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Revision 1.10 by root, Fri Mar 23 17:40:29 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.106 by root, Tue May 27 05:31:39 2008 UTC

1	=head1 NAME	1	=head1 NAME
2		2
3	JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast	3	JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast
4		4
		5	=encoding utf-8
		6
		7	JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ
		8	(http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html)
		9
5	=head1 SYNOPSIS	10	=head1 SYNOPSIS
6		11
7	use JSON::XS;	12	use JSON::XS;
		13
		14	# exported functions, they croak on error
		15	# and expect/generate UTF-8
		16
		17	$utf8_encoded_json_text = encode_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref;
		18	$perl_hash_or_arrayref = decode_json $utf8_encoded_json_text;
		19
		20	# OO-interface
		21
		22	$coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref;
		23	$pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar);
		24	$perl_scalar = $coder->decode ($unicode_json_text);
		25
		26	# Note that JSON version 2.0 and above will automatically use JSON::XS
		27	# if available, at virtually no speed overhead either, so you should
		28	# be able to just:
		29
		30	use JSON;
		31
		32	# and do the same things, except that you have a pure-perl fallback now.
8		33
9	=head1 DESCRIPTION	34	=head1 DESCRIPTION
10		35
11	This module converts Perl data structures to JSON and vice versa. Its	36	This module converts Perl data structures to JSON and vice versa. Its
12	primary goal is to be I<correct> and its secondary goal is to be	37	primary goal is to be I<correct> and its secondary goal is to be
13	I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C.	38	I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C.
		39
		40	Beginning with version 2.0 of the JSON module, when both JSON and
		41	JSON::XS are installed, then JSON will fall back on JSON::XS (this can be
		42	overridden) with no overhead due to emulation (by inheriting constructor
		43	and methods). If JSON::XS is not available, it will fall back to the
		44	compatible JSON::PP module as backend, so using JSON instead of JSON::XS
		45	gives you a portable JSON API that can be fast when you need and doesn't
		46	require a C compiler when that is a problem.
14		47
15	As this is the n-th-something JSON module on CPAN, what was the reason	48	As this is the n-th-something JSON module on CPAN, what was the reason
16	to write yet another JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON	49	to write yet another JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON
17	modules, none of them correctly handle all corner cases, and in most cases	50	modules, none of them correctly handle all corner cases, and in most cases
18	their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug	51	their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug
…		…
25		58
26	=head2 FEATURES	59	=head2 FEATURES
27		60
28	=over 4	61	=over 4
29		62
30	=item * correct handling of unicode issues	63	=item * correct Unicode handling
31		64
32	This module knows how to handle Unicode, and even documents how and when	65	This module knows how to handle Unicode, documents how and when it does
33	it does so.	66	so, and even documents what "correct" means.
34		67
35	=item * round-trip integrity	68	=item * round-trip integrity
36		69
37	When you serialise a perl data structure using only datatypes supported	70	When you serialise a perl data structure using only data types supported
38	by JSON, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl level.	71	by JSON, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl level.
39	(e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2").	72	(e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because it looks
		73	like a number). There minor I<are> exceptions to this, read the MAPPING
		74	section below to learn about those.
40		75
41	=item * strict checking of JSON correctness	76	=item * strict checking of JSON correctness
42		77
43	There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON strings by default,	78	There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default,
44	and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security	79	and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security
45	feature).	80	feature).
46		81
47	=item * fast	82	=item * fast
48		83
49	Compared to other JSON modules, this module compares favourably in terms	84	Compared to other JSON modules and other serialisers such as Storable,
50	of speed, too.	85	this module usually compares favourably in terms of speed, too.
51		86
52	=item * simple to use	87	=item * simple to use
53		88
54	This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an OO	89	This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an object
55	interface.	90	oriented interface interface.
56		91
57	=item * reasonably versatile output formats	92	=item * reasonably versatile output formats
58		93
59	You can choose between the most compact guarenteed single-line format	94	You can choose between the most compact guaranteed-single-line format
60	possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ascii format (for	95	possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ASCII format
61	when your transport is not 8-bit clean), or a pretty-printed format (for	96	(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole
62	when you want to read that stuff). Or you can combine those features in	97	Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that
63	whatever way you like.	98	stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.
64		99
65	=back	100	=back
66		101
67	=cut	102	=cut
68		103
69	package JSON::XS;	104	package JSON::XS;
70		105
71	BEGIN {	106	use strict;
		107
72	$VERSION = '0.3';	108	our $VERSION = '2.2';
73	@ISA = qw(Exporter);	109	our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
74		110
75	@EXPORT = qw(to_json from_json);	111	our @EXPORT = qw(encode_json decode_json to_json from_json);
76	require Exporter;
77		112
		113	sub to_json($) {
78	require XSLoader;	114	require Carp;
79	XSLoader::load JSON::XS::, $VERSION;	115	Carp::croak ("JSON::XS::to_json has been renamed to encode_json, either downgrade to pre-2.0 versions of JSON::XS or rename the call");
80	}	116	}
81		117
		118	sub from_json($) {
		119	require Carp;
		120	Carp::croak ("JSON::XS::from_json has been renamed to decode_json, either downgrade to pre-2.0 versions of JSON::XS or rename the call");
		121	}
		122
		123	use Exporter;
		124	use XSLoader;
		125
82	=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE	126	=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
83		127
84	The following convinience methods are provided by this module. They are	128	The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are
85	exported by default:	129	exported by default:
86		130
87	=over 4	131	=over 4
88		132
89	=item $json_string = to_json $perl_scalar	133	=item $json_text = encode_json $perl_scalar
90		134
91	Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference to	135	Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string
92	a hash or array) to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string (that is, the string contains	136	(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error.
93	octets only). Croaks on error.
94		137
95	This function call is functionally identical to C<< JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar) >>.	138	This function call is functionally identical to:
96		139
		140	$json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar)
		141
		142	Except being faster.
		143
97	=item $perl_scalar = from_json $json_string	144	=item $perl_scalar = decode_json $json_text
98		145
99	The opposite of C<to_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries to	146	The opposite of C<encode_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries
100	parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON string, returning the resulting simple	147	to parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting
101	scalar or reference. Croaks on error.	148	reference. Croaks on error.
102		149
103	This function call is functionally identical to C<< JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_string) >>.	150	This function call is functionally identical to:
		151
		152	$perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text)
		153
		154	Except being faster.
		155
		156	=item $is_boolean = JSON::XS::is_bool $scalar
		157
		158	Returns true if the passed scalar represents either JSON::XS::true or
		159	JSON::XS::false, two constants that act like C<1> and C<0>, respectively
		160	and are used to represent JSON C<true> and C<false> values in Perl.
		161
		162	See MAPPING, below, for more information on how JSON values are mapped to
		163	Perl.
104		164
105	=back	165	=back
		166
		167
		168	=head1 A FEW NOTES ON UNICODE AND PERL
		169
		170	Since this often leads to confusion, here are a few very clear words on
		171	how Unicode works in Perl, modulo bugs.
		172
		173	=over 4
		174
		175	=item 1. Perl strings can store characters with ordinal values > 255.
