JSON Introduction

What is JSON?

•  JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation.
•  JSON is lightweight text-data interchange format.
•  JSON is language independent.
•  JSON is "self-describing" and easy to understand.

JSON uses JavaScript syntax for describing data objects, but JSON is still language and platform independent. JSON parsers and JSON libraries exists for many different programming languages.

JSON format is a format similar to XML but usually it is shorter and easier to parse. Many web services now work with JSON. Using the new JSON library, you can parse and generate JSON strings easily.

Much like XML

• JSON is plain text
• JSON is "self-describing" (human readable)
• JSON is hierarchical (values within values)
• JSON can be parsed by JavaScript
• JSON data can be transported using AJAX

Much Unlike XML

• No end tag
• Shorter
• Quicker to read and write
• Can be parsed using built-in JavaScript eval()
• Uses arrays
• No reserved words

Why JSON?

For AJAX applications, JSON is faster and easier than XML:

Using XML

• Fetch an XML document
• Use the XML DOM to loop through the document
• Extract values and store in variables

Using JSON

• Fetch a JSON string
• eval() the JSON string