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Revision 1.57 by root, Mon Aug 13 16:05:42 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.145 by root, Tue Oct 29 00:06:40 2013 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
		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)
4		9
5	=head1 SYNOPSIS	10	=head1 SYNOPSIS
6		11
7	use JSON::XS;	12	use JSON::XS;
8		13
9	# exported functions, they croak on error	14	# exported functions, they croak on error
10	# and expect/generate UTF-8	15	# and expect/generate UTF-8
11		16
12	$utf8_encoded_json_text = to_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref;	17	$utf8_encoded_json_text = encode_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref;
13	$perl_hash_or_arrayref = from_json $utf8_encoded_json_text;	18	$perl_hash_or_arrayref = decode_json $utf8_encoded_json_text;
14		19
15	# OO-interface	20	# OO-interface
16		21
17	$coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref;	22	$coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref;
18	$pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar);	23	$pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar);
19	$perl_scalar = $coder->decode ($unicode_json_text);	24	$perl_scalar = $coder->decode ($unicode_json_text);
20		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
21	=head1 DESCRIPTION	34	=head1 DESCRIPTION
22		35
23	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
24	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
25	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.
26		47
27	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
28	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
29	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
30	their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug	51	their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug
31	reports for other reasons.	52	reports for other reasons.
32		53
33	See COMPARISON, below, for a comparison to some other JSON modules.
34
35	See MAPPING, below, on how JSON::XS maps perl values to JSON values and	54	See MAPPING, below, on how JSON::XS maps perl values to JSON values and
36	vice versa.	55	vice versa.
37		56
38	=head2 FEATURES	57	=head2 FEATURES
39		58
40	=over 4	59	=over 4
41		60
42	=item * correct unicode handling	61	=item * correct Unicode handling
43		62
44	This module knows how to handle Unicode, and even documents how and when	63	This module knows how to handle Unicode, documents how and when it does
45	it does so.	64	so, and even documents what "correct" means.
46		65
47	=item * round-trip integrity	66	=item * round-trip integrity
48		67
49	When you serialise a perl data structure using only datatypes supported	68	When you serialise a perl data structure using only data types supported
50	by JSON, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl level.	69	by JSON and Perl, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl
51	(e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because it looks	70	level. (e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because
52	like a number).	71	it looks like a number). There I<are> minor exceptions to this, read the
		72	MAPPING section below to learn about those.
53		73
54	=item * strict checking of JSON correctness	74	=item * strict checking of JSON correctness
55		75
56	There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default,	76	There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default,
57	and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security	77	and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security
58	feature).	78	feature).
59		79
60	=item * fast	80	=item * fast
61		81
62	Compared to other JSON modules, this module compares favourably in terms	82	Compared to other JSON modules and other serialisers such as Storable,
63	of speed, too.	83	this module usually compares favourably in terms of speed, too.
64		84
65	=item * simple to use	85	=item * simple to use
66		86
67	This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an OO	87	This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an object
68	interface.	88	oriented interface.
69		89
70	=item * reasonably versatile output formats	90	=item * reasonably versatile output formats
71		91
72	You can choose between the most compact guarenteed single-line format	92	You can choose between the most compact guaranteed-single-line format
73	possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ascii format	93	possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ASCII format
74	(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole	94	(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole
75	unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that	95	Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that
76	stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.	96	stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.
77		97
78	=back	98	=back
79		99
80	=cut	100	=cut
81		101
82	package JSON::XS;	102	package JSON::XS;
83		103
84	use strict;	104	use common::sense;
85		105
86	our $VERSION = '1.44';	106	our $VERSION = '3.0';
87	our @ISA = qw(Exporter);	107	our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
88		108
89	our @EXPORT = qw(to_json from_json);	109	our @EXPORT = qw(encode_json decode_json);
90		110
91	use Exporter;	111	use Exporter;
92	use XSLoader;	112	use XSLoader;
93		113
		114	use Types::Serialiser ();
		115
94	=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE	116	=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
95		117
96	The following convinience methods are provided by this module. They are	118	The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are
97	exported by default:	119	exported by default:
98		120
99	=over 4	121	=over 4
100		122
101	=item $json_text = to_json $perl_scalar	123	=item $json_text = encode_json $perl_scalar
102		124
103	Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference to	125	Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string
104	a hash or array) to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string (that is, the string contains	126	(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error.
105	octets only). Croaks on error.
106		127
107	This function call is functionally identical to:	128	This function call is functionally identical to:
108		129
109	$json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar)	130	$json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar)
110		131
111	except being faster.	132	Except being faster.
112		133
113	=item $perl_scalar = from_json $json_text	134	=item $perl_scalar = decode_json $json_text
114		135
115	The opposite of C<to_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries to	136	The opposite of C<encode_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries
116	parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting simple	137	to parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting
117	scalar or reference. Croaks on error.	138	reference. Croaks on error.
118		139
119	This function call is functionally identical to:	140	This function call is functionally identical to:
120		141
121	$perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text)	142	$perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text)
122		143
123	except being faster.	144	Except being faster.
124
125	=item $is_boolean = JSON::XS::is_bool $scalar
126
127	Returns true if the passed scalar represents either JSON::XS::true or
128	JSON::XS::false, two constants that act like C<1> and C<0>, respectively
129	and are used to represent JSON C<true> and C<false> values in Perl.
130
131	See MAPPING, below, for more information on how JSON values are mapped to
132	Perl.
133		145
134	=back	146	=back
		147
		148
		149	=head1 A FEW NOTES ON UNICODE AND PERL
		150
		151	Since this often leads to confusion, here are a few very clear words on
		152	how Unicode works in Perl, modulo bugs.
		153
		154	=over 4
		155
		156	=item 1. Perl strings can store characters with ordinal values > 255.
		157
		158	This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a
		159	Perl string - very natural.
		160
		161	=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings.
		162
		163	... until you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or
		164	printing the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your
		165	string as locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending
		166	on various settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your
		167	data, it is I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical meta data.
		168
		169	=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the
		170	encoding of your string.
		171
		172	Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in
		173	XS or want to dive into the internals of perl. Otherwise it will only
		174	confuse you, as, despite the name, it says nothing about how your string
		175	is encoded. You can have Unicode strings with that flag set, with that
		176	flag clear, and you can have binary data with that flag set and that flag
		177	clear. Other possibilities exist, too.
		178
		179	If you didn't know about that flag, just the better, pretend it doesn't
		180	exist.
		181
		182	=item 4. A "Unicode String" is simply a string where each character can be
		183	validly interpreted as a Unicode code point.
		184
		185	If you have UTF-8 encoded data, it is no longer a Unicode string, but a
		186	Unicode string encoded in UTF-8, giving you a binary string.
		187
		188	=item 5. A string containing "high" (> 255) character values is I<not> a UTF-8 string.
		189
		190	It's a fact. Learn to live with it.
		191
		192	=back
		193
		194	I hope this helps :)
135		195
136		196
137	=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE	197	=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE
138		198
139	The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or	199	The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or
…		…
152	my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]})	212	my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]})
153	=> {"a": [1, 2]}	213	=> {"a": [1, 2]}
154		214
155	=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable])	215	=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable])
156		216
		217	=item $enabled = $json->get_ascii
		218
157	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not	219	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
158	generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any	220	generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any
159	unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a	221	Unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a
160	single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence,	222	single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence,
161	as per RFC4627. The resulting encoded JSON text can be treated as a native	223	as per RFC4627. The resulting encoded JSON text can be treated as a native
162	unicode string, an ascii-encoded, latin1-encoded or UTF-8 encoded string,	224	Unicode string, an ascii-encoded, latin1-encoded or UTF-8 encoded string,
163	or any other superset of ASCII.	225	or any other superset of ASCII.
164		226
165	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode	227	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
166	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results	228	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results
167	in a faster and more compact format.	229	in a faster and more compact format.
168		230
		231	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		232	document.
		233
169	The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be	234	The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be
170	transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not	235	transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not
171	contain any 8 bit characters.	236	contain any 8 bit characters.