		176
		177	This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a
		178	Perl string - very natural.
		179
		180	=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings.
		181
		182	... until you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or
		183	printing the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your
		184	string as locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending
		185	on various settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your
		186	data, it is I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical meta data.
		187
		188	=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the
		189	encoding of your string.
		190
		191	Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in
		192	XS or want to dive into the internals of perl. Otherwise it will only
		193	confuse you, as, despite the name, it says nothing about how your string
		194	is encoded. You can have Unicode strings with that flag set, with that
		195	flag clear, and you can have binary data with that flag set and that flag
		196	clear. Other possibilities exist, too.
		197
		198	If you didn't know about that flag, just the better, pretend it doesn't
		199	exist.
		200
		201	=item 4. A "Unicode String" is simply a string where each character can be
		202	validly interpreted as a Unicode code point.
		203
		204	If you have UTF-8 encoded data, it is no longer a Unicode string, but a
		205	Unicode string encoded in UTF-8, giving you a binary string.
		206
		207	=item 5. A string containing "high" (> 255) character values is I<not> a UTF-8 string.
		208
		209	It's a fact. Learn to live with it.
		210
		211	=back
		212
		213	I hope this helps :)
		214
106		215
107	=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE	216	=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE
108		217
109	The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or	218	The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or
110	decoding style, within the limits of supported formats.	219	decoding style, within the limits of supported formats.
…		…
117	strings. All boolean flags described below are by default I<disabled>.	226	strings. All boolean flags described below are by default I<disabled>.
118		227
119	The mutators for flags all return the JSON object again and thus calls can	228	The mutators for flags all return the JSON object again and thus calls can
120	be chained:	229	be chained:
121		230
122	my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8(1)->space_after(1)->encode ({a => [1,2]})	231	my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]})
123	=> {"a": [1, 2]}	232	=> {"a": [1, 2]}
124		233
125	=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable])	234	=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable])
126		235
		236	=item $enabled = $json->get_ascii
		237
127	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will	238	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
128	not generate characters outside the code range C<0..127>. Any unicode	239	generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any
129	characters outside that range will be escaped using either a single	240	Unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a
130	\uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence, as per	241	single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence,
131	RFC4627.	242	as per RFC4627. The resulting encoded JSON text can be treated as a native
		243	Unicode string, an ascii-encoded, latin1-encoded or UTF-8 encoded string,
		244	or any other superset of ASCII.
132		245
133	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode	246	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
134	characters unless necessary.	247	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results
		248	in a faster and more compact format.
135		249
		250	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		251	document.
		252
		253	The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be
		254	transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not
		255	contain any 8 bit characters.
		256
136	JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode (chr 0x10401)	257	JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])
137	=> \ud801\udc01	258	=> ["\ud801\udc01"]
		259
		260	=item $json = $json->latin1 ([$enable])
		261
		262	=item $enabled = $json->get_latin1
		263
		264	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
		265	the resulting JSON text as latin1 (or iso-8859-1), escaping any characters
		266	outside the code range C<0..255>. The resulting string can be treated as a
		267	latin1-encoded JSON text or a native Unicode string. The C<decode> method
		268	will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default
		269	expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.
		270
		271	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
		272	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags.
		273
		274	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		275	document.
		276
		277	The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON
		278	text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded
		279	size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded
		280	in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and
		281	transferring), a rare encoding for JSON. It is therefore most useful when
		282	you want to store data structures known to contain binary data efficiently
		283	in files or databases, not when talking to other JSON encoders/decoders.
		284
		285	JSON::XS->new->latin1->encode (["\x{89}\x{abc}"]
		286	=> ["\x{89}\\u0abc"] # (perl syntax, U+abc escaped, U+89 not)
138		287
139	=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable])	288	=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable])
140		289
		290	=item $enabled = $json->get_utf8
		291
141	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode	292	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
142	the JSON string into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the	293	the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the
143	C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please	294	C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please
144	note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the	295	note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the
145	range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O.	296	range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future
		297	versions, enabling this option might enable autodetection of the UTF-16
		298	and UTF-32 encoding families, as described in RFC4627.
146		299
147	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON	300	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON
148	string as a (non-encoded) unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a	301	string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a
149	unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs	302	Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs
150	to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.	303	to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.
		304
		305	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		306	document.
		307
		308	Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:
		309
		310	use Encode;
		311	$jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);
		312
		313	Example, decode UTF-32LE-encoded JSON:
		314
		315	use Encode;
		316	$object = JSON::XS->new->decode (decode "UTF-32LE", $jsontext);
151		317
152	=item $json = $json->pretty ([$enable])	318	=item $json = $json->pretty ([$enable])
153		319
154	This enables (or disables) all of the C<indent>, C<space_before> and	320	This enables (or disables) all of the C<indent>, C<space_before> and
155	C<space_after> (and in the future possibly more) flags in one call to	321	C<space_after> (and in the future possibly more) flags in one call to
156	generate the most readable (or most compact) form possible.	322	generate the most readable (or most compact) form possible.
		323
		324	Example, pretty-print some simple structure:
157		325
158	my $json = JSON::XS->new->pretty(1)->encode ({a => [1,2]})	326	my $json = JSON::XS->new->pretty(1)->encode ({a => [1,2]})
159	=>	327	=>
160	{	328	{
161	"a" : [	329	"a" : [
…		…
164	]	332	]
165	}	333	}
166		334
167	=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable])	335	=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable])
168		336
		337	=item $enabled = $json->get_indent
		338
169	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline	339	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline
170	format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair	340	format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair
171	into its own line, identing them properly.	341	into its own line, indenting them properly.
172		342
173	If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the	343	If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the
174	resulting JSON strings is guarenteed not to contain any C<newlines>.	344	resulting JSON text is guaranteed not to contain any C<newlines>.
175		345
176	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON strings.	346	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
177		347
178	=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable])	348	=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable])
		349
		350	=item $enabled = $json->get_space_before
179		351
180	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra	352	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
181	optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects.	353	optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects.
182		354
183	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra	355	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra
184	space at those places.	356	space at those places.
185		357
186	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON strings. You will also most	358	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts. You will also
187	likely combine this setting with C<space_after>.	359	most likely combine this setting with C<space_after>.
		360
		361	Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled:
		362
		363	{"key" :"value"}
188		364
189	=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable])	365	=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable])
		366
		367	=item $enabled = $json->get_space_after
190		368
191	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra	369	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
192	optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects	370	optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects
193	and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array	371	and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array
194	members.	372	members.
195		373
196	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra	374	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra
197	space at those places.	375	space at those places.
198		376
199	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON strings.	377	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
		378
		379	Example, space_before and indent disabled, space_after enabled:
		380
		381	{"key": "value"}
		382
		383	=item $json = $json->relaxed ([$enable])
		384
		385	=item $enabled = $json->get_relaxed
		386
		387	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will accept some
		388	extensions to normal JSON syntax (see below). C<encode> will not be
		389	affected in anyway. I<Be aware that this option makes you accept invalid
		390	JSON texts as if they were valid!>. I suggest only to use this option to
		391	parse application-specific files written by humans (configuration files,
		392	resource files etc.)
