSON (What's Next?) collection / page.
License
The json-next scripts are dedicated to the public domain.
Use it as you please with no restrictions whatsoever.
Questions? Comments?
Post them to the wwwmake forum. Thanks!