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

Usage - HANSON.parse, SON.parse, JSONX.parse

HanSON • SON • JSONX

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 as core-js, babel-preset-es2015, eslint-config-jquery and 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!