		393
		394	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will only accept
		395	valid JSON texts.
		396
		397	Currently accepted extensions are:
		398
		399	=over 4
		400
		401	=item * list items can have an end-comma
		402
		403	JSON I<separates> array elements and key-value pairs with commas. This
		404	can be annoying if you write JSON texts manually and want to be able to
		405	quickly append elements, so this extension accepts comma at the end of
		406	such items not just between them:
		407
		408	[
		409	1,
		410	2, <- this comma not normally allowed
		411	]
		412	{
		413	"k1": "v1",
		414	"k2": "v2", <- this comma not normally allowed
		415	}
		416
		417	=item * shell-style '#'-comments
		418
		419	Whenever JSON allows whitespace, shell-style comments are additionally
		420	allowed. They are terminated by the first carriage-return or line-feed
		421	character, after which more white-space and comments are allowed.
		422
		423	[
		424	1, # this comment not allowed in JSON
		425	# neither this one...
		426	]
		427
		428	=back
200		429
201	=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable])	430	=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable])
		431
		432	=item $enabled = $json->get_canonical
202		433
203	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects	434	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects
204	by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.	435	by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.
205		436
206	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value	437	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value
207	pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs	438	pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs
208	of the same script).	439	of the same script).
209		440
210	This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as	441	This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as
211	the same JSON string (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,	442	the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,
212	the same hash migh be encoded differently even if contains the same data,	443	the same hash might be encoded differently even if contains the same data,
213	as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.	444	as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.
214		445
215	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON strings.	446	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
216		447
217	=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])	448	=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])
		449
		450	=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_nonref
218		451
219	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a	452	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a
220	non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value,	453	non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value,
221	which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON	454	which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON
222	values instead of croaking.	455	values instead of croaking.
223		456
224	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will croak if it isn't	457	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will croak if it isn't
225	passed an arrayref or hashref, as JSON strings must either be an object	458	passed an arrayref or hashref, as JSON texts must either be an object
226	or array. Likewise, C<decode> will croak if given something that is not a	459	or array. Likewise, C<decode> will croak if given something that is not a
227	JSON object or array.	460	JSON object or array.
228		461
		462	Example, encode a Perl scalar as JSON value with enabled C<allow_nonref>,
		463	resulting in an invalid JSON text:
		464
		465	JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!")
		466	=> "Hello, World!"
		467
		468	=item $json = $json->allow_unknown ([$enable])
		469
		470	=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_unknown
		471
		472	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
		473	exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in JSON (for
		474	example, filehandles) but instead will encode a JSON C<null> value. Note
		475	that blessed objects are not included here and are handled separately by
		476	c<allow_nonref>.
		477
		478	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
		479	exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as JSON.
		480
		481	This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
		482	leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
		483
		484	=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable])
		485
		486	=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_blessed
		487
		488	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
		489	barf when it encounters a blessed reference. Instead, the value of the
		490	B<convert_blessed> option will decide whether C<null> (C<convert_blessed>
		491	disabled or no C<TO_JSON> method found) or a representation of the
		492	object (C<convert_blessed> enabled and C<TO_JSON> method found) is being
		493	encoded. Has no effect on C<decode>.
		494
		495	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
		496	exception when it encounters a blessed object.
		497
		498	=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable])
		499
		500	=item $enabled = $json->get_convert_blessed
		501
		502	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
		503	blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method
		504	on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context
		505	and the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object. If no
		506	C<TO_JSON> method is found, the value of C<allow_blessed> will decide what
		507	to do.
		508
		509	The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON>
		510	returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same
		511	way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle
		512	(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other
		513	methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are
		514	usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with any C<to_json>
		515	function or method.
		516
		517	This setting does not yet influence C<decode> in any way, but in the
		518	future, global hooks might get installed that influence C<decode> and are
		519	enabled by this setting.
		520
		521	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<allow_blessed> setting will decide what
		522	to do when a blessed object is found.
		523
		524	=item $json = $json->filter_json_object ([$coderef->($hashref)])
		525
		526	When C<$coderef> is specified, it will be called from C<decode> each
		527	time it decodes a JSON object. The only argument is a reference to the
		528	newly-created hash. If the code references returns a single scalar (which
		529	need not be a reference), this value (i.e. a copy of that scalar to avoid
		530	aliasing) is inserted into the deserialised data structure. If it returns
		531	an empty list (NOTE: I<not> C<undef>, which is a valid scalar), the
		532	original deserialised hash will be inserted. This setting can slow down
		533	decoding considerably.
		534
		535	When C<$coderef> is omitted or undefined, any existing callback will
		536	be removed and C<decode> will not change the deserialised hash in any
		537	way.
		538
		539	Example, convert all JSON objects into the integer 5:
		540
		541	my $js = JSON::XS->new->filter_json_object (sub { 5 });
		542	# returns [5]
		543	$js->decode ('[{}]')
		544	# throw an exception because allow_nonref is not enabled
		545	# so a lone 5 is not allowed.
		546	$js->decode ('{"a":1, "b":2}');
		547
		548	=item $json = $json->filter_json_single_key_object ($key [=> $coderef->($value)])
		549
		550	Works remotely similar to C<filter_json_object>, but is only called for
		551	JSON objects having a single key named C<$key>.
		552
		553	This C<$coderef> is called before the one specified via
		554	C<filter_json_object>, if any. It gets passed the single value in the JSON
		555	object. If it returns a single value, it will be inserted into the data
		556	structure. If it returns nothing (not even C<undef> but the empty list),
		557	the callback from C<filter_json_object> will be called next, as if no
		558	single-key callback were specified.
		559
		560	If C<$coderef> is omitted or undefined, the corresponding callback will be
		561	disabled. There can only ever be one callback for a given key.
		562
		563	As this callback gets called less often then the C<filter_json_object>
		564	one, decoding speed will not usually suffer as much. Therefore, single-key
		565	objects make excellent targets to serialise Perl objects into, especially
		566	as single-key JSON objects are as close to the type-tagged value concept
		567	as JSON gets (it's basically an ID/VALUE tuple). Of course, JSON does not
		568	support this in any way, so you need to make sure your data never looks
		569	like a serialised Perl hash.
		570
		571	Typical names for the single object key are C<__class_whatever__>, or
		572	C<$__dollars_are_rarely_used__$> or C<}ugly_brace_placement>, or even
		573	things like C<__class_md5sum(classname)__>, to reduce the risk of clashing
		574	with real hashes.
