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Revision 1.77 by root, Tue Dec 4 10:37:42 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.151 by root, Tue Oct 29 15:55:49 2013 UTC

1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast 3JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast
4
5=encoding utf-8
4 6
5JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ 7JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ
6 (http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html) 8 (http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html)
7 9
8=head1 SYNOPSIS 10=head1 SYNOPSIS
10 use JSON::XS; 12 use JSON::XS;
11 13
12 # exported functions, they croak on error 14 # exported functions, they croak on error
13 # and expect/generate UTF-8 15 # and expect/generate UTF-8
14 16
15 $utf8_encoded_json_text = to_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref; 17 $utf8_encoded_json_text = encode_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref;
16 $perl_hash_or_arrayref = from_json $utf8_encoded_json_text; 18 $perl_hash_or_arrayref = decode_json $utf8_encoded_json_text;
17 19
18 # OO-interface 20 # OO-interface
19 21
20 $coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref; 22 $coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref;
21 $pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar); 23 $pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar);
35primary goal is to be I<correct> and its secondary goal is to be 37primary goal is to be I<correct> and its secondary goal is to be
36I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C. 38I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C.
37 39
38Beginning with version 2.0 of the JSON module, when both JSON and 40Beginning with version 2.0 of the JSON module, when both JSON and
39JSON::XS are installed, then JSON will fall back on JSON::XS (this can be 41JSON::XS are installed, then JSON will fall back on JSON::XS (this can be
40overriden) with no overhead due to emulation (by inheritign constructor 42overridden) with no overhead due to emulation (by inheriting constructor
41and methods). If JSON::XS is not available, it will fall back to the 43and methods). If JSON::XS is not available, it will fall back to the
42compatible JSON::PP module as backend, so using JSON instead of JSON::XS 44compatible JSON::PP module as backend, so using JSON instead of JSON::XS
43gives you a portable JSON API that can be fast when you need and doesn't 45gives you a portable JSON API that can be fast when you need and doesn't
44require a C compiler when that is a problem. 46require a C compiler when that is a problem.
45 47
47to write yet another JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON 49to write yet another JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON
48modules, none of them correctly handle all corner cases, and in most cases 50modules, none of them correctly handle all corner cases, and in most cases
49their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug 51their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug
50reports for other reasons. 52reports for other reasons.
51 53
52See COMPARISON, below, for a comparison to some other JSON modules.
53
54See MAPPING, below, on how JSON::XS maps perl values to JSON values and 54See MAPPING, below, on how JSON::XS maps perl values to JSON values and
55vice versa. 55vice versa.
56 56
57=head2 FEATURES 57=head2 FEATURES
58 58
59=over 4 59=over 4
60 60
61=item * correct Unicode handling 61=item * correct Unicode handling
62 62
63This module knows how to handle Unicode, and even documents how and when 63This module knows how to handle Unicode, documents how and when it does
64it does so. 64so, and even documents what "correct" means.
65 65
66=item * round-trip integrity 66=item * round-trip integrity
67 67
68When you serialise a perl data structure using only datatypes supported 68When you serialise a perl data structure using only data types supported
69by JSON, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl level. 69by JSON and Perl, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl
70(e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because it looks 70level. (e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because
71like a number). 71it looks like a number). There I<are> minor exceptions to this, read the
72MAPPING section below to learn about those.
72 73
73=item * strict checking of JSON correctness 74=item * strict checking of JSON correctness
74 75
75There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default, 76There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default,
76and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security 77and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security
77feature). 78feature).
78 79
79=item * fast 80=item * fast
80 81
81Compared to other JSON modules, this module compares favourably in terms 82Compared to other JSON modules and other serialisers such as Storable,
82of speed, too. 83this module usually compares favourably in terms of speed, too.
83 84
84=item * simple to use 85=item * simple to use
85 86
86This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an OO 87This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an object
87interface. 88oriented interface.
88 89
89=item * reasonably versatile output formats 90=item * reasonably versatile output formats
90 91
91You can choose between the most compact guaranteed single-line format 92You can choose between the most compact guaranteed-single-line format
92possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ascii format 93possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ASCII format
93(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
94Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that 95Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that
95stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like. 96stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.
96 97
97=back 98=back
98 99
99=cut 100=cut
100 101
101package JSON::XS; 102package JSON::XS;
102 103
103use strict; 104use common::sense;
104 105
105our $VERSION = '2.0'; 106our $VERSION = 3.01;
106our @ISA = qw(Exporter); 107our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
107 108
108our @EXPORT = qw(to_json from_json); 109our @EXPORT = qw(encode_json decode_json);
109 110
110use Exporter; 111use Exporter;
111use XSLoader; 112use XSLoader;
112 113
114use Types::Serialiser ();
115
113=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE 116=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
114 117
115The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are 118The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are
116exported by default: 119exported by default:
117 120
118=over 4 121=over 4
119 122
120=item $json_text = to_json $perl_scalar 123=item $json_text = encode_json $perl_scalar
121 124
122Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string 125Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string
123(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error. 126(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error.