172		237
173	JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])	238	JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])
174	=> ["\ud801\udc01"]	239	=> ["\ud801\udc01"]
175		240
176	=item $json = $json->latin1 ([$enable])	241	=item $json = $json->latin1 ([$enable])
177		242
		243	=item $enabled = $json->get_latin1
		244
178	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode	245	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
179	the resulting JSON text as latin1 (or iso-8859-1), escaping any characters	246	the resulting JSON text as latin1 (or iso-8859-1), escaping any characters
180	outside the code range C<0..255>. The resulting string can be treated as a	247	outside the code range C<0..255>. The resulting string can be treated as a
181	latin1-encoded JSON text or a native unicode string. The C<decode> method	248	latin1-encoded JSON text or a native Unicode string. The C<decode> method
182	will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default	249	will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default
183	expects unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.	250	expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.
184		251
185	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode	252	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
186	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags.	253	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags.
		254
		255	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		256	document.
187		257
188	The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON	258	The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON
189	text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded	259	text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded
190	size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded	260	size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded
191	in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and	261	in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and
192	transfering), a rare encoding for JSON. It is therefore most useful when	262	transferring), a rare encoding for JSON. It is therefore most useful when
193	you want to store data structures known to contain binary data efficiently	263	you want to store data structures known to contain binary data efficiently
194	in files or databases, not when talking to other JSON encoders/decoders.	264	in files or databases, not when talking to other JSON encoders/decoders.
195		265
196	JSON::XS->new->latin1->encode (["\x{89}\x{abc}"]	266	JSON::XS->new->latin1->encode (["\x{89}\x{abc}"]
197	=> ["\x{89}\\u0abc"] # (perl syntax, U+abc escaped, U+89 not)	267	=> ["\x{89}\\u0abc"] # (perl syntax, U+abc escaped, U+89 not)
198		268
199	=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable])	269	=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable])
		270
		271	=item $enabled = $json->get_utf8
200		272
201	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode	273	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
202	the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the	274	the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the
203	C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please	275	C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please
204	note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the	276	note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the
205	range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future	277	range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future
206	versions, enabling this option might enable autodetection of the UTF-16	278	versions, enabling this option might enable autodetection of the UTF-16
207	and UTF-32 encoding families, as described in RFC4627.	279	and UTF-32 encoding families, as described in RFC4627.
208		280
209	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON	281	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON
210	string as a (non-encoded) unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a	282	string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a
211	unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs	283	Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs
212	to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.	284	to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.
		285
		286	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		287	document.
213		288
214	Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:	289	Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:
215		290
216	use Encode;	291	use Encode;
217	$jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);	292	$jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);
…		…
238	]	313	]
239	}	314	}
240		315
241	=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable])	316	=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable])
242		317
		318	=item $enabled = $json->get_indent
		319
243	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline	320	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline
244	format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair	321	format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair
245	into its own line, identing them properly.	322	into its own line, indenting them properly.
246		323
247	If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the	324	If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the
248	resulting JSON text is guarenteed not to contain any C<newlines>.	325	resulting JSON text is guaranteed not to contain any C<newlines>.
249		326
250	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.	327	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
251		328
252	=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable])	329	=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable])
		330
		331	=item $enabled = $json->get_space_before
253		332
254	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra	333	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
255	optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects.	334	optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects.
256		335
257	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra	336	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra
…		…
263	Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled:	342	Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled:
264		343
265	{"key" :"value"}	344	{"key" :"value"}
266		345
267	=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable])	346	=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable])
		347
		348	=item $enabled = $json->get_space_after
268		349
269	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra	350	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
270	optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects	351	optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects
271	and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array	352	and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array
272	members.	353	members.
…		…
278		359
279	Example, space_before and indent disabled, space_after enabled:	360	Example, space_before and indent disabled, space_after enabled:
280		361
281	{"key": "value"}	362	{"key": "value"}
282		363
		364	=item $json = $json->relaxed ([$enable])
		365
		366	=item $enabled = $json->get_relaxed
		367
		368	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will accept some
		369	extensions to normal JSON syntax (see below). C<encode> will not be
		370	affected in anyway. I<Be aware that this option makes you accept invalid
		371	JSON texts as if they were valid!>. I suggest only to use this option to
		372	parse application-specific files written by humans (configuration files,
		373	resource files etc.)
		374
		375	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will only accept
		376	valid JSON texts.
		377
		378	Currently accepted extensions are:
		379
		380	=over 4
		381
		382	=item * list items can have an end-comma
		383
		384	JSON I<separates> array elements and key-value pairs with commas. This
		385	can be annoying if you write JSON texts manually and want to be able to
		386	quickly append elements, so this extension accepts comma at the end of
		387	such items not just between them:
		388
		389	[
		390	1,
		391	2, <- this comma not normally allowed
		392	]
		393	{
		394	"k1": "v1",
		395	"k2": "v2", <- this comma not normally allowed
		396	}
		397
		398	=item * shell-style '#'-comments
		399
		400	Whenever JSON allows whitespace, shell-style comments are additionally
		401	allowed. They are terminated by the first carriage-return or line-feed
		402	character, after which more white-space and comments are allowed.
		403
		404	[
		405	1, # this comment not allowed in JSON
		406	# neither this one...
		407	]
		408
		409	=back
		410
283	=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable])	411	=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable])
		412
		413	=item $enabled = $json->get_canonical
284		414
285	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects	415	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects
286	by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.	416	by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.
287		417
288	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value	418	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value
289	pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs	419	pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs
290	of the same script).	420	of the same script, and can change even within the same run from 5.18
		421	onwards).
291		422
292	This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as	423	This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as
293	the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,	424	the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,
294	the same hash migh be encoded differently even if contains the same data,	425	the same hash might be encoded differently even if contains the same data,
295	as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.	426	as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.
296		427
297	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.	428	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
298		429
		430	This setting has currently no effect on tied hashes.
		431
299	=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])	432	=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])
		433
		434	=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_nonref
300		435
301	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a	436	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a
302	non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value,	437	non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value,
303	which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON	438	which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON
304	values instead of croaking.	439	values instead of croaking.
…		…
312	resulting in an invalid JSON text:	447	resulting in an invalid JSON text:
313		448
314	JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!")	449	JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!")
315	=> "Hello, World!"	450	=> "Hello, World!"
316		451
		452	=item $json = $json->allow_unknown ([$enable])
		453
		454	=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_unknown
		455
		456	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
		457	exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in JSON (for
		458	example, filehandles) but instead will encode a JSON C<null> value. Note
		459	that blessed objects are not included here and are handled separately by
		460	c<allow_nonref>.
		461
		462	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
		463	exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as JSON.
		464
		465	This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
		466	leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
		467
317	=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable])	468	=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable])
		469
		470	=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_blessed
318		471
319	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not	472	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
320	barf when it encounters a blessed reference. Instead, the value of the	473	barf when it encounters a blessed reference. Instead, the value of the
321	B<convert_blessed> option will decide wether C<null> (C<convert_blessed>	474	B<convert_blessed> option will decide whether C<null> (C<convert_blessed>
322	disabled or no C<to_json> method found) or a representation of the	475	disabled or no C<TO_JSON> method found) or a representation of the
323	object (C<convert_blessed> enabled and C<to_json> method found) is being	476	object (C<convert_blessed> enabled and C<TO_JSON> method found) is being
324	encoded. Has no effect on C<decode>.	477	encoded. Has no effect on C<decode>.
325		478
326	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an	479	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
327	exception when it encounters a blessed object.	480	exception when it encounters a blessed object.
328		481
329	=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable])	482	=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable])
		483
		484	=item $enabled = $json->get_convert_blessed
330		485
331	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a	486	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
332	blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method	487	blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method
333	on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context	488	on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context
334	and the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object. If no	489	and the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object. If no
…		…
338	The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON>	493	The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON>
339	returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same	494	returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same
340	way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle	495	way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle
341	(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other	496	(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other
342	methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are	497	methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are
343	usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with the C<to_json>	498	usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with any C<to_json>
344	function.	499	function or method.