		575
		576	Example, decode JSON objects of the form C<< { "__widget__" => <id> } >>
		577	into the corresponding C<< $WIDGET{<id>} >> object:
		578
		579	# return whatever is in $WIDGET{5}:
		580	JSON::XS
		581	->new
		582	->filter_json_single_key_object (__widget__ => sub {
		583	$WIDGET{ $_[0] }
		584	})
		585	->decode ('{"__widget__": 5')
		586
		587	# this can be used with a TO_JSON method in some "widget" class
		588	# for serialisation to json:
		589	sub WidgetBase::TO_JSON {
		590	my ($self) = @_;
		591
		592	unless ($self->{id}) {
		593	$self->{id} = ..get..some..id..;
		594	$WIDGET{$self->{id}} = $self;
		595	}
		596
		597	{ __widget__ => $self->{id} }
		598	}
		599
229	=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable])	600	=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable])
230		601
		602	=item $enabled = $json->get_shrink
		603
231	Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for	604	Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for
232	strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either	605	strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either
233	C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save	606	C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save
234	memory when your JSON strings are either very very long or you have many	607	memory when your JSON texts are either very very long or you have many
235	short strings. It will also try to downgrade any strings to octet-form	608	short strings. It will also try to downgrade any strings to octet-form
236	if possible: perl stores strings internally either in an encoding called	609	if possible: perl stores strings internally either in an encoding called
237	UTF-X or in octet-form. The latter cannot store everything but uses less	610	UTF-X or in octet-form. The latter cannot store everything but uses less
238	space in general.	611	space in general (and some buggy Perl or C code might even rely on that
		612	internal representation being used).
239		613
		614	The actual definition of what shrink does might change in future versions,
		615	but it will always try to save space at the expense of time.
		616
240	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), the string returned by C<encode> will be shrunk-to-fit,	617	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), the string returned by C<encode> will
241	while all strings generated by C<decode> will also be shrunk-to-fit.	618	be shrunk-to-fit, while all strings generated by C<decode> will also be
		619	shrunk-to-fit.
242		620
243	If C<$enable> is false, then the normal perl allocation algorithms are used.	621	If C<$enable> is false, then the normal perl allocation algorithms are used.
244	If you work with your data, then this is likely to be faster.	622	If you work with your data, then this is likely to be faster.
245		623
246	In the future, this setting might control other things, such as converting	624	In the future, this setting might control other things, such as converting
247	strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats	625	strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats
248	internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space.	626	internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space.
249		627
		628	=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
		629
		630	=item $max_depth = $json->get_max_depth
		631
		632	Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
		633	or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in JSON text or a Perl
		634	data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
		635	point.
		636
		637	Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
		638	needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
		639	characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
		640	given character in a string.
		641
		642	Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
		643	that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
		644
		645	If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
		646	is rarely useful.
		647
		648	Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
		649	been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
		650	crashing.
		651
		652	See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
		653
		654	=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
		655
		656	=item $max_size = $json->get_max_size
		657
		658	Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is
		659	being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
		660	is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
		661	attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
		662	effect on C<encode> (yet).
		663
		664	If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
		665	C<0> is specified).
		666
		667	See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
		668
250	=item $json_string = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)	669	=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)
251		670
252	Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference	671	Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference
253	to a hash or array) to its JSON representation. Simple scalars will be	672	to a hash or array) to its JSON representation. Simple scalars will be
254	converted into JSON string or number sequences, while references to arrays	673	converted into JSON string or number sequences, while references to arrays
255	become JSON arrays and references to hashes become JSON objects. Undefined	674	become JSON arrays and references to hashes become JSON objects. Undefined
256	Perl values (e.g. C<undef>) become JSON C<null> values. Neither C<true>	675	Perl values (e.g. C<undef>) become JSON C<null> values. Neither C<true>
257	nor C<false> values will be generated.	676	nor C<false> values will be generated.
258		677
259	=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_string)	678	=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text)
260		679
261	The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON string and tries to parse it,	680	The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it,
262	returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.	681	returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
263		682
264	JSON numbers and strings become simple Perl scalars. JSON arrays become	683	JSON numbers and strings become simple Perl scalars. JSON arrays become
265	Perl arrayrefs and JSON objects become Perl hashrefs. C<true> becomes	684	Perl arrayrefs and JSON objects become Perl hashrefs. C<true> becomes
266	C<1>, C<false> becomes C<0> and C<null> becomes C<undef>.	685	C<1>, C<false> becomes C<0> and C<null> becomes C<undef>.
267		686
		687	=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text)
		688
		689	This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
		690	when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will
		691	silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed
		692	so far.
		693
		694	This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
		695	(which is not the brightest thing to do in the first place) and you need
		696	to know where the JSON text ends.
		697
		698	JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail")
		699	=> ([], 3)
		700
268	=back	701	=back
		702
		703
		704	=head1 INCREMENTAL PARSING
		705
		706	In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
		707	texts. While this module always has to keep both JSON text and resulting
		708	Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
		709	JSON stream incrementally. It does so by accumulating text until it has
		710	a full JSON object, which it then can decode. This process is similar to
		711	using C<decode_prefix> to see if a full JSON object is available, but is
		712	much more efficient (JSON::XS will only attempt to parse the JSON text
		713	once it is sure it has enough text to get a decisive result, using a very
		714	simple but truly incremental parser).
		715
		716	The following two methods deal with this.
		717
		718	=over 4
		719
		720	=item [void, scalar or list context] = $json->incr_parse ([$string])
		721
		722	This is the central parsing function. It can both append new text and
		723	extract objects from the stream accumulated so far (both of these
		724	functions are optional).
		725
		726	If C<$string> is given, then this string is appended to the already
		727	existing JSON fragment stored in the C<$json> object.
		728
		729	After that, if the function is called in void context, it will simply
		730	return without doing anything further. This can be used to add more text
		731	in as many chunks as you want.
		732
		733	If the method is called in scalar context, then it will try to extract
		734	exactly I<one> JSON object. If that is successful, it will return this
		735	object, otherwise it will return C<undef>. If there is a parse error,
		736	this method will croak just as C<decode> would do (one can then use
		737	C<incr_skip> to skip the errornous part). This is the most common way of
		738	using the method.
		739
		740	And finally, in list context, it will try to extract as many objects
		741	from the stream as it can find and return them, or the empty list
		742	otherwise. For this to work, there must be no separators between the JSON
		743	objects or arrays, instead they must be concatenated back-to-back. If
		744	an error occurs, an exception will be raised as in the scalar context
		745	case. Note that in this case, any previously-parsed JSON texts will be
		746	lost.
		747
		748	=item $lvalue_string = $json->incr_text
		749
		750	This method returns the currently stored JSON fragment as an lvalue, that
		751	is, you can manipulate it. This I<only> works when a preceding call to
		752	C<incr_parse> in I<scalar context> successfully returned an object. Under
		753	all other circumstances you must not call this function (I mean it.
		754	although in simple tests it might actually work, it I<will> fail under
		755	real world conditions). As a special exception, you can also call this
		756	method before having parsed anything.
		757
		758	This function is useful in two cases: a) finding the trailing text after a
		759	JSON object or b) parsing multiple JSON objects separated by non-JSON text
		760	(such as commas).
		761
		762	=item $json->incr_skip
		763
		764	This will reset the state of the incremental parser and will remove the
		765	parsed text from the input buffer. This is useful after C<incr_parse>
		766	died, in which case the input buffer and incremental parser state is left
		767	unchanged, to skip the text parsed so far and to reset the parse state.
		768
		769	=item $json->incr_reset
		770
		771	This completely resets the incremental parser, that is, after this call,
		772	it will be as if the parser had never parsed anything.
