JSON facts for kids
 |
|
| Filename extension |
.json
|
|---|---|
| Internet media type |
application/json
|
| Type code | TEXT |
| Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) | public.json |
| Type of format | Data interchange |
| Extended from | JavaScript |
JSON which stands for "JavaScript Object Notation", is a lightweight computer data interchange format. JSON is a subset of the object literal notation of JavaScript but its use does not require JavaScript.
JSON's simplicity has resulted in its widespread use, especially as an alternative to XML in Ajax. One of the main advantages of JSON over XML as a data interchange format is that it is much easier to write a JSON parser. In Javascript itself, JSON can be parsed trivially using the eval() procedure. This was important for the acceptance of JSON because of JavaScript's ubiquity among web browsers. JSON is also much less verbose than XML.
There is growing support for JSON through the use of lightweight third-party packages. The list of supported languages includes ActionScript, C, C#, ColdFusion, E, Java, JavaScript, ML, Objective CAML, Perl, PHP, Python, Rebol, Ruby, and Lua.
History
JSON grew out of a need for stateful, real-time server-to-browser communication protocol without using browser plugins such as Flash or Java applets, the dominant methods used in the early 2000s.
Douglas Crockford first specified and popularized the JSON format. The acronym originated at State Software (originally named Veil Networks, Inc.), a company co-founded by Crockford.
JSON was originally intended to be a subset of the JavaScript scripting language (specifically, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition—December 1999) and is commonly used with Javascript, but it is a language-independent data format. Code for parsing and generating JSON data is readily available in many programming languages. JSON's website lists JSON libraries by language.
See also
In Spanish: JSON para niños