124 127
125This function call is functionally identical to: 128This function call is functionally identical to:
126 129
127 $json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar) 130 $json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar)
128 131
129except being faster. 132Except being faster.
130 133
131=item $perl_scalar = from_json $json_text 134=item $perl_scalar = decode_json $json_text
132 135
133The opposite of C<to_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries 136The opposite of C<encode_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries
134to parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting 137to parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting
135reference. Croaks on error. 138reference. Croaks on error.
136 139
137This function call is functionally identical to: 140This function call is functionally identical to:
138 141
139 $perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text) 142 $perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text)
140 143
141except being faster. 144Except being faster.
142
143=item $is_boolean = JSON::XS::is_bool $scalar
144
145Returns true if the passed scalar represents either JSON::XS::true or
146JSON::XS::false, two constants that act like C<1> and C<0>, respectively
147and are used to represent JSON C<true> and C<false> values in Perl.
148
149See MAPPING, below, for more information on how JSON values are mapped to
150Perl.
151 145
152=back 146=back
153 147
154 148
155=head1 A FEW NOTES ON UNICODE AND PERL 149=head1 A FEW NOTES ON UNICODE AND PERL
164This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a 158This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a
165Perl string - very natural. 159Perl string - very natural.
166 160
167=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings. 161=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings.
168 162
169Unless you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or printing 163... until you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or
170the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your string as 164printing the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your
171locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending on various 165string as locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending
172settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your data, it is 166on various settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your
173I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical metadata. 167data, it is I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical meta data.
174 168
175=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the 169=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the
176encoding of your string. 170encoding of your string.
177 171
178Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in 172Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in
184 178
185If you didn't know about that flag, just the better, pretend it doesn't 179If you didn't know about that flag, just the better, pretend it doesn't
186exist. 180exist.
187 181
188=item 4. A "Unicode String" is simply a string where each character can be 182=item 4. A "Unicode String" is simply a string where each character can be
189validly interpreted as a Unicode codepoint. 183validly interpreted as a Unicode code point.
190 184
191If you have UTF-8 encoded data, it is no longer a Unicode string, but a 185If you have UTF-8 encoded data, it is no longer a Unicode string, but a
192Unicode string encoded in UTF-8, giving you a binary string. 186Unicode string encoded in UTF-8, giving you a binary string.
193 187
194=item 5. A string containing "high" (> 255) character values is I<not> a UTF-8 string. 188=item 5. A string containing "high" (> 255) character values is I<not> a UTF-8 string.
232 226
233If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode 227If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
234characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results 228characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results
235in a faster and more compact format. 229in a faster and more compact format.
236 230
231See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
232document.
233
237The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be 234The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be
238transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not 235transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not
239contain any 8 bit characters. 236contain any 8 bit characters.
240 237
241 JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401]) 238 JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])
252will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default 249will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default
253expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1. 250expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.
254 251
255If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode 252If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
256characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. 253characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags.
254
255See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
256document.
257 257
258The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON 258The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON
259text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded 259text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded
260size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded 260size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded
261in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and 261in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and
280 280
281If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON 281If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON
282string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a 282string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a
283Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs 283Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs
284to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module. 284to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.
285
286See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
287document.
285 288
286Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON: 289Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:
287 290
288 use Encode; 291 use Encode;
289 $jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object); 292 $jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);
412If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects 415If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects
413by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead. 416by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.
414 417
415If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value 418If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value
416pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs 419pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs
417of the same script). 420of the same script, and can change even within the same run from 5.18
421onwards).
418 422
419This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as 423This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as
420the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled, 424the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,
421the same hash might be encoded differently even if contains the same data, 425the same hash might be encoded differently even if contains the same data,
422as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl. 426as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.
423 427
424This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts. 428This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
425 429
430This setting has currently no effect on tied hashes.
431
426=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable]) 432=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])
427 433
428=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_nonref 434=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_nonref
429 435
430If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a 436If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a
441resulting in an invalid JSON text: 447resulting in an invalid JSON text:
442 448
443 JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!") 449 JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!")
444 => "Hello, World!" 450 => "Hello, World!"
445 451
452=item $json = $json->allow_unknown ([$enable])
453
454=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_unknown
455
456If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
457exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in JSON (for
458example, filehandles) but instead will encode a JSON C<null> value. Note
459that blessed objects are not included here and are handled separately by
460c<allow_nonref>.
461
462If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
463exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as JSON.
464
465This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
466leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
467
446=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable]) 468=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable])
447 469
448=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_blessed 470=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_blessed
449 471
472See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
473
450If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not 474If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
451barf when it encounters a blessed reference. Instead, the value of the 475barf when it encounters a blessed reference that it cannot convert
452B<convert_blessed> option will decide whether C<null> (C<convert_blessed> 476otherwise. Instead, a JSON C<null> value is encoded instead of the object.