345		500
346	This setting does not yet influence C<decode> in any way, but in the	501	This setting does not yet influence C<decode> in any way, but in the
347	future, global hooks might get installed that influence C<decode> and are	502	future, global hooks might get installed that influence C<decode> and are
348	enabled by this setting.	503	enabled by this setting.
349		504
…		…
391		546
392	As this callback gets called less often then the C<filter_json_object>	547	As this callback gets called less often then the C<filter_json_object>
393	one, decoding speed will not usually suffer as much. Therefore, single-key	548	one, decoding speed will not usually suffer as much. Therefore, single-key
394	objects make excellent targets to serialise Perl objects into, especially	549	objects make excellent targets to serialise Perl objects into, especially
395	as single-key JSON objects are as close to the type-tagged value concept	550	as single-key JSON objects are as close to the type-tagged value concept
396	as JSON gets (its basically an ID/VALUE tuple). Of course, JSON does not	551	as JSON gets (it's basically an ID/VALUE tuple). Of course, JSON does not
397	support this in any way, so you need to make sure your data never looks	552	support this in any way, so you need to make sure your data never looks
398	like a serialised Perl hash.	553	like a serialised Perl hash.
399		554
400	Typical names for the single object key are C<__class_whatever__>, or	555	Typical names for the single object key are C<__class_whatever__>, or
401	C<$__dollars_are_rarely_used__$> or C<}ugly_brace_placement>, or even	556	C<$__dollars_are_rarely_used__$> or C<}ugly_brace_placement>, or even
…		…
425		580
426	{ __widget__ => $self->{id} }	581	{ __widget__ => $self->{id} }
427	}	582	}
428		583
429	=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable])	584	=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable])
		585
		586	=item $enabled = $json->get_shrink
430		587
431	Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for	588	Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for
432	strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either	589	strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either
433	C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save	590	C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save
434	memory when your JSON texts are either very very long or you have many	591	memory when your JSON texts are either very very long or you have many
…		…
452	strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats	609	strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats
453	internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space.	610	internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space.
454		611
455	=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])	612	=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
456		613
		614	=item $max_depth = $json->get_max_depth
		615
457	Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding	616	Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
458	or decoding. If the JSON text or Perl data structure has an equal or	617	or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in JSON text or a Perl
459	higher nesting level then this limit, then the encoder and decoder will	618	data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
460	stop and croak at that point.	619	point.
461		620
462	Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder	621	Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
463	needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>	622	needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
464	characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a	623	characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
465	given character in a string.	624	given character in a string.
466		625
467	Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures	626	Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
468	that the object is only a single hash/object or array.	627	that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
469		628
470	The argument to C<max_depth> will be rounded up to the next highest power
471	of two. If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be	629	If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
472	used, which is rarely useful.	630	is rarely useful.
		631
		632	Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
		633	been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
		634	crashing.
473		635
474	See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.	636	See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
475		637
476	=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])	638	=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
		639
		640	=item $max_size = $json->get_max_size
477		641
478	Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is	642	Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is
479	being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>	643	being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
480	is called on a string longer then this number of characters it will not	644	is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
481	attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no	645	attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
482	effect on C<encode> (yet).	646	effect on C<encode> (yet).
483		647
484	The argument to C<max_size> will be rounded up to the next B<highest>	648	If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
485	power of two (so may be more than requested). If no argument is given, the	649	C<0> is specified).
486	limit check will be deactivated (same as when C<0> is specified).
487		650
488	See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.	651	See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
489		652
490	=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)	653	=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)
491		654
492	Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference	655	Converts the given Perl value or data structure to its JSON
493	to a hash or array) to its JSON representation. Simple scalars will be	656	representation. Croaks on error.
494	converted into JSON string or number sequences, while references to arrays
495	become JSON arrays and references to hashes become JSON objects. Undefined
496	Perl values (e.g. C<undef>) become JSON C<null> values. Neither C<true>
497	nor C<false> values will be generated.
498		657
499	=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text)	658	=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text)
500		659
501	The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it,	660	The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it,
502	returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.	661	returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
503
504	JSON numbers and strings become simple Perl scalars. JSON arrays become
505	Perl arrayrefs and JSON objects become Perl hashrefs. C<true> becomes
506	C<1>, C<false> becomes C<0> and C<null> becomes C<undef>.
507		662
508	=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text)	663	=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text)
509		664
510	This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception	665	This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
511	when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will	666	when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will
512	silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed	667	silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed
513	so far.	668	so far.
514		669
515	This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol	670	This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
516	(which is not the brightest thing to do in the first place) and you need
517	to know where the JSON text ends.	671	and you need to know where the JSON text ends.
518		672
519	JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail")	673	JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail")
520	=> ([], 3)	674	=> ([], 3)
521		675
522	=back	676	=back
		677
		678
		679	=head1 INCREMENTAL PARSING
		680
		681	In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
		682	texts. While this module always has to keep both JSON text and resulting
		683	Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
		684	JSON stream incrementally. It does so by accumulating text until it has
		685	a full JSON object, which it then can decode. This process is similar to
		686	using C<decode_prefix> to see if a full JSON object is available, but
		687	is much more efficient (and can be implemented with a minimum of method
		688	calls).
		689
		690	JSON::XS will only attempt to parse the JSON text once it is sure it
		691	has enough text to get a decisive result, using a very simple but
		692	truly incremental parser. This means that it sometimes won't stop as
		693	early as the full parser, for example, it doesn't detect mismatched
		694	parentheses. The only thing it guarantees is that it starts decoding as
		695	soon as a syntactically valid JSON text has been seen. This means you need
		696	to set resource limits (e.g. C<max_size>) to ensure the parser will stop
		697	parsing in the presence if syntax errors.
		698
		699	The following methods implement this incremental parser.
		700
		701	=over 4
		702
		703	=item [void, scalar or list context] = $json->incr_parse ([$string])
		704
		705	This is the central parsing function. It can both append new text and
		706	extract objects from the stream accumulated so far (both of these
		707	functions are optional).
		708
		709	If C<$string> is given, then this string is appended to the already
		710	existing JSON fragment stored in the C<$json> object.
		711
		712	After that, if the function is called in void context, it will simply
		713	return without doing anything further. This can be used to add more text
		714	in as many chunks as you want.
		715
		716	If the method is called in scalar context, then it will try to extract
		717	exactly I<one> JSON object. If that is successful, it will return this
		718	object, otherwise it will return C<undef>. If there is a parse error,
		719	this method will croak just as C<decode> would do (one can then use
		720	C<incr_skip> to skip the erroneous part). This is the most common way of
		721	using the method.
		722
		723	And finally, in list context, it will try to extract as many objects
		724	from the stream as it can find and return them, or the empty list
		725	otherwise. For this to work, there must be no separators between the JSON
		726	objects or arrays, instead they must be concatenated back-to-back. If
		727	an error occurs, an exception will be raised as in the scalar context
		728	case. Note that in this case, any previously-parsed JSON texts will be
		729	lost.
		730
		731	Example: Parse some JSON arrays/objects in a given string and return
		732	them.
		733
		734	my @objs = JSON::XS->new->incr_parse ("[5][7][1,2]");
		735
		736	=item $lvalue_string = $json->incr_text
		737
		738	This method returns the currently stored JSON fragment as an lvalue, that
		739	is, you can manipulate it. This I<only> works when a preceding call to
		740	C<incr_parse> in I<scalar context> successfully returned an object. Under
		741	all other circumstances you must not call this function (I mean it.
		742	although in simple tests it might actually work, it I<will> fail under
		743	real world conditions). As a special exception, you can also call this
		744	method before having parsed anything.
		745
		746	This function is useful in two cases: a) finding the trailing text after a
		747	JSON object or b) parsing multiple JSON objects separated by non-JSON text
		748	(such as commas).
		749
		750	=item $json->incr_skip
		751
		752	This will reset the state of the incremental parser and will remove
		753	the parsed text from the input buffer so far. This is useful after
		754	C<incr_parse> died, in which case the input buffer and incremental parser
		755	state is left unchanged, to skip the text parsed so far and to reset the
		756	parse state.
		757
		758	The difference to C<incr_reset> is that only text until the parse error
		759	occurred is removed.
