Json ?

[Original Poster]

hi I have tried reading the documentation on json but its not getting me anywhere ... I could tell you exactly what json is and does ....

json is a language which belongs to the javascript family blah blah blah it can be used to communicate between different languages and platforms ect ect .... but the thing is I have no idea how this thing is working can someone give me links to json / php to java tutorials that they have found usful ? or give me some small little bits of code so i can see what the hell is going on ? or give me some indepth explination to what i can do with this ? I need to learn it apparently

[Max Norris]

or give me some indepth explination to what i can do with this ?

Familar with XML? Same kinda thing, just (in my opinion) better. It's just an easy standardized way for one program to talk to another.. regardless of who wrote it, if it properly parses JSON data, it'll get there unmangled. It's not a transport, just a way to ensure that program A can understand program B and vice versa. Some IDE's will have JSON parsers built in so you can view/serialize data a bit easier, there's some online too. Take your data, serialize it into JSON, and presto, you get something like below. The other program receives this then does it in reverse, and you get a "tree" which you should be able to easily visualize in your head with this example.

{
	 "firstName": "Max",
	 "address": {
		 "streetAddress": "123 Main St.",
		 "city": "Anytown",
		 "state": "US",
		 "postalCode": 12345
	 },
	 "phoneNumbers": [
		 "123-456-7890",
		 "123-555-1212"
	 ]
}
[/CODE]

[Karl L.]

JSON is merely a data-interchange format for passing data between programs written using various languages/technologies. Since it is widely used on the Internet and PHP has a habit of including the kitchen sink, it also has JSON encode and decode functions built-in (since PHP 5.2.1). The json_decode page in the PHP manual has not only function documentation but also several examples. You might also take a look at this StackOverflow question about parsing JSON in PHP. It has most of the code for a complete parser.

[Original Poster]

Familar with XML? Same kinda thing, just (in my opinion) better. It's just an easy standardized way for one program to talk to another.. regardless of who wrote it, if it properly parses JSON data, it'll get there unmangled. It's not a transport, just a way to ensure that program A can understand program B and vice versa. Some IDE's will have JSON parsers built in so you can view/serialize data a bit easier, there's some online too. Take your data, serialize it into JSON, and presto, you get something like below. The other program receives this then does it in reverse, and you get a "tree" which you should be able to easily visualize in your head with this example.

{
	 "firstName": "Max",
	 "address": {
		 "streetAddress": "123 Main St.",
		 "city": "Anytown",
		 "state": "US",
		 "postalCode": 12345
	 },
	 "phoneNumbers": [
		 "123-456-7890",
		 "123-555-1212"
	 ]
}
[/CODE]

oh that seems a bit long winded :/ I got my program at the moment posting to a php script then catching the response via datainputstream ... is this fine? or do you think Json would be better ? for large bits of information I send as 1 string with specific parameters so my java program can handle and string manipulate its self... I Dont know what i was hoping for with json but to me it does not sound that useful sounds like there are many alternatives... :(

[kjordan2001]

oh that seems a bit long winded :/ I got my program at the moment posting to a php script then catching the response via datainputstream ... is this fine? or do you think Json would be better ? for large bits of information I send as 1 string with specific parameters so my java program can handle and string manipulate its self... I Dont know what i was hoping for with json but to me it does not sound that useful sounds like there are many alternatives... :(

JSON would be what's received by the InputStream. It's not a replacement for any data socket handling things, it is the data. If your data needs lots of key-value things like you're sending objects, maps, or arrays across, then JSON would be good for your uses. It's not good for just straight strings or for binary data.

[Andre S. Veteran]

As its name implies, JSON is a notation, a standardized way of writing a set of named values in a text file. It doesn't do anything, it's just data written following some rules.

[Brony]

be careful with json because literal with " symbol could fail.

For example

name=it is a test "test"

sometimes is converted to json to

"name":"it is a test "test""

and it is incorrect.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

To avoid stuff like that, you'll want to ensure that you're using a proper JSON encoder/decoder. JSON isn't actually JavaScript (It just shares the object notation, hence the name) and there's a bunch of subtle differences that can cause things to break if the parser isn't smart/good enough (Which is also another reason you never parse JSON using eval(), and be very very careful with "JSONP", grab it via XHR instead, etc.)

[Litespeed]

JSON = JavaScript Object Notation. The name kinda explains what it is. It's simply a way of notating javascript objects so you can pass them around in a standardised, lightweight way.

BTW, if you're using Chrome, install the JSONView extension which will automatically format JSON responses into a nice readable display.