JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight computer data interchange format. It is a text-based, human-readable format for representing simple data structures and associative arrays (called objects).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 but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language.
The JSON file extension is .json.Many of the Yahoo! Web Services provide JSON as an alternate output format to XML
XML Crossroads: The Browser and Ajax
When designing an application that will communicate with a remote computer, a data format and exchange protocol must be selected. While XML works well for many application scenarios, it has some drawbacks that make it less than ideal for others. One such space where XML is often less than ideal is with Ajax-style web applications.
Ajax allows Web-enabled applications to perform out-of-band client-server calls, establishing a separate channel on which to send and receive information from remote Web services. In layman's terms, updates and navigation sequences in Ajax applications are done outside the classical client-server context, which entails a complete screen refresh, with the information being received in the background (a.k.a out-of-band).
Ajax is a technique used for building interactive web applications that provide a snappier user experience through the use of out-of-band, lightweight calls to the web server in lieu of full-page postbacks. These asynchronous calls are initiated on the client using JavaScript and involve formatting data, sending it to a web server, and parsing and working with the returned data.
These application updates that are typically obtained from RESTful Web services, once received in a user's browser, need to be incorporated in the overall HTML page layout, which is exactly where XML proves to be more than a handful. Though the capabilities of most mainstream browsers have increased over the years with the support of scripting languages and plug-in support, many programming tasks still remain difficult or unnatural to perform, one of them being manipulating and processing text, which is typically done using DOM.
The complexity in using DOM lies in its function-based roots, with a simple modification or access to a data tree requiring numerous method calls. In addition, DOM is known for differing implementation details among various browsers; this process takes us to a very elaborate programming scheme with ample possibilities for a breakdown in cross-browser compatibility. So the outstanding question now becomes: How can a markup language be easily integrated into an HTML layout page to accommodate Ajax requirements?
The answer comes in the form of leveraging a common component in all mainstream browsers: The JavaScript engine. Instead of delivering Ajax updates in a format such as XML, which would require the use of a mechanism like DOM to access and incorporate data into a layout, a more natural and intuitive approach would be using a format that fits natively to the aforementioned engine, namely JSON.
Though the x in Ajax stands for XML, and Web services have come to the forefront by the steady use of this same format, it doesn't necessarily mean such an approach is cast in stone. As we have seen, XML has a few drawbacks when applied to Ajax-enabled applications, due to the text-processing capabilities in browsers. In this sense, JSON has emerged to provide a compelling alternative in this same context.
JSON has come to the attention of Web service providers as a lighter and friendlier format for Web services clients in the form of a browser, or what would essentially be an Ajax-enabled application accessing RESTful Web services.
JSON vs XML
Both JSON and XML can be used to represent native, in-memory objects in a text-based, human-readable, data exchange format. Furthermore, the two data exchange formats are isomorphic—given text in one format, an equivalent one is conceivable in the other.
For example, when calling one of Yahoo!'s publicly accessible web services, you can indicate via a querystring parameter whether the response should be formatted as XML or JSON. Therefore, when deciding upon a data exchange format, it's not a simple matter of choosing one over the other as a silver bullet, but rather what format has the characteristics that make it the best choice for a particular application.
For example, XML has its roots in marking-up document text and tends to shine very well in that space (as is evident with XHTML). JSON, on the other hand, has its roots in programming language types and structures and therefore provides a more natural and readily available mapping to exchange structured data. The following table will help you to understand and compare the key characteristics of XML and JSON.