		760
		761	=item $json->incr_reset
		762
		763	This completely resets the incremental parser, that is, after this call,
		764	it will be as if the parser had never parsed anything.
		765
		766	This is useful if you want to repeatedly parse JSON objects and want to
		767	ignore any trailing data, which means you have to reset the parser after
		768	each successful decode.
		769
		770	=back
		771
		772	=head2 LIMITATIONS
		773
		774	All options that affect decoding are supported, except
		775	C<allow_nonref>. The reason for this is that it cannot be made to work
		776	sensibly: JSON objects and arrays are self-delimited, i.e. you can
		777	concatenate them back to back and still decode them perfectly. This does
		778	not hold true for JSON numbers, however.
		779
		780	For example, is the string C<1> a single JSON number, or is it simply the
		781	start of C<12>? Or is C<12> a single JSON number, or the concatenation
		782	of C<1> and C<2>? In neither case you can tell, and this is why JSON::XS
		783	takes the conservative route and disallows this case.
		784
		785	=head2 EXAMPLES
		786
		787	Some examples will make all this clearer. First, a simple example that
		788	works similarly to C<decode_prefix>: We want to decode the JSON object at
		789	the start of a string and identify the portion after the JSON object:
		790
		791	my $text = "[1,2,3] hello";
		792
		793	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		794
		795	my $obj = $json->incr_parse ($text)
		796	or die "expected JSON object or array at beginning of string";
		797
		798	my $tail = $json->incr_text;
		799	# $tail now contains " hello"
		800
		801	Easy, isn't it?
		802
		803	Now for a more complicated example: Imagine a hypothetical protocol where
		804	you read some requests from a TCP stream, and each request is a JSON
		805	array, without any separation between them (in fact, it is often useful to
		806	use newlines as "separators", as these get interpreted as whitespace at
		807	the start of the JSON text, which makes it possible to test said protocol
		808	with C<telnet>...).
		809
		810	Here is how you'd do it (it is trivial to write this in an event-based
		811	manner):
		812
		813	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		814
		815	# read some data from the socket
		816	while (sysread $socket, my $buf, 4096) {
		817
		818	# split and decode as many requests as possible
		819	for my $request ($json->incr_parse ($buf)) {
		820	# act on the $request
		821	}
		822	}
		823
		824	Another complicated example: Assume you have a string with JSON objects
		825	or arrays, all separated by (optional) comma characters (e.g. C<[1],[2],
		826	[3]>). To parse them, we have to skip the commas between the JSON texts,
		827	and here is where the lvalue-ness of C<incr_text> comes in useful:
		828
		829	my $text = "[1],[2], [3]";
		830	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		831
		832	# void context, so no parsing done
		833	$json->incr_parse ($text);
		834
		835	# now extract as many objects as possible. note the
		836	# use of scalar context so incr_text can be called.
		837	while (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
		838	# do something with $obj
		839
		840	# now skip the optional comma
		841	$json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* , //x;
		842	}
		843
		844	Now lets go for a very complex example: Assume that you have a gigantic
		845	JSON array-of-objects, many gigabytes in size, and you want to parse it,
		846	but you cannot load it into memory fully (this has actually happened in
		847	the real world :).
		848
		849	Well, you lost, you have to implement your own JSON parser. But JSON::XS
		850	can still help you: You implement a (very simple) array parser and let
		851	JSON decode the array elements, which are all full JSON objects on their
		852	own (this wouldn't work if the array elements could be JSON numbers, for
		853	example):
		854
		855	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		856
		857	# open the monster
		858	open my $fh, "<bigfile.json"
		859	or die "bigfile: $!";
		860
		861	# first parse the initial "["
		862	for (;;) {
		863	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		864	or die "read error: $!";
		865	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		866
		867	# Exit the loop once we found and removed(!) the initial "[".
		868	# In essence, we are (ab-)using the $json object as a simple scalar
		869	# we append data to.
		870	last if $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* \[ //x;
		871	}
		872
		873	# now we have the skipped the initial "[", so continue
		874	# parsing all the elements.
		875	for (;;) {
		876	# in this loop we read data until we got a single JSON object
		877	for (;;) {
		878	if (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
		879	# do something with $obj
		880	last;
		881	}
		882
		883	# add more data
		884	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		885	or die "read error: $!";
		886	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		887	}
		888
		889	# in this loop we read data until we either found and parsed the
		890	# separating "," between elements, or the final "]"
		891	for (;;) {
		892	# first skip whitespace
		893	$json->incr_text =~ s/^\s*//;
		894
		895	# if we find "]", we are done
		896	if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^\]//) {
		897	print "finished.\n";
		898	exit;
		899	}
		900
		901	# if we find ",", we can continue with the next element
		902	if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^,//) {
		903	last;
		904	}
		905
		906	# if we find anything else, we have a parse error!
		907	if (length $json->incr_text) {
		908	die "parse error near ", $json->incr_text;
		909	}
		910
		911	# else add more data
		912	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		913	or die "read error: $!";
		914	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		915	}
		916
		917	This is a complex example, but most of the complexity comes from the fact
		918	that we are trying to be correct (bear with me if I am wrong, I never ran
		919	the above example :).
		920
523		921
524		922
525	=head1 MAPPING	923	=head1 MAPPING
526		924
527	This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and	925	This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and
528	vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most	926	vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
529	circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics	927	circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
530	(what you put in comes out as something equivalent).	928	(what you put in comes out as something equivalent).
531		929
532	For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,	930	For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,
533	lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppcercase I<Perl>	931	lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppercase I<Perl>
534	refers to the abstract Perl language itself.	932	refers to the abstract Perl language itself.
535		933
536		934
537	=head2 JSON -> PERL	935	=head2 JSON -> PERL
538		936
539	=over 4	937	=over 4
540		938
541	=item object	939	=item object
542		940
543	A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object	941	A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object
544	keys is preserved (JSON does not preserver object key ordering itself).	942	keys is preserved (JSON does not preserve object key ordering itself).
545		943
546	=item array	944	=item array
547		945
548	A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl.	946	A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl.
549		947
…		…
557		955
558	A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or	956	A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or
559	string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On	957	string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On
560	the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all	958	the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all
561	the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and	959	the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and
562	might represent more values exactly than (floating point) numbers.	960	might represent more values exactly than floating point numbers.
563		961
564	If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent	962	If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent
565	it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as	963	it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as
566	a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of	964	a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of
567	precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value.	965	precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value (in
		966	which case you lose roundtripping ability, as the JSON number will be
		967	re-encoded to a JSON string).
568		968
569	Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be	969	Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be
570	represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of	970	represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of
571	precision.	971	precision (in which case you might lose perfect roundtripping ability, but
		972	the JSON number will still be re-encoded as a JSON number).
572		973
573	This might create round-tripping problems as numbers might become strings,	974	Note that precision is not accuracy - binary floating point values cannot
574	but as Perl is typeless there is no other way to do it.	975	represent most decimal fractions exactly, and when converting from and to
		976	floating point, JSON::XS only guarantees precision up to but not including
		977	the least significant bit.
575		978
576	=item true, false	979	=item true, false
577		980
578	These JSON atoms become C<JSON::XS::true> and C<JSON::XS::false>,	981	These JSON atoms become C<Types::Serialiser::true> and
579	respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers	982	C<Types::Serialiser::false>, respectively. They are overloaded to act
580	C<1> and C<0>. You can check wether a scalar is a JSON boolean by using	983	almost exactly like the numbers C<1> and C<0>. You can check whether
581	the C<JSON::XS::is_bool> function.	984	a scalar is a JSON boolean by using the C<Types::Serialiser::is_bool>
		985	function (after C<use Types::Serialier>, of course).
582		986
583	=item null	987	=item null
584		988
585	A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.	989	A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.
		990
		991	=item shell-style comments (C<< # I<text> >>)
		992
		993	As a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax that is enabled by the
		994	C<relaxed> setting, shell-style comments are allowed. They can start
		995	anywhere outside strings and go till the end of the line.
		996
		997	=item tagged values (C<< (I<tag>)I<value> >>).
