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Revision 1.19 by root, Sat Mar 24 22:57:12 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.142 by root, Fri Oct 25 19:57:42 2013 UTC

1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast 3JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast
4 4
5=encoding utf-8
6
7JSON::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;
8 13
9 # exported functions, croak on error 14 # exported functions, they croak on error
15 # and expect/generate UTF-8
10 16
11 $utf8_encoded_json_text = to_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref; 17 $utf8_encoded_json_text = encode_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref;
12 $perl_hash_or_arrayref = from_json $utf8_encoded_json_text; 18 $perl_hash_or_arrayref = decode_json $utf8_encoded_json_text;
13 19
14 # oo-interface 20 # OO-interface
15 21
16 $coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref; 22 $coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref;
17 $pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar); 23 $pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar);
18 $perl_scalar = $coder->decode ($unicode_json_text); 24 $perl_scalar = $coder->decode ($unicode_json_text);
19 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.
33
20=head1 DESCRIPTION 34=head1 DESCRIPTION
21 35
22This module converts Perl data structures to JSON and vice versa. Its 36This module converts Perl data structures to JSON and vice versa. Its
23primary goal is to be I<correct> and its secondary goal is to be 37primary goal is to be I<correct> and its secondary goal is to be
24I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C. 38I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C.
39
40Beginning with version 2.0 of the JSON module, when both JSON and
41JSON::XS are installed, then JSON will fall back on JSON::XS (this can be
42overridden) with no overhead due to emulation (by inheriting constructor
43and methods). If JSON::XS is not available, it will fall back to the
44compatible JSON::PP module as backend, so using JSON instead of JSON::XS
45gives you a portable JSON API that can be fast when you need and doesn't
46require a C compiler when that is a problem.
25 47
26As this is the n-th-something JSON module on CPAN, what was the reason 48As this is the n-th-something JSON module on CPAN, what was the reason
27to write yet another JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON 49to write yet another JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON
28modules, none of them correctly handle all corner cases, and in most cases 50modules, none of them correctly handle all corner cases, and in most cases
29their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug 51their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug
30reports for other reasons. 52reports for other reasons.
31 53
32See COMPARISON, below, for a comparison to some other JSON modules.
33
34See MAPPING, below, on how JSON::XS maps perl values to JSON values and 54See MAPPING, below, on how JSON::XS maps perl values to JSON values and
35vice versa. 55vice versa.
36 56
37=head2 FEATURES 57=head2 FEATURES
38 58
39=over 4 59=over 4
40 60
41=item * correct handling of unicode issues 61=item * correct Unicode handling
42 62
43This module knows how to handle Unicode, and even documents how and when 63This module knows how to handle Unicode, documents how and when it does
44it does so. 64so, and even documents what "correct" means.
45 65
46=item * round-trip integrity 66=item * round-trip integrity
47 67
48When you serialise a perl data structure using only datatypes supported 68When you serialise a perl data structure using only data types supported
49by JSON, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl level. 69by JSON and Perl, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl
50(e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2"). 70level. (e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because
71it looks like a number). There I<are> minor exceptions to this, read the
72MAPPING section below to learn about those.
51 73
52=item * strict checking of JSON correctness 74=item * strict checking of JSON correctness
53 75
54There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default, 76There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default,
55and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security 77and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security
56feature). 78feature).
57 79
58=item * fast 80=item * fast
59 81
60Compared to other JSON modules, this module compares favourably in terms 82Compared to other JSON modules and other serialisers such as Storable,
61of speed, too. 83this module usually compares favourably in terms of speed, too.
62 84
63=item * simple to use 85=item * simple to use
64 86
65This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an OO 87This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an object
66interface. 88oriented interface.
67 89
68=item * reasonably versatile output formats 90=item * reasonably versatile output formats
69 91
70You can choose between the most compact guarenteed single-line format 92You can choose between the most compact guaranteed-single-line format
71possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ascii format (for 93possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ASCII format
72when your transport is not 8-bit clean), or a pretty-printed format (for 94(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole
73when you want to read that stuff). Or you can combine those features in 95Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that
74whatever way you like. 96stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.
75 97
76=back 98=back
77 99
78=cut 100=cut
79 101
80package JSON::XS; 102package JSON::XS;
81 103
82BEGIN { 104use common::sense;
83 $VERSION = '0.7'; 105
106our $VERSION = 2.34;
84 @ISA = qw(Exporter); 107our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
85 108
86 @EXPORT = qw(to_json from_json); 109our @EXPORT = qw(encode_json decode_json);
87 require Exporter;
88 110
89 require XSLoader; 111use Exporter;
90 XSLoader::load JSON::XS::, $VERSION; 112use XSLoader;
91}
92 113
93=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE 114=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
94 115
95The following convinience methods are provided by this module. They are 116The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are
96exported by default: 117exported by default:
97 118
98=over 4 119=over 4
99 120
100=item $json_text = to_json $perl_scalar 121=item $json_text = encode_json $perl_scalar
101 122
102Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference to 123Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string
103a hash or array) to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string (that is, the string contains 124(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error.
104octets only). Croaks on error.
105 125
106This function call is functionally identical to: 126This function call is functionally identical to:
107 127
108 $json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar) 128 $json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar)
109 129
110except being faster. 130Except being faster.
111 131
112=item $perl_scalar = from_json $json_text 132=item $perl_scalar = decode_json $json_text
113 133
114The opposite of C<to_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries to 134The opposite of C<encode_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries
115parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting simple 135to parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting
116scalar or reference. Croaks on error. 136reference. Croaks on error.
117 137
118This function call is functionally identical to: 138This function call is functionally identical to:
119 139
120 $perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text) 140 $perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text)
121 141
122except being faster. 142Except being faster.
143
144=item $is_boolean = JSON::XS::is_bool $scalar
145
146Returns true if the passed scalar represents either JSON::XS::true or
147JSON::XS::false, two constants that act like C<1> and C<0>, respectively
148and are used to represent JSON C<true> and C<false> values in Perl.
149
150See MAPPING, below, for more information on how JSON values are mapped to
151Perl.
123 152
124=back 153=back
154
155
156=head1 A FEW NOTES ON UNICODE AND PERL
157
158Since this often leads to confusion, here are a few very clear words on
159how Unicode works in Perl, modulo bugs.
160
161=over 4
162
163=item 1. Perl strings can store characters with ordinal values > 255.
164
165This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a
166Perl string - very natural.
167
168=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings.
169
170... until you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or
171printing the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your
172string as locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending
173on various settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your
174data, it is I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical meta data.
175
176=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the
177encoding of your string.