		773
		774	This is useful if you want ot repeatedly parse JSON objects and want to
		775	ignore any trailing data, which means you have to reset the parser after
		776	each successful decode.
		777
		778	=back
		779
		780	=head2 LIMITATIONS
		781
		782	All options that affect decoding are supported, except
		783	C<allow_nonref>. The reason for this is that it cannot be made to
		784	work sensibly: JSON objects and arrays are self-delimited, i.e. you can concatenate
		785	them back to back and still decode them perfectly. This does not hold true
		786	for JSON numbers, however.
		787
		788	For example, is the string C<1> a single JSON number, or is it simply the
		789	start of C<12>? Or is C<12> a single JSON number, or the concatenation
		790	of C<1> and C<2>? In neither case you can tell, and this is why JSON::XS
		791	takes the conservative route and disallows this case.
		792
		793	=head2 EXAMPLES
		794
		795	Some examples will make all this clearer. First, a simple example that
		796	works similarly to C<decode_prefix>: We want to decode the JSON object at
		797	the start of a string and identify the portion after the JSON object:
		798
		799	my $text = "[1,2,3] hello";
		800
		801	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		802
		803	my $obj = $json->incr_parse ($text)
		804	or die "expected JSON object or array at beginning of string";
		805
		806	my $tail = $json->incr_text;
		807	# $tail now contains " hello"
		808
		809	Easy, isn't it?
		810
		811	Now for a more complicated example: Imagine a hypothetical protocol where
		812	you read some requests from a TCP stream, and each request is a JSON
		813	array, without any separation between them (in fact, it is often useful to
		814	use newlines as "separators", as these get interpreted as whitespace at
		815	the start of the JSON text, which makes it possible to test said protocol
		816	with C<telnet>...).
		817
		818	Here is how you'd do it (it is trivial to write this in an event-based
		819	manner):
		820
		821	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		822
		823	# read some data from the socket
		824	while (sysread $socket, my $buf, 4096) {
		825
		826	# split and decode as many requests as possible
		827	for my $request ($json->incr_parse ($buf)) {
		828	# act on the $request
		829	}
		830	}
		831
		832	Another complicated example: Assume you have a string with JSON objects
		833	or arrays, all separated by (optional) comma characters (e.g. C<[1],[2],
		834	[3]>). To parse them, we have to skip the commas between the JSON texts,
		835	and here is where the lvalue-ness of C<incr_text> comes in useful:
		836
		837	my $text = "[1],[2], [3]";
		838	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		839
		840	# void context, so no parsing done
		841	$json->incr_parse ($text);
		842
		843	# now extract as many objects as possible. note the
		844	# use of scalar context so incr_text can be called.
		845	while (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
		846	# do something with $obj
		847
		848	# now skip the optional comma
		849	$json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* , //x;
		850	}
		851
		852	Now lets go for a very complex example: Assume that you have a gigantic
		853	JSON array-of-objects, many gigabytes in size, and you want to parse it,
		854	but you cannot load it into memory fully (this has actually happened in
		855	the real world :).
		856
		857	Well, you lost, you have to implement your own JSON parser. But JSON::XS
		858	can still help you: You implement a (very simple) array parser and let
		859	JSON decode the array elements, which are all full JSON objects on their
		860	own (this wouldn't work if the array elements could be JSON numbers, for
		861	example):
		862
		863	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		864
		865	# open the monster
		866	open my $fh, "<bigfile.json"
		867	or die "bigfile: $!";
		868
		869	# first parse the initial "["
		870	for (;;) {
		871	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		872	or die "read error: $!";
		873	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		874
		875	# Exit the loop once we found and removed(!) the initial "[".
		876	# In essence, we are (ab-)using the $json object as a simple scalar
		877	# we append data to.
		878	last if $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* \[ //x;
		879	}
		880
		881	# now we have the skipped the initial "[", so continue
		882	# parsing all the elements.
		883	for (;;) {
		884	# in this loop we read data until we got a single JSON object
		885	for (;;) {
		886	if (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
		887	# do something with $obj
		888	last;
		889	}
		890
		891	# add more data
		892	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		893	or die "read error: $!";
		894	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		895	}
		896
		897	# in this loop we read data until we either found and parsed the
		898	# separating "," between elements, or the final "]"
		899	for (;;) {
		900	# first skip whitespace
		901	$json->incr_text =~ s/^\s*//;
		902
		903	# if we find "]", we are done
		904	if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^\]//) {
		905	print "finished.\n";
		906	exit;
		907	}
		908
		909	# if we find ",", we can continue with the next element
		910	if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^,//) {
		911	last;
		912	}
		913
		914	# if we find anything else, we have a parse error!
		915	if (length $json->incr_text) {
		916	die "parse error near ", $json->incr_text;
		917	}
		918
		919	# else add more data
		920	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		921	or die "read error: $!";
		922	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		923	}
		924
		925	This is a complex example, but most of the complexity comes from the fact
		926	that we are trying to be correct (bear with me if I am wrong, I never ran
		927	the above example :).
		928
		929
269		930
270	=head1 MAPPING	931	=head1 MAPPING
271		932
272	This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and	933	This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and
273	vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most	934	vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
274	circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics	935	circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
275	(what you put in comes out as something equivalent).	936	(what you put in comes out as something equivalent).
276		937
277	For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,	938	For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,
278	lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppcercase I<Perl>	939	lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppercase I<Perl>
279	refers to the abstract Perl language itself.	940	refers to the abstract Perl language itself.
280		941
		942
281	=head2 JSON -> PERL	943	=head2 JSON -> PERL
282		944
283	=over 4	945	=over 4
284		946
285	=item object	947	=item object
286		948
287	A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object	949	A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object
288	keys is preserved.	950	keys is preserved (JSON does not preserve object key ordering itself).
289		951
290	=item array	952	=item array
291		953
292	A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl.	954	A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl.
293		955
…		…
297	are represented by the same codepoints in the Perl string, so no manual	959	are represented by the same codepoints in the Perl string, so no manual
298	decoding is necessary.	960	decoding is necessary.
299		961
300	=item number	962	=item number
301		963
302	A JSON number becomes either an integer or numeric (floating point)	964	A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or
303	scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On the	965	string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On
304	Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all the	966	the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all
305	conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and might	967	the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and
306	represent more values exactly than (floating point) numbers.	968	might represent more values exactly than floating point numbers.
		969
		970	If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent
		971	it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as
		972	a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of
		973	precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value (in
		974	which case you lose roundtripping ability, as the JSON number will be
		975	re-encoded toa JSON string).
		976
		977	Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be
		978	represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of
		979	precision (in which case you might lose perfect roundtripping ability, but
		980	the JSON number will still be re-encoded as a JSON number).