Differences between XML and JSON
| Characteristic | XML | JSON |
| Data types | Does not provide any notion of data types. One must rely on XML Schema for adding type information. | Provides scalar data types and the ability to express structured data through arrays and objects. |
| Support for arrays | Arrays have to be expressed by conventions, for example through the use of an outer placeholder element that models the arrays contents as inner elements. Typically, the outer element uses the plural form of the name used for inner elements. | Native array support. |
| Support for objects | Objects have to be expressed by conventions, often through a mixed use of attributes and elements. | Native object support. |
| Null support | Requires use of xsi:nil on elements in an XML instance document plus an import of the corresponding namespace. | Natively recognizes the null value. |
| Comments | Native support and usually available through APIs. | Not supported. |
| Namespaces | Supports namespaces, which eliminates the risk of name collisions when combining documents. Namespaces also allow existing XML-based standards to be safely extended. | No concept of namespaces. Naming collisions are usually avoided by nesting objects or using a prefix in an object member name (the former is preferred in practice). |
| Formatting decisions | Complex. Requires a greater effort to decide how to map application types to XML elements and attributes. Can create heated debates whether an element-centric or attribute-centric approach is better. | Simple. Provides a much more direct mapping for application data. The only exception may be the absence of date/time literal. |
| Size | Documents tend to be lengthy in size, especially when an element-centric approach to formatting is used. | Syntax is very terse and yields formatted text where most of the space is consumed (rightly so) by the represented data. |
| Parsing in JavaScript | Requires an XML DOM implementation and additional application code to map text back into JavaScript objects. | No additional application code required to parse text; can use JavaScript's eval function. |
| Learning curve | Generally tends to require use of several technologies in concert: XPath, XML Schema, XSLT, XML Namespaces, the DOM, and so on. | Very simple technology stack that is already familiar to developers with a background in JavaScript or other dynamic programming languages. |
JSON is a relatively new data exchange format and does not have the years of adoption or vendor support that XML enjoys today (although JSON is catching up quickly). The following table highlights the current state of affairs in the XML and JSON spaces.
Support Differences between XML and JSON
| Support | XML | JSON |
| Tools | Enjoys a mature set of tools widely available from many industry vendors. | Rich tool support—such as editors and formatters—is scarce. |
| Microsoft .NET Framework | Very good and mature support since version 1.0 of the .NET Framework. XML support is available as part of the Base Class Library (BCL). For unmanaged environments, there is MSXML. | None so far, except an initial implementation as part of ASP.NET AJAX. |
| Platform and language | Parsers and formatters are widely available on many platforms and languages (commercial and open source implementations). | Parsers and formatters are available already on many platforms and in many languages. Consult json.org for a good set of references. Most implementations for now tend to be open source projects. |
| Integrated language | Industry vendors are currently experimenting with support literally within languages. See Microsoft's LINQ project for more information. | Is natively supported in JavaScript/ECMAScript only. |
Structure of JSON
JSON is built on two structures:
· A collection of name/value pairs. In various languages, this is realized as an object, record, struct, 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.
These are universal data structures. Virtually all modern programming languages support them in one form or another. It makes sense that a data format that is interchangeable with programming languages also be based on these structures.
In JSON, they take on these forms:
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).
An array is an ordered collection of values. An array begins with [ (left bracket) and ends with ] (right bracket). Values are separated by , (comma).
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.
A number is very much like a C or Java number, except that the octal and hexadecimal formats are not used.
Whitespace can be inserted between any pair of tokens.
Benefits
The benefit of using JSON' is easier data access. The internal representation used by JavaScript engines for data structures like strings, arrays, and objects are precisely these same characters. This leads us is to a more straightforward approach for accessing data than the alternate DOM technique
An added benefit of JSON is its less verbose nature. In XML, the opening and closing of tags is a necessity just for markup compliance, but in JSON's case all that's required is a simple bracket for closure. In data exchanges comprising a hundred or more fields, this additional XML markup can add to transit times. There is no formal study concluding that JSON is more efficient than XML over the wire; it's simply a matter of byte-to-byte comparison, where an equivalent JSON and XML payload is always smaller in the former than in the latter format.
Additionally, JSON has garnered the attention of many developers specializing in different programming languages, giving way to libraries capable of producing this format from environments as diverse as Haskell and Lisp to more mainstream options like C# and PHP.