178
179Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in
180XS or want to dive into the internals of perl. Otherwise it will only
181confuse you, as, despite the name, it says nothing about how your string
182is encoded. You can have Unicode strings with that flag set, with that
183flag clear, and you can have binary data with that flag set and that flag
184clear. Other possibilities exist, too.
185
186If you didn't know about that flag, just the better, pretend it doesn't
187exist.
188
189=item 4. A "Unicode String" is simply a string where each character can be
190validly interpreted as a Unicode code point.
191
192If you have UTF-8 encoded data, it is no longer a Unicode string, but a
193Unicode string encoded in UTF-8, giving you a binary string.
194
195=item 5. A string containing "high" (> 255) character values is I<not> a UTF-8 string.
196
197It's a fact. Learn to live with it.
198
199=back
200
201I hope this helps :)
202
125 203
126=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE 204=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE
127 205
128The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or 206The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or
129decoding style, within the limits of supported formats. 207decoding style, within the limits of supported formats.
141 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]}) 219 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]})
142 => {"a": [1, 2]} 220 => {"a": [1, 2]}
143 221
144=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable]) 222=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable])
145 223
224=item $enabled = $json->get_ascii
225
146If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not 226If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
147generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any 227generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any
148unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a 228Unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a
149single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence, 229single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence,
150as per RFC4627. 230as per RFC4627. The resulting encoded JSON text can be treated as a native
231Unicode string, an ascii-encoded, latin1-encoded or UTF-8 encoded string,
232or any other superset of ASCII.
151 233
152If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode 234If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
153characters unless required by the JSON syntax. This results in a faster 235characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results
154and more compact format. 236in a faster and more compact format.
237
238See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
239document.
240
241The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be
242transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not
243contain any 8 bit characters.
155 244
156 JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401]) 245 JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])
157 => ["\ud801\udc01"] 246 => ["\ud801\udc01"]
158 247
248=item $json = $json->latin1 ([$enable])
249
250=item $enabled = $json->get_latin1
251
252If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
253the resulting JSON text as latin1 (or iso-8859-1), escaping any characters
254outside the code range C<0..255>. The resulting string can be treated as a
255latin1-encoded JSON text or a native Unicode string. The C<decode> method
256will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default
257expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.
258
259If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
260characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags.
261
262See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
263document.
264
265The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON
266text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded
267size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded
268in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and
269transferring), a rare encoding for JSON. It is therefore most useful when
270you want to store data structures known to contain binary data efficiently
271in files or databases, not when talking to other JSON encoders/decoders.
272
273 JSON::XS->new->latin1->encode (["\x{89}\x{abc}"]
274 => ["\x{89}\\u0abc"] # (perl syntax, U+abc escaped, U+89 not)
275
159=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable]) 276=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable])
277
278=item $enabled = $json->get_utf8
160 279
161If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode 280If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
162the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the 281the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the
163C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please 282C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please
164note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the 283note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the
165range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future 284range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future
166versions, enabling this option might enable autodetection of the UTF-16 285versions, enabling this option might enable autodetection of the UTF-16
167and UTF-32 encoding families, as described in RFC4627. 286and UTF-32 encoding families, as described in RFC4627.
168 287
169If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON 288If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON
170string as a (non-encoded) unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a 289string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a
171unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs 290Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs
172to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module. 291to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.
292
293See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
294document.
173 295
174Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON: 296Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:
175 297
176 use Encode; 298 use Encode;
177 $jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object); 299 $jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);
198 ] 320 ]
199 } 321 }
200 322
201=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable]) 323=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable])
202 324
325=item $enabled = $json->get_indent
326
203If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline 327If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline
204format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair 328format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair
205into its own line, identing them properly. 329into its own line, indenting them properly.
206 330
207If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the 331If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the
208resulting JSON text is guarenteed not to contain any C<newlines>. 332resulting JSON text is guaranteed not to contain any C<newlines>.
209 333
210This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts. 334This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
211 335
212=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable]) 336=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable])
337
338=item $enabled = $json->get_space_before
213 339
214If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra 340If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
215optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects. 341optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects.
216 342
217If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra 343If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra
223Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled: 349Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled:
224 350
225 {"key" :"value"} 351 {"key" :"value"}
226 352
227=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable]) 353=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable])
354
355=item $enabled = $json->get_space_after
228 356
229If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra 357If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
230optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects 358optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects
231and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array 359and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array
232members. 360members.
238 366
239Example, space_before and indent disabled, space_after enabled: 367Example, space_before and indent disabled, space_after enabled:
240 368
241 {"key": "value"} 369 {"key": "value"}
242 370
371=item $json = $json->relaxed ([$enable])
372
373=item $enabled = $json->get_relaxed
374
375If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will accept some
376extensions to normal JSON syntax (see below). C<encode> will not be
377affected in anyway. I<Be aware that this option makes you accept invalid
378JSON texts as if they were valid!>. I suggest only to use this option to
379parse application-specific files written by humans (configuration files,
380resource files etc.)
381
382If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will only accept
383valid JSON texts.
384
385Currently accepted extensions are:
386
387=over 4
388
389=item * list items can have an end-comma
390
391JSON I<separates> array elements and key-value pairs with commas. This
392can be annoying if you write JSON texts manually and want to be able to
393quickly append elements, so this extension accepts comma at the end of
394such items not just between them:
395
396 [
397 1,
398 2, <- this comma not normally allowed
399 ]
400 {
401 "k1": "v1",
402 "k2": "v2", <- this comma not normally allowed
403 }
404
405=item * shell-style '#'-comments
406
407Whenever JSON allows whitespace, shell-style comments are additionally
408allowed. They are terminated by the first carriage-return or line-feed
409character, after which more white-space and comments are allowed.
410
411 [
412 1, # this comment not allowed in JSON
413 # neither this one...
414 ]
415
416=back
417
243=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable]) 418=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable])
419
420=item $enabled = $json->get_canonical
244 421
245If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects 422If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects
246by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead. 423by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.
247 424
248If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value 425If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value
249pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs 426pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs
250of the same script). 427of the same script, and can change even within the same run from 5.18
428onwards).
251 429
252This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as 430This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as
253the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled, 431the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,
254the same hash migh be encoded differently even if contains the same data, 432the same hash might be encoded differently even if contains the same data,
255as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl. 433as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.
256 434
257This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts. 435This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
258 436
437This setting has currently no effect on tied hashes.
438
259=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable]) 439=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])
440
441=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_nonref
260 442
261If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a 443If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a
262non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value, 444non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value,
263which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON 445which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON
264values instead of croaking. 446values instead of croaking.