307		981
308	=item true, false	982	=item true, false
309		983
310	These JSON atoms become C<0>, C<1>, respectively. Information is lost in	984	These JSON atoms become C<JSON::XS::true> and C<JSON::XS::false>,
311	this process. Future versions might represent those values differently,	985	respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers
312	but they will be guarenteed to act like these integers would normally in	986	C<1> and C<0>. You can check whether a scalar is a JSON boolean by using
313	Perl.	987	the C<JSON::XS::is_bool> function.
314		988
315	=item null	989	=item null
316		990
317	A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.	991	A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.
318		992
319	=back	993	=back
		994
320		995
321	=head2 PERL -> JSON	996	=head2 PERL -> JSON
322		997
323	The mapping from Perl to JSON is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a	998	The mapping from Perl to JSON is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a
324	truly typeless language, so we can only guess which JSON type is meant by	999	truly typeless language, so we can only guess which JSON type is meant by
…		…
327	=over 4	1002	=over 4
328		1003
329	=item hash references	1004	=item hash references
330		1005
331	Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent ordering	1006	Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent ordering
332	in hash keys, they will usually be encoded in a pseudo-random order that	1007	in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded in a
333	can change between runs of the same program but stays generally the same	1008	pseudo-random order that can change between runs of the same program but
334	within the single run of a program. JSON::XS can optionally sort the hash	1009	stays generally the same within a single run of a program. JSON::XS can
335	keys (determined by the I<canonical> flag), so the same datastructure	1010	optionally sort the hash keys (determined by the I<canonical> flag), so
336	will serialise to the same JSON text (given same settings and version of	1011	the same datastructure will serialise to the same JSON text (given same
337	JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead.	1012	settings and version of JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead
		1013	and is only rarely useful, e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text
		1014	against another for equality.
338		1015
339	=item array references	1016	=item array references
340		1017
341	Perl array references become JSON arrays.	1018	Perl array references become JSON arrays.
342		1019
		1020	=item other references
		1021
		1022	Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an
		1023	exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and
		1024	C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON. You can
		1025	also use C<JSON::XS::false> and C<JSON::XS::true> to improve readability.
		1026
		1027	encode_json [\0, JSON::XS::true] # yields [false,true]
		1028
		1029	=item JSON::XS::true, JSON::XS::false
		1030
		1031	These special values become JSON true and JSON false values,
		1032	respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0> directly if you want.
		1033
343	=item blessed objects	1034	=item blessed objects
344		1035
345	Blessed objects are not allowed. JSON::XS currently tries to encode their	1036	Blessed objects are not directly representable in JSON. See the
346	underlying representation (hash- or arrayref), but this behaviour might	1037	C<allow_blessed> and C<convert_blessed> methods on various options on
347	change in future versions.	1038	how to deal with this: basically, you can choose between throwing an
		1039	exception, encoding the reference as if it weren't blessed, or provide
		1040	your own serialiser method.
348		1041
349	=item simple scalars	1042	=item simple scalars
350		1043
351	Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most	1044	Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
352	difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as	1045	difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as
353	JSON null value, scalars that have last been used in a string context	1046	JSON C<null> values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
354	before encoding as JSON strings and anything else as number value:	1047	before encoding as JSON strings, and anything else as number value:
355		1048
356	# dump as number	1049	# dump as number
357	to_json [2] # yields [2]	1050	encode_json [2] # yields [2]
358	to_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]	1051	encode_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
359	my $value = 5; to_json [$value] # yields [5]	1052	my $value = 5; encode_json [$value] # yields [5]
360		1053
361	# used as string, so dump as string	1054	# used as string, so dump as string
362	print $value;	1055	print $value;
363	to_json [$value] # yields ["5"]	1056	encode_json [$value] # yields ["5"]
364		1057
365	# undef becomes null	1058	# undef becomes null
366	to_json [undef] # yields [null]	1059	encode_json [undef] # yields [null]
367		1060
368	You can force the type to be a string by stringifying it:	1061	You can force the type to be a JSON string by stringifying it:
369		1062
370	my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number	1063	my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
371	"$x"; # stringified	1064	"$x"; # stringified
372	$x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify	1065	$x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify
373	print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often	1066	print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often
374		1067
375	You can force the type to be a number by numifying it:	1068	You can force the type to be a JSON number by numifying it:
376		1069
377	my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string	1070	my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
378	$x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number	1071	$x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
379	$x *= 1; # same thing, the choise is yours.	1072	$x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
380		1073
381	You can not currently output JSON booleans or force the type in other,	1074	You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
382	less obscure, ways. Tell me if you need this capability.	1075	if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
		1076	:).
383		1077
384	=back	1078	=back
385		1079
386	=head1 COMPARISON
387		1080
388	As already mentioned, this module was created because none of the existing	1081	=head1 ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES
389	JSON modules could be made to work correctly. First I will describe the	1082
390	problems (or pleasures) I encountered with various existing JSON modules,	1083	The interested reader might have seen a number of flags that signify
391	followed by some benchmark values. JSON::XS was designed not to suffer	1084	encodings or codesets - C<utf8>, C<latin1> and C<ascii>. There seems to be
392	from any of these problems or limitations.	1085	some confusion on what these do, so here is a short comparison:
		1086
		1087	C<utf8> controls whether the JSON text created by C<encode> (and expected
		1088	by C<decode>) is UTF-8 encoded or not, while C<latin1> and C<ascii> only
		1089	control whether C<encode> escapes character values outside their respective
		1090	codeset range. Neither of these flags conflict with each other, although
		1091	some combinations make less sense than others.
		1092
		1093	Care has been taken to make all flags symmetrical with respect to
		1094	C<encode> and C<decode>, that is, texts encoded with any combination of
		1095	these flag values will be correctly decoded when the same flags are used
		1096	- in general, if you use different flag settings while encoding vs. when
		1097	decoding you likely have a bug somewhere.
		1098
		1099	Below comes a verbose discussion of these flags. Note that a "codeset" is
		1100	simply an abstract set of character-codepoint pairs, while an encoding
		1101	takes those codepoint numbers and I<encodes> them, in our case into
		1102	octets. Unicode is (among other things) a codeset, UTF-8 is an encoding,
		1103	and ISO-8859-1 (= latin 1) and ASCII are both codesets I<and> encodings at
		1104	the same time, which can be confusing.
393		1105
394	=over 4	1106	=over 4
395		1107
396	=item JSON 1.07	1108	=item C<utf8> flag disabled
397		1109
398	Slow (but very portable, as it is written in pure Perl).	1110	When C<utf8> is disabled (the default), then C<encode>/C<decode> generate
		1111	and expect Unicode strings, that is, characters with high ordinal Unicode
		1112	values (> 255) will be encoded as such characters, and likewise such
		1113	characters are decoded as-is, no canges to them will be done, except
		1114	"(re-)interpreting" them as Unicode codepoints or Unicode characters,
		1115	respectively (to Perl, these are the same thing in strings unless you do
		1116	funny/weird/dumb stuff).
399		1117
400	Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling (how JSON handles unicode values is	1118	This is useful when you want to do the encoding yourself (e.g. when you
401	undocumented. One can get far by feeding it unicode strings and doing	1119	want to have UTF-16 encoded JSON texts) or when some other layer does
402	en-/decoding oneself, but unicode escapes are not working properly).	1120	the encoding for you (for example, when printing to a terminal using a
		1121	filehandle that transparently encodes to UTF-8 you certainly do NOT want
		1122	to UTF-8 encode your data first and have Perl encode it another time).