		998
		999	Another nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax, enabled with the
		1000	C<allow_tags> setting, are tagged values. In this implementation, the
		1001	I<tag> must be a perl package/class name encoded as a JSON string, and the
		1002	I<value> must be a JSON array encoding optional constructor arguments.
		1003
		1004	See "OBJECT SERIALISATION", below, for details.
586		1005
587	=back	1006	=back
588		1007
589		1008
590	=head2 PERL -> JSON	1009	=head2 PERL -> JSON
…		…
595		1014
596	=over 4	1015	=over 4
597		1016
598	=item hash references	1017	=item hash references
599		1018
600	Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent ordering	1019	Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent
601	in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded in a	1020	ordering in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded
602	pseudo-random order that can change between runs of the same program but	1021	in a pseudo-random order. JSON::XS can optionally sort the hash keys
603	stays generally the same within a single run of a program. JSON::XS can	1022	(determined by the I<canonical> flag), so the same datastructure will
604	optionally sort the hash keys (determined by the I<canonical> flag), so	1023	serialise to the same JSON text (given same settings and version of
605	the same datastructure will serialise to the same JSON text (given same	1024	JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead and is only rarely useful,
606	settings and version of JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead	1025	e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text against another for equality.
607	and is only rarely useful, e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text
608	against another for equality.
609		1026
610	=item array references	1027	=item array references
611		1028
612	Perl array references become JSON arrays.	1029	Perl array references become JSON arrays.
613		1030
614	=item other references	1031	=item other references
615		1032
616	Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an	1033	Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an
617	exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and	1034	exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and
618	C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON. You can	1035	C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON.
619	also use C<JSON::XS::false> and C<JSON::XS::true> to improve readability.
620		1036
		1037	Since C<JSON::XS> uses the boolean model from L<Types::Serialiser>, you
		1038	can also C<use Types::Serialiser> and then use C<Types::Serialiser::false>
		1039	and C<Types::Serialiser::true> to improve readability.
		1040
		1041	use Types::Serialiser;
621	to_json [\0,JSON::XS::true] # yields [false,true]	1042	encode_json [\0, Types::Serialiser::true] # yields [false,true]
622		1043
623	=item JSON::XS::true, JSON::XS::false	1044	=item Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::false
624		1045
625	These special values become JSON true and JSON false values,	1046	These special values from the L<Types::Serialiser> module become JSON true
626	respectively. You cna alos use C<\1> and C<\0> directly if you want.	1047	and JSON false values, respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0>
		1048	directly if you want.
627		1049
628	=item blessed objects	1050	=item blessed objects
629		1051
630	Blessed objects are not allowed. JSON::XS currently tries to encode their	1052	Blessed objects are not directly representable in JSON, but C<JSON::XS>
631	underlying representation (hash- or arrayref), but this behaviour might	1053	allows various ways of handling objects. See "OBJECT SERIALISATION",
632	change in future versions.	1054	below, for details.
633		1055
634	=item simple scalars	1056	=item simple scalars
635		1057
636	Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most	1058	Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
637	difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as	1059	difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as
638	JSON null value, scalars that have last been used in a string context	1060	JSON C<null> values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
639	before encoding as JSON strings and anything else as number value:	1061	before encoding as JSON strings, and anything else as number value:
640		1062
641	# dump as number	1063	# dump as number
642	to_json [2] # yields [2]	1064	encode_json [2] # yields [2]
643	to_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]	1065	encode_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
644	my $value = 5; to_json [$value] # yields [5]	1066	my $value = 5; encode_json [$value] # yields [5]
645		1067
646	# used as string, so dump as string	1068	# used as string, so dump as string
647	print $value;	1069	print $value;
648	to_json [$value] # yields ["5"]	1070	encode_json [$value] # yields ["5"]
649		1071
650	# undef becomes null	1072	# undef becomes null
651	to_json [undef] # yields [null]	1073	encode_json [undef] # yields [null]
652		1074
653	You can force the type to be a string by stringifying it:	1075	You can force the type to be a JSON string by stringifying it:
654		1076
655	my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number	1077	my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
656	"$x"; # stringified	1078	"$x"; # stringified
657	$x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify	1079	$x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify
658	print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often	1080	print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often
659		1081
660	You can force the type to be a number by numifying it:	1082	You can force the type to be a JSON number by numifying it:
661		1083
662	my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string	1084	my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
663	$x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number	1085	$x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
664	$x *= 1; # same thing, the choise is yours.	1086	$x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
665		1087
666	You can not currently output JSON booleans or force the type in other,	1088	You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
667	less obscure, ways. Tell me if you need this capability.	1089	if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
		1090	:).
		1091
		1092	Note that numerical precision has the same meaning as under Perl (so
		1093	binary to decimal conversion follows the same rules as in Perl, which
		1094	can differ to other languages). Also, your perl interpreter might expose
		1095	extensions to the floating point numbers of your platform, such as
		1096	infinities or NaN's - these cannot be represented in JSON, and it is an
		1097	error to pass those in.
668		1098
669	=back	1099	=back
670		1100
		1101	=head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
671		1102
672	=head1 COMPARISON	1103	As JSON cannot directly represent Perl objects, you have to choose between
		1104	a pure JSON representation (without the ability to deserialise the object
		1105	automatically again), and a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax,
		1106	tagged values.
673		1107
674	As already mentioned, this module was created because none of the existing	1108	=head3 SERIALISATION
675	JSON modules could be made to work correctly. First I will describe the	1109
676	problems (or pleasures) I encountered with various existing JSON modules,	1110	What happens when C<JSON::XS> encounters a Perl object depends on the
677	followed by some benchmark values. JSON::XS was designed not to suffer	1111	C<allow_blessed>, C<convert_blessed> and C<allow_tags> settings, which are
678	from any of these problems or limitations.	1112	used in this order:
679		1113
680	=over 4	1114	=over 4
681		1115
682	=item JSON 1.07	1116	=item 1. C<allow_tags> is enabled and object has a C<FREEZE> method.
683		1117
684	Slow (but very portable, as it is written in pure Perl).	1118	In this case, C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> object
		1119	serialisation protocol to create a tagged JSON value, using a nonstandard
		1120	extension to the JSON syntax.
685		1121
686	Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling (how JSON handles unicode values is	1122	This works by invoking the C<FREEZE> method on the object, with the first
687	undocumented. One can get far by feeding it unicode strings and doing	1123	argument being the object to serialise, and the second argument being the
688	en-/decoding oneself, but unicode escapes are not working properly).	1124	constant string C<JSON> to distinguish it from other serialisers.
689		1125
690	No roundtripping (strings get clobbered if they look like numbers, e.g.	1126	The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
691	the string C<2.0> will encode to C<2.0> instead of C<"2.0">, and that will	1127	more). These values and the paclkage/classname of the object will then be
692	decode into the number 2.	1128	encoded as a tagged JSON value in the following format:
693		1129
694	=item JSON::PC 0.01	1130	("classname")[FREEZE return values...]
695		1131
696	Very fast.	1132	For example, the hypothetical C<My::Object> C<FREEZE> method might use the
		1133	objects C<type> and C<id> members to encode the object:
697		1134
698	Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling.	1135	sub My::Object::FREEZE {
		1136	my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
699		1137
700	No roundtripping.	1138	($self->{type}, $self->{id})
		1139	}
701		1140
702	Has problems handling many Perl values (e.g. regex results and other magic	1141	=item 2. C<convert_blessed> is enabled and object has a C<TO_JSON> method.
703	values will make it croak).
704		1142
705	Does not even generate valid JSON (C<{1,2}> gets converted to C<{1:2}>	1143	In this case, the C<TO_JSON> method of the object is invoked in scalar
706	which is not a valid JSON text.	1144	context. It must return a single scalar that can be directly encoded into
		1145	JSON. This scalar replaces the object in the JSON text.
707		1146
708	Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not	1147	For example, the following C<TO_JSON> method will convert all L<URI>
709	getting fixed).	1148	objects to JSON strings when serialised. The fatc that these values
		1149	originally were L<URI> objects is lost.
710		1150
711	=item JSON::Syck 0.21	1151	sub URI::TO_JSON {
		1152	my ($uri) = @_;
		1153	$uri->as_string
		1154	}
712		1155
713	Very buggy (often crashes).	1156	=item 3. C<allow_blessed> is enabled.
714		1157
715	Very inflexible (no human-readable format supported, format pretty much	1158	The object will be serialised as a JSON null value.