272resulting in an invalid JSON text: 454resulting in an invalid JSON text:
273 455
274 JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!") 456 JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!")
275 => "Hello, World!" 457 => "Hello, World!"
276 458
459=item $json = $json->allow_unknown ([$enable])
460
461=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_unknown
462
463If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
464exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in JSON (for
465example, filehandles) but instead will encode a JSON C<null> value. Note
466that blessed objects are not included here and are handled separately by
467c<allow_nonref>.
468
469If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
470exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as JSON.
471
472This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
473leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
474
475=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable])
476
477=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_blessed
478
479If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
480barf when it encounters a blessed reference. Instead, the value of the
481B<convert_blessed> option will decide whether C<null> (C<convert_blessed>
482disabled or no C<TO_JSON> method found) or a representation of the
483object (C<convert_blessed> enabled and C<TO_JSON> method found) is being
484encoded. Has no effect on C<decode>.
485
486If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
487exception when it encounters a blessed object.
488
489=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable])
490
491=item $enabled = $json->get_convert_blessed
492
493If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
494blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method
495on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context
496and the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object. If no
497C<TO_JSON> method is found, the value of C<allow_blessed> will decide what
498to do.
499
500The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON>
501returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same
502way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle
503(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other
504methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are
505usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with any C<to_json>
506function or method.
507
508This setting does not yet influence C<decode> in any way, but in the
509future, global hooks might get installed that influence C<decode> and are
510enabled by this setting.
511
512If C<$enable> is false, then the C<allow_blessed> setting will decide what
513to do when a blessed object is found.
514
515=item $json = $json->filter_json_object ([$coderef->($hashref)])
516
517When C<$coderef> is specified, it will be called from C<decode> each
518time it decodes a JSON object. The only argument is a reference to the
519newly-created hash. If the code references returns a single scalar (which
520need not be a reference), this value (i.e. a copy of that scalar to avoid
521aliasing) is inserted into the deserialised data structure. If it returns
522an empty list (NOTE: I<not> C<undef>, which is a valid scalar), the
523original deserialised hash will be inserted. This setting can slow down
524decoding considerably.
525
526When C<$coderef> is omitted or undefined, any existing callback will
527be removed and C<decode> will not change the deserialised hash in any
528way.
529
530Example, convert all JSON objects into the integer 5:
531
532 my $js = JSON::XS->new->filter_json_object (sub { 5 });
533 # returns [5]
534 $js->decode ('[{}]')
535 # throw an exception because allow_nonref is not enabled
536 # so a lone 5 is not allowed.
537 $js->decode ('{"a":1, "b":2}');
538
539=item $json = $json->filter_json_single_key_object ($key [=> $coderef->($value)])
540
541Works remotely similar to C<filter_json_object>, but is only called for
542JSON objects having a single key named C<$key>.
543
544This C<$coderef> is called before the one specified via
545C<filter_json_object>, if any. It gets passed the single value in the JSON
546object. If it returns a single value, it will be inserted into the data
547structure. If it returns nothing (not even C<undef> but the empty list),
548the callback from C<filter_json_object> will be called next, as if no
549single-key callback were specified.
550
551If C<$coderef> is omitted or undefined, the corresponding callback will be
552disabled. There can only ever be one callback for a given key.
553
554As this callback gets called less often then the C<filter_json_object>
555one, decoding speed will not usually suffer as much. Therefore, single-key
556objects make excellent targets to serialise Perl objects into, especially
557as single-key JSON objects are as close to the type-tagged value concept
558as JSON gets (it's basically an ID/VALUE tuple). Of course, JSON does not
559support this in any way, so you need to make sure your data never looks
560like a serialised Perl hash.
561
562Typical names for the single object key are C<__class_whatever__>, or
563C<$__dollars_are_rarely_used__$> or C<}ugly_brace_placement>, or even
564things like C<__class_md5sum(classname)__>, to reduce the risk of clashing
565with real hashes.
566
567Example, decode JSON objects of the form C<< { "__widget__" => <id> } >>
568into the corresponding C<< $WIDGET{<id>} >> object:
569
570 # return whatever is in $WIDGET{5}:
571 JSON::XS
572 ->new
573 ->filter_json_single_key_object (__widget__ => sub {
574 $WIDGET{ $_[0] }
575 })
576 ->decode ('{"__widget__": 5')
577
578 # this can be used with a TO_JSON method in some "widget" class
579 # for serialisation to json:
580 sub WidgetBase::TO_JSON {
581 my ($self) = @_;
582
583 unless ($self->{id}) {
584 $self->{id} = ..get..some..id..;
585 $WIDGET{$self->{id}} = $self;
586 }
587
588 { __widget__ => $self->{id} }
589 }
590
277=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable]) 591=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable])
278 592
593=item $enabled = $json->get_shrink
594
279Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for 595Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for
280strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either 596strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either
281C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save 597C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save
282memory when your JSON texts are either very very long or you have many 598memory when your JSON texts are either very very long or you have many
283short strings. It will also try to downgrade any strings to octet-form 599short strings. It will also try to downgrade any strings to octet-form
284if possible: perl stores strings internally either in an encoding called 600if possible: perl stores strings internally either in an encoding called
285UTF-X or in octet-form. The latter cannot store everything but uses less 601UTF-X or in octet-form. The latter cannot store everything but uses less
286space in general. 602space in general (and some buggy Perl or C code might even rely on that
603internal representation being used).
287 604
605The actual definition of what shrink does might change in future versions,
606but it will always try to save space at the expense of time.
607
288If C<$enable> is true (or missing), the string returned by C<encode> will be shrunk-to-fit, 608If C<$enable> is true (or missing), the string returned by C<encode> will
289while all strings generated by C<decode> will also be shrunk-to-fit. 609be shrunk-to-fit, while all strings generated by C<decode> will also be
610shrunk-to-fit.
290 611
291If C<$enable> is false, then the normal perl allocation algorithms are used. 612If C<$enable> is false, then the normal perl allocation algorithms are used.
292If you work with your data, then this is likely to be faster. 613If you work with your data, then this is likely to be faster.
293 614
294In the future, this setting might control other things, such as converting 615In the future, this setting might control other things, such as converting
295strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats 616strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats
296internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space. 617internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space.
297 618
619=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
620
621=item $max_depth = $json->get_max_depth
622
623Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
624or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in JSON text or a Perl
625data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
626point.
627
628Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
629needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
630characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
631given character in a string.
632
633Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
634that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
635
636If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
637is rarely useful.
638
639Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
640been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
641crashing.