Constraints
JSON lacks a few of XML's properties. Namespaces, which allow the mixing of identical pieces of information in different contexts, is clearly missing in JSON.
Another differing feature is that of attributes, since every JSON assignment is done with colons (:); when transforming XML to JSON it can be difficult to distinguish between what would be considered text between tags—XML CDATA—and the actual value of attributes.
You may also find the actual creation and validation of JSON a little more complex than an average XML fragment. In this sense, it may be that XML has had a head start in terms of developing tools for its processing.
Another constraint of JSON is the lack of a date/time literal. The simple explanation for the absence of a date/time literal is that JavaScript never had one either: The support for date and time values in JavaScript is entirely provided through the Date object. Most applications using JSON as a data format, therefore, generally tend to use either a string or a number to express date and time values.
From JavaScript Literals to JSON
JSON is a data exchange format that was created from a subset of the literal object notation in JavaScript. While the syntax accepted by JavaScript for literal values is very flexible, it is important to note that JSON has much stricter rules. According to the JSON standard, for example, the name of an object member must be a valid JSON string. A string in JSON must be enclosed in quotation marks. JavaScript, on the other hand, allows object member names to be delimited by quotation marks or apostrophes or to omit quoting altogether so long as the member name doesn't conflict with a reserved JavaScript keyword. Likewise, an array element or an object member value in JSON is limited to a very limited set. In JavaScript, however, array elements and object member values can refer to pretty much any valid JavaScript expression, including function calls and definitions!
The charm of JSON is in its simplicity. A message formatted according to the JSON standard is composed of a single top-level object or array. The array elements and object values can be objects, arrays, strings, numbers, Boolean values (true and false), or null.
Working with JSON in the .NET Framework
Starting out as a couple of static methods for escaping JavaScript strings, Json.NET evolved as features were added. To add support for reading JSON a major refactor was required and Json.NET will split into the three major classes it still uses today, JsonReader, JsonWriter and JsonSerializer.Json.NET was first released in June 2006.
JSON text can easily be created and parsed from JavaScript code, which is part of its allure. However, when JSON is used in an ASP.NET web application, only the browser enjoys JavaScript support since the server-side code is most likely written in Visual Basic or C#.
Most Ajax libraries designed for ASP.NET provide support for programmatically creating and parsing JSON text. Therefore, to work with JSON in a .NET application, consider using one of these libraries. There are plenty of open-source and third-party options, and Microsoft also has their own Ajax library named ASP.NET AJAX.
One of the example is Jayrock, an open-source implementation of JSON for the Microsoft .NET Framework
Working with JSON in .NET using Jayrock is similar to working with XML through the XmlWriter, XmlReader, and XmlSerializer classes in the .NET Framework. The classes JsonWriter, JsonReader, JsonTextWriter, and JsonTextReader found in Jayrock mimic the semantics of the .NET Framework classes XmlWriter, XmlReader, XmlTextWriter, and XmlTextReader. These classes are useful for interfacing with JSON at a low- and stream-oriented level. Using these classes, JSON text can be created or parsed piecemeal through a series of method calls. For example, using the JsonWriter class method WriteNumber(number) writes out the appropriate string representation of number according to the JSON standard. The JsonConvert class offers Export and Import methods for converting between .NET types and JSON. These methods provide a similar functionality as found in the XmlSerializer class methods Serialize and Deserialize, respectively.
Conclusion
JSON is a lightweight, text-based data exchange format based on a subset of the literal notation from the JavaScript programming language. It provides a succinct encoding for application data structures and is typically used in scenarios where a JavaScript implementation is available to one or both of the applications exchanging data, such as in Ajax-style web applications. The allure of JSON lies in its simplicity to understand, adopt, and implement. JSON has virtually no learning curve for developers already familiar with JavaScript or other programming languages with similar support for a rich literal notation (like Python and Ruby). Parsing JSON text in JavaScript code can be accomplished by simply calling the eval function, and creating JSON text is a breeze with the json.js script provided at http://www.json.org/json.js.
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