403		1123
404	No roundtripping (strings get clobbered if they look like numbers, e.g.	1124	=item C<utf8> flag enabled
405	the string C<2.0> will encode to C<2.0> instead of C<"2.0">, and that will
406	decode into the number 2.
407		1125
408	=item JSON::PC 0.01	1126	If the C<utf8>-flag is enabled, C<encode>/C<decode> will encode all
		1127	characters using the corresponding UTF-8 multi-byte sequence, and will
		1128	expect your input strings to be encoded as UTF-8, that is, no "character"
		1129	of the input string must have any value > 255, as UTF-8 does not allow
		1130	that.
409		1131
410	Very fast.	1132	The C<utf8> flag therefore switches between two modes: disabled means you
		1133	will get a Unicode string in Perl, enabled means you get an UTF-8 encoded
		1134	octet/binary string in Perl.
411		1135
412	Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling.	1136	=item C<latin1> or C<ascii> flags enabled
413		1137
414	No roundtripping.	1138	With C<latin1> (or C<ascii>) enabled, C<encode> will escape characters
		1139	with ordinal values > 255 (> 127 with C<ascii>) and encode the remaining
		1140	characters as specified by the C<utf8> flag.
415		1141
416	Has problems handling many Perl values (e.g. regex results and other magic	1142	If C<utf8> is disabled, then the result is also correctly encoded in those
417	values will make it croak).	1143	character sets (as both are proper subsets of Unicode, meaning that a
		1144	Unicode string with all character values < 256 is the same thing as a
		1145	ISO-8859-1 string, and a Unicode string with all character values < 128 is
		1146	the same thing as an ASCII string in Perl).
418		1147
419	Does not even generate valid JSON (C<{1,2}> gets converted to C<{1:2}>	1148	If C<utf8> is enabled, you still get a correct UTF-8-encoded string,
420	which is not a valid JSON string.	1149	regardless of these flags, just some more characters will be escaped using
		1150	C<\uXXXX> then before.
421		1151
422	Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not	1152	Note that ISO-8859-1-I<encoded> strings are not compatible with UTF-8
423	getting fixed).	1153	encoding, while ASCII-encoded strings are. That is because the ISO-8859-1
		1154	encoding is NOT a subset of UTF-8 (despite the ISO-8859-1 I<codeset> being
		1155	a subset of Unicode), while ASCII is.
424		1156
425	=item JSON::Syck 0.21	1157	Surprisingly, C<decode> will ignore these flags and so treat all input
		1158	values as governed by the C<utf8> flag. If it is disabled, this allows you
		1159	to decode ISO-8859-1- and ASCII-encoded strings, as both strict subsets of
		1160	Unicode. If it is enabled, you can correctly decode UTF-8 encoded strings.
426		1161
427	Very buggy (often crashes).	1162	So neither C<latin1> nor C<ascii> are incompatible with the C<utf8> flag -
		1163	they only govern when the JSON output engine escapes a character or not.
428		1164
429	Very inflexible (no human-readable format supported, format pretty much	1165	The main use for C<latin1> is to relatively efficiently store binary data
430	undocumented. I need at least a format for easy reading by humans and a	1166	as JSON, at the expense of breaking compatibility with most JSON decoders.
431	single-line compact format for use in a protocol, and preferably a way to
432	generate ASCII-only JSON strings).
433		1167
434	Completely broken (and confusingly documented) Unicode handling (unicode	1168	The main use for C<ascii> is to force the output to not contain characters
435	escapes are not working properly, you need to set ImplicitUnicode to	1169	with values > 127, which means you can interpret the resulting string
436	I<different> values on en- and decoding to get symmetric behaviour).	1170	as UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ASCII, KOI8-R or most about any character set and
437		1171	8-bit-encoding, and still get the same data structure back. This is useful
438	No roundtripping (simple cases work, but this depends on wether the scalar	1172	when your channel for JSON transfer is not 8-bit clean or the encoding
439	value was used in a numeric context or not).	1173	might be mangled in between (e.g. in mail), and works because ASCII is a
440		1174	proper subset of most 8-bit and multibyte encodings in use in the world.
441	Dumping hashes may skip hash values depending on iterator state.
442
443	Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not
444	getting fixed).
445
446	Does not check input for validity (i.e. will accept non-JSON input and
447	return "something" instead of raising an exception. This is a security
448	issue: imagine two banks transfering money between each other using
449	JSON. One bank might parse a given non-JSON request and deduct money,
450	while the other might reject the transaction with a syntax error. While a
451	good protocol will at least recover, that is extra unnecessary work and
452	the transaction will still not succeed).
453
454	=item JSON::DWIW 0.04
455
456	Very fast. Very natural. Very nice.
457
458	Undocumented unicode handling (but the best of the pack. Unicode escapes
459	still don't get parsed properly).
460
461	Very inflexible.
462
463	No roundtripping.
464
465	Does not generate valid JSON (key strings are often unquoted, empty keys
466	result in nothing being output)
467
468	Does not check input for validity.
469		1175
470	=back	1176	=back
		1177
		1178
		1179	=head2 JSON and YAML
		1180
		1181	You often hear that JSON is a subset of YAML. This is, however, a mass
		1182	hysteria(*) and very far from the truth (as of the time of this writing),
		1183	so let me state it clearly: I<in general, there is no way to configure
		1184	JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML> that works in all
		1185	cases.
		1186
		1187	If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this
		1188	algorithm (subject to change in future versions):
		1189
		1190	my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);
		1191	my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";
		1192
		1193	This will I<usually> generate JSON texts that also parse as valid
		1194	YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key
		1195	lengths that JSON doesn't have and also has different and incompatible
		1196	unicode handling, so you should make sure that your hash keys are
		1197	noticeably shorter than the 1024 "stream characters" YAML allows and that
		1198	you do not have characters with codepoint values outside the Unicode BMP
		1199	(basic multilingual page). YAML also does not allow C<\/> sequences in
		1200	strings (which JSON::XS does not I<currently> generate, but other JSON
		1201	generators might).
		1202
		1203	There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of (or the YAML
		1204	specification has been changed yet again - it does so quite often). In
		1205	general you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice
		1206	versa, or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are
		1207	high that you will run into severe interoperability problems when you
		1208	least expect it.
		1209
		1210	=over 4
		1211
		1212	=item (*)
		1213
		1214	I have been pressured multiple times by Brian Ingerson (one of the
		1215	authors of the YAML specification) to remove this paragraph, despite him
		1216	acknowledging that the actual incompatibilities exist. As I was personally
		1217	bitten by this "JSON is YAML" lie, I refused and said I will continue to
		1218	educate people about these issues, so others do not run into the same
		1219	problem again and again. After this, Brian called me a (quote)I<complete
		1220	and worthless idiot>(unquote).
		1221
		1222	In my opinion, instead of pressuring and insulting people who actually
		1223	clarify issues with YAML and the wrong statements of some of its
		1224	proponents, I would kindly suggest reading the JSON spec (which is not
		1225	that difficult or long) and finally make YAML compatible to it, and
		1226	educating users about the changes, instead of spreading lies about the
		1227	real compatibility for many I<years> and trying to silence people who
		1228	point out that it isn't true.