642
643See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
644
645=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
646
647=item $max_size = $json->get_max_size
648
649Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is
650being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
651is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
652attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
653effect on C<encode> (yet).
654
655If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
656C<0> is specified).
657
658See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
659
298=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar) 660=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)
299 661
300Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference 662Converts the given Perl value or data structure to its JSON
301to a hash or array) to its JSON representation. Simple scalars will be 663representation. Croaks on error.
302converted into JSON string or number sequences, while references to arrays
303become JSON arrays and references to hashes become JSON objects. Undefined
304Perl values (e.g. C<undef>) become JSON C<null> values. Neither C<true>
305nor C<false> values will be generated.
306 664
307=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text) 665=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text)
308 666
309The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it, 667The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it,
310returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error. 668returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
311 669
312JSON numbers and strings become simple Perl scalars. JSON arrays become 670=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text)
313Perl arrayrefs and JSON objects become Perl hashrefs. C<true> becomes 671
314C<1>, C<false> becomes C<0> and C<null> becomes C<undef>. 672This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
673when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will
674silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed
675so far.
676
677This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
678(which is not the brightest thing to do in the first place) and you need
679to know where the JSON text ends.
680
681 JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail")
682 => ([], 3)
315 683
316=back 684=back
685
686
687=head1 INCREMENTAL PARSING
688
689In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
690texts. While this module always has to keep both JSON text and resulting
691Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
692JSON stream incrementally. It does so by accumulating text until it has
693a full JSON object, which it then can decode. This process is similar to
694using C<decode_prefix> to see if a full JSON object is available, but
695is much more efficient (and can be implemented with a minimum of method
696calls).
697
698JSON::XS will only attempt to parse the JSON text once it is sure it
699has enough text to get a decisive result, using a very simple but
700truly incremental parser. This means that it sometimes won't stop as
701early as the full parser, for example, it doesn't detect mismatched
702parentheses. The only thing it guarantees is that it starts decoding as
703soon as a syntactically valid JSON text has been seen. This means you need
704to set resource limits (e.g. C<max_size>) to ensure the parser will stop
705parsing in the presence if syntax errors.
706
707The following methods implement this incremental parser.
708
709=over 4
710
711=item [void, scalar or list context] = $json->incr_parse ([$string])
712
713This is the central parsing function. It can both append new text and
714extract objects from the stream accumulated so far (both of these
715functions are optional).
716
717If C<$string> is given, then this string is appended to the already
718existing JSON fragment stored in the C<$json> object.
719
720After that, if the function is called in void context, it will simply
721return without doing anything further. This can be used to add more text
722in as many chunks as you want.
723
724If the method is called in scalar context, then it will try to extract
725exactly I<one> JSON object. If that is successful, it will return this
726object, otherwise it will return C<undef>. If there is a parse error,
727this method will croak just as C<decode> would do (one can then use
728C<incr_skip> to skip the erroneous part). This is the most common way of
729using the method.
730
731And finally, in list context, it will try to extract as many objects
732from the stream as it can find and return them, or the empty list
733otherwise. For this to work, there must be no separators between the JSON
734objects or arrays, instead they must be concatenated back-to-back. If
735an error occurs, an exception will be raised as in the scalar context
736case. Note that in this case, any previously-parsed JSON texts will be
737lost.
738
739Example: Parse some JSON arrays/objects in a given string and return
740them.
741
742 my @objs = JSON::XS->new->incr_parse ("[5][7][1,2]");
743
744=item $lvalue_string = $json->incr_text
745
746This method returns the currently stored JSON fragment as an lvalue, that
747is, you can manipulate it. This I<only> works when a preceding call to
748C<incr_parse> in I<scalar context> successfully returned an object. Under
749all other circumstances you must not call this function (I mean it.
750although in simple tests it might actually work, it I<will> fail under
751real world conditions). As a special exception, you can also call this
752method before having parsed anything.
753
754This function is useful in two cases: a) finding the trailing text after a
755JSON object or b) parsing multiple JSON objects separated by non-JSON text
756(such as commas).
757
758=item $json->incr_skip
759
760This will reset the state of the incremental parser and will remove
761the parsed text from the input buffer so far. This is useful after
762C<incr_parse> died, in which case the input buffer and incremental parser
763state is left unchanged, to skip the text parsed so far and to reset the
764parse state.
765
766The difference to C<incr_reset> is that only text until the parse error
767occurred is removed.
768
769=item $json->incr_reset
770
771This completely resets the incremental parser, that is, after this call,
772it will be as if the parser had never parsed anything.
773
774This is useful if you want to repeatedly parse JSON objects and want to
775ignore any trailing data, which means you have to reset the parser after
776each successful decode.
777
778=back
779
780=head2 LIMITATIONS
781
782All options that affect decoding are supported, except
783C<allow_nonref>. The reason for this is that it cannot be made to
784work sensibly: JSON objects and arrays are self-delimited, i.e. you can concatenate
785them back to back and still decode them perfectly. This does not hold true
786for JSON numbers, however.
787
788For example, is the string C<1> a single JSON number, or is it simply the
789start of C<12>? Or is C<12> a single JSON number, or the concatenation
790of C<1> and C<2>? In neither case you can tell, and this is why JSON::XS
791takes the conservative route and disallows this case.
792
793=head2 EXAMPLES
794
795Some examples will make all this clearer. First, a simple example that
796works similarly to C<decode_prefix>: We want to decode the JSON object at
797the 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
809Easy, isn't it?
810
811Now for a more complicated example: Imagine a hypothetical protocol where
812you read some requests from a TCP stream, and each request is a JSON
813array, without any separation between them (in fact, it is often useful to
814use newlines as "separators", as these get interpreted as whitespace at
815the start of the JSON text, which makes it possible to test said protocol
816with C<telnet>...).
817
818Here is how you'd do it (it is trivial to write this in an event-based
819manner):
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
832Another complicated example: Assume you have a string with JSON objects
833or 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,
835and 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
852Now lets go for a very complex example: Assume that you have a gigantic
853JSON array-of-objects, many gigabytes in size, and you want to parse it,
854but you cannot load it into memory fully (this has actually happened in
855the real world :).
856
857Well, you lost, you have to implement your own JSON parser. But JSON::XS
858can still help you: You implement a (very simple) array parser and let
859JSON decode the array elements, which are all full JSON objects on their
860own (this wouldn't work if the array elements could be JSON numbers, for
861example):
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
925This is a complex example, but most of the complexity comes from the fact
926that we are trying to be correct (bear with me if I am wrong, I never ran
927the above example :).
928
929
317 930
318=head1 MAPPING 931=head1 MAPPING
319 932
320This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and 933This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and
321vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most 934vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
322circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics 935circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
323(what you put in comes out as something equivalent). 936(what you put in comes out as something equivalent).