716	undocumented. I need at least a format for easy reading by humans and a
717	single-line compact format for use in a protocol, and preferably a way to
718	generate ASCII-only JSON texts).
719		1159
720	Completely broken (and confusingly documented) Unicode handling (unicode	1160	=item 4. none of the above
721	escapes are not working properly, you need to set ImplicitUnicode to
722	I<different> values on en- and decoding to get symmetric behaviour).
723		1161
724	No roundtripping (simple cases work, but this depends on wether the scalar	1162	If none of the settings are enabled or the respective methods are missing,
725	value was used in a numeric context or not).	1163	C<JSON::XS> throws an exception.
726
727	Dumping hashes may skip hash values depending on iterator state.
728
729	Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not
730	getting fixed).
731
732	Does not check input for validity (i.e. will accept non-JSON input and
733	return "something" instead of raising an exception. This is a security
734	issue: imagine two banks transfering money between each other using
735	JSON. One bank might parse a given non-JSON request and deduct money,
736	while the other might reject the transaction with a syntax error. While a
737	good protocol will at least recover, that is extra unnecessary work and
738	the transaction will still not succeed).
739
740	=item JSON::DWIW 0.04
741
742	Very fast. Very natural. Very nice.
743
744	Undocumented unicode handling (but the best of the pack. Unicode escapes
745	still don't get parsed properly).
746
747	Very inflexible.
748
749	No roundtripping.
750
751	Does not generate valid JSON texts (key strings are often unquoted, empty keys
752	result in nothing being output)
753
754	Does not check input for validity.
755		1164
756	=back	1165	=back
757		1166
		1167	=head3 DESERIALISATION
		1168
		1169	For deserialisation there are only two cases to consider: either
		1170	nonstandard tagging was used, in which case C<allow_tags> decides,
		1171	or objects cannot be automatically be deserialised, in which
		1172	case you can use postprocessing or the C<filter_json_object> or
		1173	C<filter_json_single_key_object> callbacks to get some real objects our of
		1174	your JSON.
		1175
		1176	This section only considers the tagged value case: I a tagged JSON object
		1177	is encountered during decoding and C<allow_tags> is disabled, a parse
		1178	error will result (as if tagged values were not part of the grammar).
		1179
		1180	If C<allow_tags> is enabled, C<JSON::XS> will look up the C<THAW> method
		1181	of the package/classname used during serialisation. If there is no such
		1182	method, the decoding will fail with an error.
		1183
		1184	Otherwise, the C<THAW> method is invoked with the classname as first
		1185	argument, the constant string C<JSON> as second argument, and all the
		1186	values from the JSON array (the values originally returned by the
		1187	C<FREEZE> method) as remaining arguments.
		1188
		1189	The method must then return the object. While technically you can return
		1190	any Perl scalar, you might have to enable the C<enable_nonref> setting to
		1191	make that work in all cases, so better return an actual blessed reference.
		1192
		1193	As an example, let's implement a C<THAW> function that regenerates the
		1194	C<My::Object> from the C<FREEZE> example earlier:
		1195
		1196	sub My::Object::THAW {
		1197	my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id) = @_;
		1198
		1199	$class->new (type => $type, id => $id)
		1200	}
		1201
		1202
		1203	=head1 ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES
		1204
		1205	The interested reader might have seen a number of flags that signify
		1206	encodings or codesets - C<utf8>, C<latin1> and C<ascii>. There seems to be
		1207	some confusion on what these do, so here is a short comparison:
		1208
		1209	C<utf8> controls whether the JSON text created by C<encode> (and expected
		1210	by C<decode>) is UTF-8 encoded or not, while C<latin1> and C<ascii> only
		1211	control whether C<encode> escapes character values outside their respective
		1212	codeset range. Neither of these flags conflict with each other, although
		1213	some combinations make less sense than others.
		1214
		1215	Care has been taken to make all flags symmetrical with respect to
		1216	C<encode> and C<decode>, that is, texts encoded with any combination of
		1217	these flag values will be correctly decoded when the same flags are used
		1218	- in general, if you use different flag settings while encoding vs. when
		1219	decoding you likely have a bug somewhere.
		1220
		1221	Below comes a verbose discussion of these flags. Note that a "codeset" is
		1222	simply an abstract set of character-codepoint pairs, while an encoding
		1223	takes those codepoint numbers and I<encodes> them, in our case into
		1224	octets. Unicode is (among other things) a codeset, UTF-8 is an encoding,
		1225	and ISO-8859-1 (= latin 1) and ASCII are both codesets I<and> encodings at
		1226	the same time, which can be confusing.
		1227
		1228	=over 4
		1229
		1230	=item C<utf8> flag disabled
		1231
		1232	When C<utf8> is disabled (the default), then C<encode>/C<decode> generate
		1233	and expect Unicode strings, that is, characters with high ordinal Unicode
		1234	values (> 255) will be encoded as such characters, and likewise such
		1235	characters are decoded as-is, no changes to them will be done, except
		1236	"(re-)interpreting" them as Unicode codepoints or Unicode characters,
		1237	respectively (to Perl, these are the same thing in strings unless you do
		1238	funny/weird/dumb stuff).
		1239
		1240	This is useful when you want to do the encoding yourself (e.g. when you
		1241	want to have UTF-16 encoded JSON texts) or when some other layer does
		1242	the encoding for you (for example, when printing to a terminal using a
		1243	filehandle that transparently encodes to UTF-8 you certainly do NOT want
		1244	to UTF-8 encode your data first and have Perl encode it another time).
		1245
		1246	=item C<utf8> flag enabled
		1247
		1248	If the C<utf8>-flag is enabled, C<encode>/C<decode> will encode all
		1249	characters using the corresponding UTF-8 multi-byte sequence, and will
		1250	expect your input strings to be encoded as UTF-8, that is, no "character"
		1251	of the input string must have any value > 255, as UTF-8 does not allow
		1252	that.
		1253
		1254	The C<utf8> flag therefore switches between two modes: disabled means you
		1255	will get a Unicode string in Perl, enabled means you get an UTF-8 encoded
		1256	octet/binary string in Perl.
		1257
		1258	=item C<latin1> or C<ascii> flags enabled
		1259
		1260	With C<latin1> (or C<ascii>) enabled, C<encode> will escape characters
		1261	with ordinal values > 255 (> 127 with C<ascii>) and encode the remaining
		1262	characters as specified by the C<utf8> flag.
		1263
		1264	If C<utf8> is disabled, then the result is also correctly encoded in those
		1265	character sets (as both are proper subsets of Unicode, meaning that a
		1266	Unicode string with all character values < 256 is the same thing as a
		1267	ISO-8859-1 string, and a Unicode string with all character values < 128 is
		1268	the same thing as an ASCII string in Perl).
		1269
		1270	If C<utf8> is enabled, you still get a correct UTF-8-encoded string,
		1271	regardless of these flags, just some more characters will be escaped using
		1272	C<\uXXXX> then before.
		1273
		1274	Note that ISO-8859-1-I<encoded> strings are not compatible with UTF-8
		1275	encoding, while ASCII-encoded strings are. That is because the ISO-8859-1
		1276	encoding is NOT a subset of UTF-8 (despite the ISO-8859-1 I<codeset> being
		1277	a subset of Unicode), while ASCII is.
		1278
		1279	Surprisingly, C<decode> will ignore these flags and so treat all input
		1280	values as governed by the C<utf8> flag. If it is disabled, this allows you
		1281	to decode ISO-8859-1- and ASCII-encoded strings, as both strict subsets of
		1282	Unicode. If it is enabled, you can correctly decode UTF-8 encoded strings.
		1283
		1284	So neither C<latin1> nor C<ascii> are incompatible with the C<utf8> flag -
		1285	they only govern when the JSON output engine escapes a character or not.
		1286
		1287	The main use for C<latin1> is to relatively efficiently store binary data
		1288	as JSON, at the expense of breaking compatibility with most JSON decoders.