		1229
		1230	=back
		1231
471		1232
472	=head2 SPEED	1233	=head2 SPEED
473		1234
474	It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following	1235	It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following
475	tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program	1236	tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program
476	in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own	1237	in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own
477	system.	1238	system.
478		1239
479	First is a comparison between various modules using a very simple JSON	1240	First comes a comparison between various modules using
		1241	a very short single-line JSON string (also available at
		1242	L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/short.json>).
		1243
		1244	{"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1",
		1245	"we were just talking"], "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7,
		1246	true, false]}
		1247
480	string, showing the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS is	1248	It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses
481	the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 is the OO interface with	1249	the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface
482	pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled).	1250	with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables
		1251	shrink). Higher is better:
483		1252
484	module | encode | decode |	1253	module | encode | decode |
485	-----------|------------|------------|	1254	-----------|------------|------------|
486	JSON | 14006 | 6820 |	1255	JSON 1.x | 4990.842 | 4088.813 |
487	JSON::DWIW | 200937 | 120386 |	1256	JSON::DWIW | 51653.990 | 71575.154 |
488	JSON::PC | 85065 | 129366 |	1257	JSON::PC | 65948.176 | 74631.744 |
489	JSON::Syck | 59898 | 44232 |	1258	JSON::PP | 8931.652 | 3817.168 |
490	JSON::XS | 1171478 | 342435 |	1259	JSON::Syck | 24877.248 | 27776.848 |
491	JSON::XS/2 | 730760 | 328714 |	1260	JSON::XS | 388361.481 | 227951.304 |
		1261	JSON::XS/2 | 227951.304 | 218453.333 |
		1262	JSON::XS/3 | 338250.323 | 218453.333 |
		1263	Storable | 16500.016 | 135300.129 |
492	-----------+------------+------------+	1264	-----------+------------+------------+
493		1265
494	That is, JSON::XS is 6 times faster than than JSON::DWIW and about 80	1266	That is, JSON::XS is about five times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding,
		1267	about three times faster on decoding, and over forty times faster
495	times faster than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting.	1268	than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting. It also compares
		1269	favourably to Storable for small amounts of data.
496		1270
497	Using a longer test string (roughly 8KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals	1271	Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals
498	search API (http://nanoref.com/yahooapis/mgPdGg):	1272	search API (L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/long.json>).
499		1273
500	module | encode | decode |	1274	module | encode | decode |
501	-----------|------------|------------|	1275	-----------|------------|------------|
502	JSON | 673 | 38 |	1276	JSON 1.x | 55.260 | 34.971 |
503	JSON::DWIW | 5271 | 770 |	1277	JSON::DWIW | 825.228 | 1082.513 |
504	JSON::PC | 9901 | 2491 |	1278	JSON::PC | 3571.444 | 2394.829 |
505	JSON::Syck | 2360 | 786 |	1279	JSON::PP | 210.987 | 32.574 |
506	JSON::XS | 37398 | 3202 |	1280	JSON::Syck | 552.551 | 787.544 |
507	JSON::XS/2 | 13765 | 3153 |	1281	JSON::XS | 5780.463 | 4854.519 |
		1282	JSON::XS/2 | 3869.998 | 4798.975 |
		1283	JSON::XS/3 | 5862.880 | 4798.975 |
		1284	Storable | 4445.002 | 5235.027 |
508	-----------+------------+------------+	1285	-----------+------------+------------+
509		1286
510	Again, JSON::XS leads by far in the encoding case, while still beating	1287	Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly
511	every other module in the decoding case.	1288	decodes faster).
512		1289
513	Last example is an almost 8MB large hash with many large binary values	1290	On large strings containing lots of high Unicode characters, some modules
514	(PNG files), resulting in a lot of escaping:	1291	(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result
		1292	will be broken due to missing (or wrong) Unicode handling. Others refuse
		1293	to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair
		1294	comparison table for that case.
		1295
		1296
		1297	=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
		1298
		1299	When you are using JSON in a protocol, talking to untrusted potentially
		1300	hostile creatures requires relatively few measures.
		1301
		1302	First of all, your JSON decoder should be secure, that is, should not have
		1303	any buffer overflows. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am
		1304	trying hard on making that true, but you never know.
		1305
		1306	Second, you need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should
		1307	limit the size of JSON texts you accept, or make sure then when your
		1308	resources run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that
		1309	can crash safely). The size of a JSON text in octets or characters is
		1310	usually a good indication of the size of the resources required to decode
		1311	it into a Perl structure. While JSON::XS can check the size of the JSON
		1312	text, it might be too late when you already have it in memory, so you
		1313	might want to check the size before you accept the string.
		1314
		1315	Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and
		1316	arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64
		1317	machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but
		1318	only 14k nested JSON objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak
		1319	to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be
		1320	conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process
		1321	has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the
		1322	C<max_depth> method.
		1323
		1324	Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
		1325	case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
		1326
		1327	Also keep in mind that JSON::XS might leak contents of your Perl data
		1328	structures in its error messages, so when you serialise sensitive
		1329	information you might want to make sure that exceptions thrown by JSON::XS
		1330	will not end up in front of untrusted eyes.
		1331
		1332	If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption
		1333	by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at
		1334	L<http://jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security> to see whether
		1335	you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really are browser
		1336	design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with it, as major
		1337	browser developers care only for features, not about getting security
		1338	right).
		1339
		1340
		1341	=head1 THREADS
		1342
		1343	This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
		1344	plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
		1345	horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
		1346	process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
		1347
		1348	(It might actually work, but you have been warned).
		1349
515		1350
516	=head1 BUGS	1351	=head1 BUGS
517		1352
518	While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does	1353	While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
519	not mean its bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. It is	1354	not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
520	still very young and not well-tested. If you keep reporting bugs they will	1355	keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
521	be fixed swiftly, though.	1356
		1357	Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
		1358	service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
522		1359
523	=cut	1360	=cut
524		1361
		1362	our $true = do { bless \(my $dummy = 1), "JSON::XS::Boolean" };
		1363	our $false = do { bless \(my $dummy = 0), "JSON::XS::Boolean" };
		1364
		1365	sub true() { $true }
		1366	sub false() { $false }
		1367
		1368	sub is_bool($) {
		1369	UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::XS::Boolean"
		1370	# or UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::Literal"
		1371	}
		1372
		1373	XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION;
		1374
		1375	package JSON::XS::Boolean;
		1376
		1377	use overload
		1378	"0+" => sub { ${$_[0]} },
		1379	"++" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} + 1 },
		1380	"--" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} - 1 },
		1381	fallback => 1;
		1382
525	1;	1383	1;
		1384
		1385	=head1 SEE ALSO
		1386
		1387	The F<json_xs> command line utility for quick experiments.
526		1388
527	=head1 AUTHOR	1389	=head1 AUTHOR
528		1390
529	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>	1391	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
530	http://home.schmorp.de/	1392	http://home.schmorp.de/

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