324 937
325For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions, 938For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,
326lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppcercase I<Perl> 939lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppercase I<Perl>
327refers to the abstract Perl language itself. 940refers to the abstract Perl language itself.
328 941
942
329=head2 JSON -> PERL 943=head2 JSON -> PERL
330 944
331=over 4 945=over 4
332 946
333=item object 947=item object
334 948
335A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object 949A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object
336keys is preserved (JSON does not preserver object key ordering itself). 950keys is preserved (JSON does not preserve object key ordering itself).
337 951
338=item array 952=item array
339 953
340A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl. 954A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl.
341 955
345are represented by the same codepoints in the Perl string, so no manual 959are represented by the same codepoints in the Perl string, so no manual
346decoding is necessary. 960decoding is necessary.
347 961
348=item number 962=item number
349 963
350A JSON number becomes either an integer or numeric (floating point) 964A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or
351scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On the 965string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On
352Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all the 966the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all
353conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and might 967the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and
354represent more values exactly than (floating point) numbers. 968might represent more values exactly than floating point numbers.
969
970If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent
971it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as
972a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of
973precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value (in
974which case you lose roundtripping ability, as the JSON number will be
975re-encoded to a JSON string).
976
977Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be
978represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of
979precision (in which case you might lose perfect roundtripping ability, but
980the JSON number will still be re-encoded as a JSON number).
981
982Note that precision is not accuracy - binary floating point values cannot
983represent most decimal fractions exactly, and when converting from and to
984floating point, JSON::XS only guarantees precision up to but not including
985the least significant bit.
355 986
356=item true, false 987=item true, false
357 988
358These JSON atoms become C<0>, C<1>, respectively. Information is lost in 989These JSON atoms become C<JSON::XS::true> and C<JSON::XS::false>,
359this process. Future versions might represent those values differently, 990respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers
360but they will be guarenteed to act like these integers would normally in 991C<1> and C<0>. You can check whether a scalar is a JSON boolean by using
361Perl. 992the C<JSON::XS::is_bool> function.
362 993
363=item null 994=item null
364 995
365A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl. 996A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.
366 997
367=back 998=back
999
368 1000
369=head2 PERL -> JSON 1001=head2 PERL -> JSON
370 1002
371The mapping from Perl to JSON is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a 1003The mapping from Perl to JSON is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a
372truly typeless language, so we can only guess which JSON type is meant by 1004truly typeless language, so we can only guess which JSON type is meant by
374 1006
375=over 4 1007=over 4
376 1008
377=item hash references 1009=item hash references
378 1010
379Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent ordering 1011Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent
380in hash keys, they will usually be encoded in a pseudo-random order that 1012ordering in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded
381can change between runs of the same program but stays generally the same 1013in a pseudo-random order. JSON::XS can optionally sort the hash keys
382within a single run of a program. JSON::XS can optionally sort the hash
383keys (determined by the I<canonical> flag), so the same datastructure 1014(determined by the I<canonical> flag), so the same datastructure will
384will serialise to the same JSON text (given same settings and version of 1015serialise to the same JSON text (given same settings and version of
385JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead. 1016JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead and is only rarely useful,
1017e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text against another for equality.
386 1018
387=item array references 1019=item array references
388 1020
389Perl array references become JSON arrays. 1021Perl array references become JSON arrays.
390 1022
1023=item other references
1024
1025Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an
1026exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and
1027C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON. You can
1028also use C<JSON::XS::false> and C<JSON::XS::true> to improve readability.
1029
1030 encode_json [\0, JSON::XS::true] # yields [false,true]
1031
1032=item JSON::XS::true, JSON::XS::false
1033
1034These special values become JSON true and JSON false values,
1035respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0> directly if you want.
1036
391=item blessed objects 1037=item blessed objects
392 1038
393Blessed objects are not allowed. JSON::XS currently tries to encode their 1039Blessed objects are not directly representable in JSON. See the
394underlying representation (hash- or arrayref), but this behaviour might 1040C<allow_blessed> and C<convert_blessed> methods on various options on
395change in future versions. 1041how to deal with this: basically, you can choose between throwing an
1042exception, encoding the reference as if it weren't blessed, or provide
1043your own serialiser method.
396 1044
397=item simple scalars 1045=item simple scalars
398 1046
399Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most 1047Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
400difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as 1048difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as
401JSON null value, scalars that have last been used in a string context 1049JSON C<null> values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
402before encoding as JSON strings and anything else as number value: 1050before encoding as JSON strings, and anything else as number value:
403 1051
404 # dump as number 1052 # dump as number
405 to_json [2] # yields [2] 1053 encode_json [2] # yields [2]
406 to_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17] 1054 encode_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
407 my $value = 5; to_json [$value] # yields [5] 1055 my $value = 5; encode_json [$value] # yields [5]
408 1056
409 # used as string, so dump as string 1057 # used as string, so dump as string
410 print $value; 1058 print $value;
411 to_json [$value] # yields ["5"] 1059 encode_json [$value] # yields ["5"]
412 1060
413 # undef becomes null 1061 # undef becomes null
414 to_json [undef] # yields [null] 1062 encode_json [undef] # yields [null]
415 1063
416You can force the type to be a string by stringifying it: 1064You can force the type to be a JSON string by stringifying it:
417 1065
418 my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number 1066 my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
419 "$x"; # stringified 1067 "$x"; # stringified
420 $x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify 1068 $x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify
421 print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often 1069 print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often
422 1070
423You can force the type to be a number by numifying it: 1071You can force the type to be a JSON number by numifying it:
424 1072
425 my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string 1073 my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
426 $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number 1074 $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
427 $x *= 1; # same thing, the choise is yours. 1075 $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
428 1076
429You can not currently output JSON booleans or force the type in other, 1077You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
430less obscure, ways. Tell me if you need this capability. 1078if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
1079:).
431 1080
432=item circular data structures 1081Note that numerical precision has the same meaning as under Perl (so
433 1082binary to decimal conversion follows the same rules as in Perl, which
434Those will be encoded until memory or stackspace runs out. 1083can differ to other languages). Also, your perl interpreter might expose
1084extensions to the floating point numbers of your platform, such as
1085infinities or NaN's - these cannot be represented in JSON, and it is an
1086error to pass those in.