		1289
		1290	The main use for C<ascii> is to force the output to not contain characters
		1291	with values > 127, which means you can interpret the resulting string
		1292	as UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ASCII, KOI8-R or most about any character set and
		1293	8-bit-encoding, and still get the same data structure back. This is useful
		1294	when your channel for JSON transfer is not 8-bit clean or the encoding
		1295	might be mangled in between (e.g. in mail), and works because ASCII is a
		1296	proper subset of most 8-bit and multibyte encodings in use in the world.
		1297
		1298	=back
		1299
		1300
		1301	=head2 JSON and ECMAscript
		1302
		1303	JSON syntax is based on how literals are represented in javascript (the
		1304	not-standardised predecessor of ECMAscript) which is presumably why it is
		1305	called "JavaScript Object Notation".
		1306
		1307	However, JSON is not a subset (and also not a superset of course) of
		1308	ECMAscript (the standard) or javascript (whatever browsers actually
		1309	implement).
		1310
		1311	If you want to use javascript's C<eval> function to "parse" JSON, you
		1312	might run into parse errors for valid JSON texts, or the resulting data
		1313	structure might not be queryable:
		1314
		1315	One of the problems is that U+2028 and U+2029 are valid characters inside
		1316	JSON strings, but are not allowed in ECMAscript string literals, so the
		1317	following Perl fragment will not output something that can be guaranteed
		1318	to be parsable by javascript's C<eval>:
		1319
		1320	use JSON::XS;
		1321
		1322	print encode_json [chr 0x2028];
		1323
		1324	The right fix for this is to use a proper JSON parser in your javascript
		1325	programs, and not rely on C<eval> (see for example Douglas Crockford's
		1326	F<json2.js> parser).
		1327
		1328	If this is not an option, you can, as a stop-gap measure, simply encode to
		1329	ASCII-only JSON:
		1330
		1331	use JSON::XS;
		1332
		1333	print JSON::XS->new->ascii->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
		1334
		1335	Note that this will enlarge the resulting JSON text quite a bit if you
		1336	have many non-ASCII characters. You might be tempted to run some regexes
		1337	to only escape U+2028 and U+2029, e.g.:
		1338
		1339	# DO NOT USE THIS!
		1340	my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
		1341	$json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa8/\\u2028/g; # escape U+2028
		1342	$json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa9/\\u2029/g; # escape U+2029
		1343	print $json;
		1344
		1345	Note that I<this is a bad idea>: the above only works for U+2028 and
		1346	U+2029 and thus only for fully ECMAscript-compliant parsers. Many existing
		1347	javascript implementations, however, have issues with other characters as
		1348	well - using C<eval> naively simply I<will> cause problems.
		1349
		1350	Another problem is that some javascript implementations reserve
		1351	some property names for their own purposes (which probably makes
		1352	them non-ECMAscript-compliant). For example, Iceweasel reserves the
		1353	C<__proto__> property name for its own purposes.
		1354
		1355	If that is a problem, you could parse try to filter the resulting JSON
		1356	output for these property strings, e.g.:
		1357
		1358	$json =~ s/"__proto__"\s*:/"__proto__renamed":/g;
		1359
		1360	This works because C<__proto__> is not valid outside of strings, so every
		1361	occurrence of C<"__proto__"\s*:> must be a string used as property name.
		1362
		1363	If you know of other incompatibilities, please let me know.
		1364
758		1365
759	=head2 JSON and YAML	1366	=head2 JSON and YAML
760		1367
761	You often hear that JSON is a subset (or a close subset) of YAML. This is,	1368	You often hear that JSON is a subset of YAML. This is, however, a mass
762	however, a mass hysteria and very far from the truth. In general, there is	1369	hysteria(*) and very far from the truth (as of the time of this writing),
763	no way to configure JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML.	1370	so let me state it clearly: I<in general, there is no way to configure
		1371	JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML> that works in all
		1372	cases.
764		1373
765	If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this	1374	If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this
766	algorithm (subject to change in future versions):	1375	algorithm (subject to change in future versions):
767		1376
768	my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);	1377	my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);
769	my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";	1378	my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";
770		1379
771	This will usually generate JSON texts that also parse as valid	1380	This will I<usually> generate JSON texts that also parse as valid
772	YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key	1381	YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key
773	lengths that JSON doesn't have, so you should make sure that your hash	1382	lengths that JSON doesn't have and also has different and incompatible
		1383	unicode character escape syntax, so you should make sure that your hash
774	keys are noticably shorter than the 1024 characters YAML allows.	1384	keys are noticeably shorter than the 1024 "stream characters" YAML allows
		1385	and that you do not have characters with codepoint values outside the
		1386	Unicode BMP (basic multilingual page). YAML also does not allow C<\/>
		1387	sequences in strings (which JSON::XS does not I<currently> generate, but
		1388	other JSON generators might).
775		1389
776	There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of. In general	1390	There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of (or the YAML
		1391	specification has been changed yet again - it does so quite often). In
777	you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice versa,	1392	general you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice
778	or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are high	1393	versa, or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are
779	that you will run into severe interoperability problems.	1394	high that you will run into severe interoperability problems when you
		1395	least expect it.
		1396
		1397	=over 4
		1398
		1399	=item (*)
		1400
		1401	I have been pressured multiple times by Brian Ingerson (one of the
		1402	authors of the YAML specification) to remove this paragraph, despite him
		1403	acknowledging that the actual incompatibilities exist. As I was personally
		1404	bitten by this "JSON is YAML" lie, I refused and said I will continue to
		1405	educate people about these issues, so others do not run into the same
		1406	problem again and again. After this, Brian called me a (quote)I<complete
		1407	and worthless idiot>(unquote).
		1408
		1409	In my opinion, instead of pressuring and insulting people who actually
		1410	clarify issues with YAML and the wrong statements of some of its
		1411	proponents, I would kindly suggest reading the JSON spec (which is not
		1412	that difficult or long) and finally make YAML compatible to it, and
		1413	educating users about the changes, instead of spreading lies about the
		1414	real compatibility for many I<years> and trying to silence people who
		1415	point out that it isn't true.
		1416
		1417	Addendum/2009: the YAML 1.2 spec is still incompatible with JSON, even
		1418	though the incompatibilities have been documented (and are known to Brian)
		1419	for many years and the spec makes explicit claims that YAML is a superset
		1420	of JSON. It would be so easy to fix, but apparently, bullying people and
		1421	corrupting userdata is so much easier.
		1422
		1423	=back
780		1424
781		1425
782	=head2 SPEED	1426	=head2 SPEED
783		1427
784	It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following	1428	It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following
785	tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program	1429	tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program
786	in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own	1430	in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own
787	system.	1431	system.
788		1432
789	First comes a comparison between various modules using a very short	1433	First comes a comparison between various modules using
790	single-line JSON string:	1434	a very short single-line JSON string (also available at
		1435	L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/short.json>).
791		1436
792	{"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1", "we were just talking"], \	1437	{"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1",
793	"id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7, true, false]}	1438	"we were just talking"], "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7,
		1439	1, 0]}
794		1440
795	It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses	1441	It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses
796	the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface	1442	the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface
797	with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables	1443	with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables
798	shrink). Higher is better:	1444	shrink. JSON::DWIW/DS uses the deserialise function, while JSON::DWIW::FJ
		1445	uses the from_json method). Higher is better:
799		1446
800	Storable | 15779.925 | 14169.946 |
801	-----------+------------+------------+
802	module | encode | decode |	1447	module | encode | decode |
803	-----------|------------|------------|	1448	--------------|------------|------------|
804	JSON | 4990.842 | 4088.813 |	1449	JSON::DWIW/DS | 86302.551 | 102300.098 |
805	JSON::DWIW | 51653.990 | 71575.154 |	1450	JSON::DWIW/FJ | 86302.551 | 75983.768 |
806	JSON::PC | 65948.176 | 74631.744 |	1451	JSON::PP | 15827.562 | 6638.658 |
807	JSON::PP | 8931.652 | 3817.168 |	1452	JSON::Syck | 63358.066 | 47662.545 |
808	JSON::Syck | 24877.248 | 27776.848 |	1453	JSON::XS | 511500.488 | 511500.488 |
809	JSON::XS | 388361.481 | 227951.304 |	1454	JSON::XS/2 | 291271.111 | 388361.481 |
810	JSON::XS/2 | 227951.304 | 218453.333 |	1455	JSON::XS/3 | 361577.931 | 361577.931 |
811	JSON::XS/3 | 338250.323 | 218453.333 |	1456	Storable | 66788.280 | 265462.278 |
812	Storable | 16500.016 | 135300.129 |
813	-----------+------------+------------+	1457	--------------+------------+------------+
814		1458
815	That is, JSON::XS is about five times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding,	1459	That is, JSON::XS is almost six times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding,
816	about three times faster on decoding, and over fourty times faster	1460	about five times faster on decoding, and over thirty to seventy times
817	than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting. It also compares	1461	faster than JSON's pure perl implementation. It also compares favourably
818	favourably to Storable for small amounts of data.	1462	to Storable for small amounts of data.