435 1087
436=back 1088=back
437 1089
438=head1 COMPARISON
439 1090
440As already mentioned, this module was created because none of the existing 1091=head1 ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES
441JSON modules could be made to work correctly. First I will describe the 1092
442problems (or pleasures) I encountered with various existing JSON modules, 1093The interested reader might have seen a number of flags that signify
443followed by some benchmark values. JSON::XS was designed not to suffer 1094encodings or codesets - C<utf8>, C<latin1> and C<ascii>. There seems to be
444from any of these problems or limitations. 1095some confusion on what these do, so here is a short comparison:
1096
1097C<utf8> controls whether the JSON text created by C<encode> (and expected
1098by C<decode>) is UTF-8 encoded or not, while C<latin1> and C<ascii> only
1099control whether C<encode> escapes character values outside their respective
1100codeset range. Neither of these flags conflict with each other, although
1101some combinations make less sense than others.
1102
1103Care has been taken to make all flags symmetrical with respect to
1104C<encode> and C<decode>, that is, texts encoded with any combination of
1105these flag values will be correctly decoded when the same flags are used
1106- in general, if you use different flag settings while encoding vs. when
1107decoding you likely have a bug somewhere.
1108
1109Below comes a verbose discussion of these flags. Note that a "codeset" is
1110simply an abstract set of character-codepoint pairs, while an encoding
1111takes those codepoint numbers and I<encodes> them, in our case into
1112octets. Unicode is (among other things) a codeset, UTF-8 is an encoding,
1113and ISO-8859-1 (= latin 1) and ASCII are both codesets I<and> encodings at
1114the same time, which can be confusing.
445 1115
446=over 4 1116=over 4
447 1117
448=item JSON 1.07 1118=item C<utf8> flag disabled
449 1119
450Slow (but very portable, as it is written in pure Perl). 1120When C<utf8> is disabled (the default), then C<encode>/C<decode> generate
1121and expect Unicode strings, that is, characters with high ordinal Unicode
1122values (> 255) will be encoded as such characters, and likewise such
1123characters are decoded as-is, no changes to them will be done, except
1124"(re-)interpreting" them as Unicode codepoints or Unicode characters,
1125respectively (to Perl, these are the same thing in strings unless you do
1126funny/weird/dumb stuff).
451 1127
452Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling (how JSON handles unicode values is 1128This is useful when you want to do the encoding yourself (e.g. when you
453undocumented. One can get far by feeding it unicode strings and doing 1129want to have UTF-16 encoded JSON texts) or when some other layer does
454en-/decoding oneself, but unicode escapes are not working properly). 1130the encoding for you (for example, when printing to a terminal using a
1131filehandle that transparently encodes to UTF-8 you certainly do NOT want
1132to UTF-8 encode your data first and have Perl encode it another time).
455 1133
456No roundtripping (strings get clobbered if they look like numbers, e.g. 1134=item C<utf8> flag enabled
457the string C<2.0> will encode to C<2.0> instead of C<"2.0">, and that will
458decode into the number 2.
459 1135
460=item JSON::PC 0.01 1136If the C<utf8>-flag is enabled, C<encode>/C<decode> will encode all
1137characters using the corresponding UTF-8 multi-byte sequence, and will
1138expect your input strings to be encoded as UTF-8, that is, no "character"
1139of the input string must have any value > 255, as UTF-8 does not allow
1140that.
461 1141
462Very fast. 1142The C<utf8> flag therefore switches between two modes: disabled means you
1143will get a Unicode string in Perl, enabled means you get an UTF-8 encoded
1144octet/binary string in Perl.
463 1145
464Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling. 1146=item C<latin1> or C<ascii> flags enabled
465 1147
466No roundtripping. 1148With C<latin1> (or C<ascii>) enabled, C<encode> will escape characters
1149with ordinal values > 255 (> 127 with C<ascii>) and encode the remaining
1150characters as specified by the C<utf8> flag.
467 1151
468Has problems handling many Perl values (e.g. regex results and other magic 1152If C<utf8> is disabled, then the result is also correctly encoded in those
469values will make it croak). 1153character sets (as both are proper subsets of Unicode, meaning that a
1154Unicode string with all character values < 256 is the same thing as a
1155ISO-8859-1 string, and a Unicode string with all character values < 128 is
1156the same thing as an ASCII string in Perl).
470 1157
471Does not even generate valid JSON (C<{1,2}> gets converted to C<{1:2}> 1158If C<utf8> is enabled, you still get a correct UTF-8-encoded string,
472which is not a valid JSON text. 1159regardless of these flags, just some more characters will be escaped using
1160C<\uXXXX> then before.
473 1161
474Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not 1162Note that ISO-8859-1-I<encoded> strings are not compatible with UTF-8
475getting fixed). 1163encoding, while ASCII-encoded strings are. That is because the ISO-8859-1
1164encoding is NOT a subset of UTF-8 (despite the ISO-8859-1 I<codeset> being
1165a subset of Unicode), while ASCII is.
476 1166
477=item JSON::Syck 0.21 1167Surprisingly, C<decode> will ignore these flags and so treat all input
1168values as governed by the C<utf8> flag. If it is disabled, this allows you
1169to decode ISO-8859-1- and ASCII-encoded strings, as both strict subsets of
1170Unicode. If it is enabled, you can correctly decode UTF-8 encoded strings.
478 1171
479Very buggy (often crashes). 1172So neither C<latin1> nor C<ascii> are incompatible with the C<utf8> flag -
1173they only govern when the JSON output engine escapes a character or not.
480 1174
481Very inflexible (no human-readable format supported, format pretty much 1175The main use for C<latin1> is to relatively efficiently store binary data
482undocumented. I need at least a format for easy reading by humans and a 1176as JSON, at the expense of breaking compatibility with most JSON decoders.
483single-line compact format for use in a protocol, and preferably a way to
484generate ASCII-only JSON texts).
485 1177
486Completely broken (and confusingly documented) Unicode handling (unicode 1178The main use for C<ascii> is to force the output to not contain characters
487escapes are not working properly, you need to set ImplicitUnicode to 1179with values > 127, which means you can interpret the resulting string
488I<different> values on en- and decoding to get symmetric behaviour). 1180as UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ASCII, KOI8-R or most about any character set and
489 11818-bit-encoding, and still get the same data structure back. This is useful
490No roundtripping (simple cases work, but this depends on wether the scalar 1182when your channel for JSON transfer is not 8-bit clean or the encoding
491value was used in a numeric context or not). 1183might be mangled in between (e.g. in mail), and works because ASCII is a
492 1184proper subset of most 8-bit and multibyte encodings in use in the world.
493Dumping hashes may skip hash values depending on iterator state.
494
495Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not
496getting fixed).
497
498Does not check input for validity (i.e. will accept non-JSON input and
499return "something" instead of raising an exception. This is a security
500issue: imagine two banks transfering money between each other using
501JSON. One bank might parse a given non-JSON request and deduct money,
502while the other might reject the transaction with a syntax error. While a
503good protocol will at least recover, that is extra unnecessary work and
504the transaction will still not succeed).
505
506=item JSON::DWIW 0.04
507
508Very fast. Very natural. Very nice.
509
510Undocumented unicode handling (but the best of the pack. Unicode escapes
511still don't get parsed properly).
512
513Very inflexible.
514
515No roundtripping.
516
517Does not generate valid JSON texts (key strings are often unquoted, empty keys
518result in nothing being output)
519
520Does not check input for validity.
521 1185
522=back 1186=back
1187
1188
1189=head2 JSON and ECMAscript
1190
1191JSON syntax is based on how literals are represented in javascript (the
1192not-standardised predecessor of ECMAscript) which is presumably why it is
1193called "JavaScript Object Notation".
1194
1195However, JSON is not a subset (and also not a superset of course) of
1196ECMAscript (the standard) or javascript (whatever browsers actually
1197implement).
1198
1199If you want to use javascript's C<eval> function to "parse" JSON, you
1200might run into parse errors for valid JSON texts, or the resulting data
1201structure might not be queryable:
1202
1203One of the problems is that U+2028 and U+2029 are valid characters inside
1204JSON strings, but are not allowed in ECMAscript string literals, so the
1205following Perl fragment will not output something that can be guaranteed
1206to be parsable by javascript's C<eval>:
1207
1208 use JSON::XS;
1209
1210 print encode_json [chr 0x2028];
1211
1212The right fix for this is to use a proper JSON parser in your javascript
1213programs, and not rely on C<eval> (see for example Douglas Crockford's
1214F<json2.js> parser).
1215
1216If this is not an option, you can, as a stop-gap measure, simply encode to
1217ASCII-only JSON:
1218
1219 use JSON::XS;
1220
1221 print JSON::XS->new->ascii->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
1222
1223Note that this will enlarge the resulting JSON text quite a bit if you
1224have many non-ASCII characters. You might be tempted to run some regexes
1225to only escape U+2028 and U+2029, e.g.:
1226
1227 # DO NOT USE THIS!
1228 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
1229 $json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa8/\\u2028/g; # escape U+2028
1230 $json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa9/\\u2029/g; # escape U+2029
1231 print $json;
1232
1233Note that I<this is a bad idea>: the above only works for U+2028 and
1234U+2029 and thus only for fully ECMAscript-compliant parsers. Many existing
1235javascript implementations, however, have issues with other characters as
1236well - using C<eval> naively simply I<will> cause problems.
1237
1238Another problem is that some javascript implementations reserve
1239some property names for their own purposes (which probably makes
1240them non-ECMAscript-compliant). For example, Iceweasel reserves the
1241C<__proto__> property name for its own purposes.
1242
1243If that is a problem, you could parse try to filter the resulting JSON
1244output for these property strings, e.g.:
1245
1246 $json =~ s/"__proto__"\s*:/"__proto__renamed":/g;
1247
1248This works because C<__proto__> is not valid outside of strings, so every
1249occurrence of C<"__proto__"\s*:> must be a string used as property name.
1250
1251If you know of other incompatibilities, please let me know.
1252
1253
1254=head2 JSON and YAML
1255
1256You often hear that JSON is a subset of YAML. This is, however, a mass
1257hysteria(*) and very far from the truth (as of the time of this writing),
1258so let me state it clearly: I<in general, there is no way to configure
1259JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML> that works in all
1260cases.
1261
1262If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this
1263algorithm (subject to change in future versions):
1264
1265 my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);
1266 my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";
1267
1268This will I<usually> generate JSON texts that also parse as valid
1269YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key
1270lengths that JSON doesn't have and also has different and incompatible
1271unicode character escape syntax, so you should make sure that your hash
1272keys are noticeably shorter than the 1024 "stream characters" YAML allows
1273and that you do not have characters with codepoint values outside the
1274Unicode BMP (basic multilingual page). YAML also does not allow C<\/>
1275sequences in strings (which JSON::XS does not I<currently> generate, but
1276other JSON generators might).
1277
1278There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of (or the YAML
1279specification has been changed yet again - it does so quite often). In
1280general you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice
1281versa, or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are
1282high that you will run into severe interoperability problems when you
1283least expect it.
1284
1285=over 4
1286
1287=item (*)
1288
1289I have been pressured multiple times by Brian Ingerson (one of the
1290authors of the YAML specification) to remove this paragraph, despite him
1291acknowledging that the actual incompatibilities exist. As I was personally
1292bitten by this "JSON is YAML" lie, I refused and said I will continue to
1293educate people about these issues, so others do not run into the same
1294problem again and again. After this, Brian called me a (quote)I<complete
1295and worthless idiot>(unquote).
1296
1297In my opinion, instead of pressuring and insulting people who actually
1298clarify issues with YAML and the wrong statements of some of its
1299proponents, I would kindly suggest reading the JSON spec (which is not
1300that difficult or long) and finally make YAML compatible to it, and
1301educating users about the changes, instead of spreading lies about the
1302real compatibility for many I<years> and trying to silence people who
1303point out that it isn't true.
1304
1305Addendum/2009: the YAML 1.2 spec is still incompatible with JSON, even
1306though the incompatibilities have been documented (and are known to Brian)
1307for many years and the spec makes explicit claims that YAML is a superset
1308of JSON. It would be so easy to fix, but apparently, bullying people and
1309corrupting userdata is so much easier.
1310
1311=back
1312
523 1313
524=head2 SPEED 1314=head2 SPEED
525 1315
526It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following 1316It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following
527tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program 1317tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program
528in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own 1318in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own
529system. 1319system.
530 1320
531First comes a comparison between various modules using a very short JSON 1321First comes a comparison between various modules using
532string: 1322a very short single-line JSON string (also available at
1323L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/short.json>).