819		1463
820	Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals	1464	Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals
821	search API (http://nanoref.com/yahooapis/mgPdGg):	1465	search API (L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/long.json>).
822		1466
823	module | encode | decode |	1467	module | encode | decode |
824	-----------|------------|------------|	1468	--------------|------------|------------|
825	JSON | 55.260 | 34.971 |	1469	JSON::DWIW/DS | 1647.927 | 2673.916 |
826	JSON::DWIW | 825.228 | 1082.513 |	1470	JSON::DWIW/FJ | 1630.249 | 2596.128 |
827	JSON::PC | 3571.444 | 2394.829 |
828	JSON::PP | 210.987 | 32.574 |	1471	JSON::PP | 400.640 | 62.311 |
829	JSON::Syck | 552.551 | 787.544 |	1472	JSON::Syck | 1481.040 | 1524.869 |
830	JSON::XS | 5780.463 | 4854.519 |	1473	JSON::XS | 20661.596 | 9541.183 |
831	JSON::XS/2 | 3869.998 | 4798.975 |	1474	JSON::XS/2 | 10683.403 | 9416.938 |
832	JSON::XS/3 | 5862.880 | 4798.975 |	1475	JSON::XS/3 | 20661.596 | 9400.054 |
833	Storable | 4445.002 | 5235.027 |	1476	Storable | 19765.806 | 10000.725 |
834	-----------+------------+------------+	1477	--------------+------------+------------+
835		1478
836	Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly	1479	Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly
837	decodes faster).	1480	decodes a bit faster).
838		1481
839	On large strings containing lots of high unicode characters, some modules	1482	On large strings containing lots of high Unicode characters, some modules
840	(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result	1483	(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result
841	will be broken due to missing (or wrong) unicode handling. Others refuse	1484	will be broken due to missing (or wrong) Unicode handling. Others refuse
842	to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair	1485	to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair
843	comparison table for that case.	1486	comparison table for that case.
844		1487
845		1488
846	=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS	1489	=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
…		…
852	any buffer overflows. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am	1495	any buffer overflows. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am
853	trying hard on making that true, but you never know.	1496	trying hard on making that true, but you never know.
854		1497
855	Second, you need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should	1498	Second, you need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should
856	limit the size of JSON texts you accept, or make sure then when your	1499	limit the size of JSON texts you accept, or make sure then when your
857	resources run out, thats just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that	1500	resources run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that
858	can crash safely). The size of a JSON text in octets or characters is	1501	can crash safely). The size of a JSON text in octets or characters is
859	usually a good indication of the size of the resources required to decode	1502	usually a good indication of the size of the resources required to decode
860	it into a Perl structure. While JSON::XS can check the size of the JSON	1503	it into a Perl structure. While JSON::XS can check the size of the JSON
861	text, it might be too late when you already have it in memory, so you	1504	text, it might be too late when you already have it in memory, so you
862	might want to check the size before you accept the string.	1505	might want to check the size before you accept the string.
863		1506
864	Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and	1507	Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and
865	arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64	1508	arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64
866	machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but	1509	machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but
867	only 14k nested JSON objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak	1510	only 14k nested JSON objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak
868	to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. to be	1511	to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be
869	conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process	1512	conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process
870	has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the	1513	has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the
871	C<max_depth> method.	1514	C<max_depth> method.
872		1515
873	And last but least, something else could bomb you that I forgot to think	1516	Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
874	of. In that case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints,	1517	case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
875	though...	1518
		1519	Also keep in mind that JSON::XS might leak contents of your Perl data
		1520	structures in its error messages, so when you serialise sensitive
		1521	information you might want to make sure that exceptions thrown by JSON::XS
		1522	will not end up in front of untrusted eyes.
876		1523
877	If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption	1524	If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption
878	by javascript scripts in a browser you should have a look at	1525	by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at
879	L<http://jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security> to see wether	1526	L<http://blog.archive.jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security/> to
880	you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really are browser	1527	see whether you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really
881	design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with it, as major	1528	are browser design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with
882	browser developers care only for features, not about doing security	1529	it, as major browser developers care only for features, not about getting
883	right).	1530	security right).
		1531
		1532
		1533	=head1 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER MODULES
		1534
		1535	C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> module to provide boolean
		1536	constants. That means that the JSON true and false values will be
		1537	comaptible to true and false values of iother modules that do the same,
		1538	such as L<JSON::PP> and L<CBOR::XS>.
		1539
		1540
		1541	=head1 THREADS
		1542
		1543	This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
		1544	plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
		1545	horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
		1546	process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
		1547
		1548	(It might actually work, but you have been warned).
		1549
		1550
		1551	=head1 THE PERILS OF SETLOCALE
		1552
		1553	Sometimes people avoid the Perl locale support and directly call the
		1554	system's setlocale function with C<LC_ALL>.
		1555
		1556	This breaks both perl and modules such as JSON::XS, as stringification of
		1557	numbers no longer works correctly (e.g. C<$x = 0.1; print "$x"+1> might
		1558	print C<1>, and JSON::XS might output illegal JSON as JSON::XS relies on
		1559	perl to stringify numbers).
		1560
		1561	The solution is simple: don't call C<setlocale>, or use it for only those
		1562	categories you need, such as C<LC_MESSAGES> or C<LC_CTYPE>.
		1563
		1564	If you need C<LC_NUMERIC>, you should enable it only around the code that
		1565	actually needs it (avoiding stringification of numbers), and restore it
		1566	afterwards.
884		1567
885		1568
886	=head1 BUGS	1569	=head1 BUGS
887		1570
888	While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does	1571	While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
889	not mean its bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. It is	1572	not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
890	still relatively early in its development. If you keep reporting bugs they	1573	keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
891	will be fixed swiftly, though.	1574
		1575	Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
		1576	service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
892		1577
893	=cut	1578	=cut
894		1579
895	our $true = do { bless \(my $dummy = 1), "JSON::XS::Boolean" };	1580	BEGIN {
896	our $false = do { bless \(my $dummy = 0), "JSON::XS::Boolean" };	1581	*true = \$Types::Serialiser::true;
		1582	*true = \&Types::Serialiser::true;
		1583	*false = \$Types::Serialiser::false;
		1584	*false = \&Types::Serialiser::false;
		1585	*is_bool = \&Types::Serialiser::is_bool;
897		1586
898	sub true() { $true }	1587	*JSON::XS::Boolean:: = *Types::Serialiser::Boolean::;
899	sub false() { $false }
900
901	sub is_bool($) {
902	UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::XS::Boolean"
903	# or UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::Literal"
904	}	1588	}
905		1589
906	XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION;	1590	XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION;
907		1591
908	package JSON::XS::Boolean;	1592	=head1 SEE ALSO
909		1593
910	use overload	1594	The F<json_xs> command line utility for quick experiments.
911	"0+" => sub { ${$_[0]} },
912	"++" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} + 1 },
913	"--" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} - 1 },
914	fallback => 1;
915
916	1;
917		1595
918	=head1 AUTHOR	1596	=head1 AUTHOR
919		1597
920	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>	1598	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
921	http://home.schmorp.de/	1599	http://home.schmorp.de/
922		1600
923	=cut	1601	=cut
924		1602
		1603	1
		1604

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