533 1324
534 {"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1", "we were just talking"], "id": null} 1325 {"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1",
1326 "we were just talking"], "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7,
1327 1, 0]}
535 1328
536It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses the 1329It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses
537functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface with 1330the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface
538pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled). Higher is better: 1331with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables
1332shrink. JSON::DWIW/DS uses the deserialise function, while JSON::DWIW::FJ
1333uses the from_json method). Higher is better:
539 1334
540 module | encode | decode | 1335 module | encode | decode |
541 -----------|------------|------------| 1336 --------------|------------|------------|
542 JSON | 11488.516 | 7823.035 | 1337 JSON::DWIW/DS | 86302.551 | 102300.098 |
543 JSON::DWIW | 94708.054 | 129094.260 | 1338 JSON::DWIW/FJ | 86302.551 | 75983.768 |
544 JSON::PC | 63884.157 | 128528.212 | 1339 JSON::PP | 15827.562 | 6638.658 |
545 JSON::Syck | 34898.677 | 42096.911 | 1340 JSON::Syck | 63358.066 | 47662.545 |
546 JSON::XS | 654027.064 | 396423.669 | 1341 JSON::XS | 511500.488 | 511500.488 |
547 JSON::XS/2 | 371564.190 | 371725.613 | 1342 JSON::XS/2 | 291271.111 | 388361.481 |
1343 JSON::XS/3 | 361577.931 | 361577.931 |
1344 Storable | 66788.280 | 265462.278 |
548 -----------+------------+------------+ 1345 --------------+------------+------------+
549 1346
550That is, JSON::XS is more than six times faster than JSON::DWIW on 1347That is, JSON::XS is almost six times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding,
551encoding, more than three times faster on decoding, and about thirty times 1348about five times faster on decoding, and over thirty to seventy times
552faster than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting. 1349faster than JSON's pure perl implementation. It also compares favourably
1350to Storable for small amounts of data.
553 1351
554Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals 1352Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals
555search API (http://nanoref.com/yahooapis/mgPdGg): 1353search API (L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/long.json>).
556 1354
557 module | encode | decode | 1355 module | encode | decode |
558 -----------|------------|------------| 1356 --------------|------------|------------|
559 JSON | 273.023 | 44.674 | 1357 JSON::DWIW/DS | 1647.927 | 2673.916 |
560 JSON::DWIW | 1089.383 | 1145.704 | 1358 JSON::DWIW/FJ | 1630.249 | 2596.128 |
561 JSON::PC | 3097.419 | 2393.921 | 1359 JSON::PP | 400.640 | 62.311 |
562 JSON::Syck | 514.060 | 843.053 | 1360 JSON::Syck | 1481.040 | 1524.869 |
563 JSON::XS | 6479.668 | 3636.364 | 1361 JSON::XS | 20661.596 | 9541.183 |
564 JSON::XS/2 | 3774.221 | 3599.124 | 1362 JSON::XS/2 | 10683.403 | 9416.938 |
1363 JSON::XS/3 | 20661.596 | 9400.054 |
1364 Storable | 19765.806 | 10000.725 |
565 -----------+------------+------------+ 1365 --------------+------------+------------+
566 1366
567Again, JSON::XS leads by far. 1367Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly
1368decodes a bit faster).
568 1369
569On large strings containing lots of high unicode characters, some modules 1370On large strings containing lots of high Unicode characters, some modules
570(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result 1371(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result
571will be broken due to missing (or wrong) unicode handling. Others refuse 1372will be broken due to missing (or wrong) Unicode handling. Others refuse
572to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair 1373to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair
573comparison table for that case. 1374comparison table for that case.
574 1375
575=head1 RESOURCE LIMITS
576 1376
577JSON::XS does not impose any limits on the size of JSON texts or Perl 1377=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
578values they represent - if your machine can handle it, JSON::XS will 1378
579encode or decode it. Future versions might optionally impose structure 1379When you are using JSON in a protocol, talking to untrusted potentially
580depth and memory use resource limits. 1380hostile creatures requires relatively few measures.
1381
1382First of all, your JSON decoder should be secure, that is, should not have
1383any buffer overflows. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am
1384trying hard on making that true, but you never know.
1385
1386Second, you need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should
1387limit the size of JSON texts you accept, or make sure then when your
1388resources run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that
1389can crash safely). The size of a JSON text in octets or characters is
1390usually a good indication of the size of the resources required to decode
1391it into a Perl structure. While JSON::XS can check the size of the JSON
1392text, it might be too late when you already have it in memory, so you
1393might want to check the size before you accept the string.
1394
1395Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and
1396arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64
1397machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but
1398only 14k nested JSON objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak
1399to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be
1400conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process
1401has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the
1402C<max_depth> method.
1403
1404Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
1405case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
1406
1407Also keep in mind that JSON::XS might leak contents of your Perl data
1408structures in its error messages, so when you serialise sensitive
1409information you might want to make sure that exceptions thrown by JSON::XS
1410will not end up in front of untrusted eyes.
1411
1412If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption
1413by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at
1414L<http://blog.archive.jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security/> to
1415see whether you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really
1416are browser design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with
1417it, as major browser developers care only for features, not about getting
1418security right).
1419
1420
1421=head1 THREADS
1422
1423This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
1424plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
1425horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
1426process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
1427
1428(It might actually work, but you have been warned).
1429
1430
1431=head1 THE PERILS OF SETLOCALE
1432
1433Sometimes people avoid the Perl locale support and directly call the
1434system's setlocale function with C<LC_ALL>.
1435
1436This breaks both perl and modules such as JSON::XS, as stringification of
1437numbers no longer works correctly (e.g. C<$x = 0.1; print "$x"+1> might
1438print C<1>, and JSON::XS might output illegal JSON as JSON::XS relies on
1439perl to stringify numbers).
1440
1441The solution is simple: don't call C<setlocale>, or use it for only those
1442categories you need, such as C<LC_MESSAGES> or C<LC_CTYPE>.
1443
1444If you need C<LC_NUMERIC>, you should enable it only around the code that
1445actually needs it (avoiding stringification of numbers), and restore it
1446afterwards.
1447
581 1448
582=head1 BUGS 1449=head1 BUGS
583 1450
584While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does 1451While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
585not mean its bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. It is 1452not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
586still very young and not well-tested. If you keep reporting bugs they will 1453keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
587be fixed swiftly, though. 1454
1455Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
1456service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
588 1457
589=cut 1458=cut
590 1459
1460our $true = do { bless \(my $dummy = 1), "JSON::XS::Boolean" };
1461our $false = do { bless \(my $dummy = 0), "JSON::XS::Boolean" };
1462
1463sub true() { $true }
1464sub false() { $false }
1465
1466sub is_bool($) {
1467 UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::XS::Boolean"
1468# or UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::Literal"
1469}
1470
1471XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION;
1472
1473package JSON::XS::Boolean;
1474
1475use overload
1476 "0+" => sub { ${$_[0]} },
1477 "++" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} + 1 },
1478 "--" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} - 1 },
1479 fallback => 1;
1480
5911; 14811;
1482
1483=head1 SEE ALSO
1484
1485The F<json_xs> command line utility for quick experiments.
592 1486
593=head1 AUTHOR 1487=head1 AUTHOR
594 1488
595 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de> 1489 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
596 http://home.schmorp.de/ 1490 http://home.schmorp.de/

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