453disabled or no C<TO_JSON> method found) or a representation of the
454object (C<convert_blessed> enabled and C<TO_JSON> method found) is being
455encoded. Has no effect on C<decode>.
456 477
457If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an 478If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
458exception when it encounters a blessed object. 479exception when it encounters a blessed object that it cannot convert
480otherwise.
481
482This setting has no effect on C<decode>.
459 483
460=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable]) 484=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable])
461 485
462=item $enabled = $json->get_convert_blessed 486=item $enabled = $json->get_convert_blessed
487
488See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
463 489
464If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a 490If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
465blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method 491blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method
466on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context 492on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context and
467and the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object. If no 493the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object.
468C<TO_JSON> method is found, the value of C<allow_blessed> will decide what
469to do.
470 494
471The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON> 495The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON>
472returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same 496returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same
473way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle 497way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle
474(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other 498(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other
475methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are 499methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are
476usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with the C<to_json> 500usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with any C<to_json>
477function. 501function or method.
478 502
479This setting does not yet influence C<decode> in any way, but in the 503If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will not consider
480future, global hooks might get installed that influence C<decode> and are 504this type of conversion.
481enabled by this setting.
482 505
483If C<$enable> is false, then the C<allow_blessed> setting will decide what 506This setting has no effect on C<decode>.
484to do when a blessed object is found. 507
508=item $json = $json->allow_tags ([$enable])
509
510=item $enabled = $json->allow_tags
511
512See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
513
514If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
515blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<FREEZE> method on
516the object's class. If found, it will be used to serialise the object into
517a nonstandard tagged JSON value (that JSON decoders cannot decode).
518
519It also causes C<decode> to parse such tagged JSON values and deserialise
520them via a call to the C<THAW> method.
521
522If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will not consider
523this type of conversion, and tagged JSON values will cause a parse error
524in C<decode>, as if tags were not part of the grammar.
485 525
486=item $json = $json->filter_json_object ([$coderef->($hashref)]) 526=item $json = $json->filter_json_object ([$coderef->($hashref)])
487 527
488When C<$coderef> is specified, it will be called from C<decode> each 528When C<$coderef> is specified, it will be called from C<decode> each
489time it decodes a JSON object. The only argument is a reference to the 529time it decodes a JSON object. The only argument is a reference to the
590=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth]) 630=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
591 631
592=item $max_depth = $json->get_max_depth 632=item $max_depth = $json->get_max_depth
593 633
594Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding 634Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
595or decoding. If the JSON text or Perl data structure has an equal or 635or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in JSON text or a Perl
596higher nesting level then this limit, then the encoder and decoder will 636data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
597stop and croak at that point. 637point.
598 638
599Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder 639Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
600needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[> 640needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
601characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a 641characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
602given character in a string. 642given character in a string.
603 643
604Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures 644Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
605that the object is only a single hash/object or array. 645that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
606 646
607The argument to C<max_depth> will be rounded up to the next highest power
608of two. If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be 647If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
609used, which is rarely useful. 648is rarely useful.
649
650Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
651been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
652crashing.
610 653
611See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful. 654See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
612 655
613=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size]) 656=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
614 657
615=item $max_size = $json->get_max_size 658=item $max_size = $json->get_max_size
616 659
617Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is 660Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is
618being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode> 661being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
619is called on a string longer then this number of characters it will not 662is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
620attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no 663attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
621effect on C<encode> (yet). 664effect on C<encode> (yet).
622 665
623The argument to C<max_size> will be rounded up to the next B<highest> 666If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
624power of two (so may be more than requested). If no argument is given, the 667C<0> is specified).
625limit check will be deactivated (same as when C<0> is specified).
626 668
627See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful. 669See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
628 670
629=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar) 671=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)
630 672
631Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference 673Converts the given Perl value or data structure to its JSON
632to a hash or array) to its JSON representation. Simple scalars will be 674representation. Croaks on error.
633converted into JSON string or number sequences, while references to arrays
634become JSON arrays and references to hashes become JSON objects. Undefined
635Perl values (e.g. C<undef>) become JSON C<null> values. Neither C<true>
636nor C<false> values will be generated.
637 675
638=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text) 676=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text)
639 677
640The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it, 678The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it,
641returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error. 679returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
642
643JSON numbers and strings become simple Perl scalars. JSON arrays become
644Perl arrayrefs and JSON objects become Perl hashrefs. C<true> becomes
645C<1>, C<false> becomes C<0> and C<null> becomes C<undef>.
646 680
647=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text) 681=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text)
648 682
649This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception 683This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
650when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will 684when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will
651silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed 685silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed
652so far. 686so far.
653 687
654This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol 688This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
655(which is not the brightest thing to do in the first place) and you need
656to know where the JSON text ends. 689and you need to know where the JSON text ends.
657 690
658 JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail") 691 JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail")
659 => ([], 3) 692 => ([], 3)
660 693
661=back 694=back
695
696
697=head1 INCREMENTAL PARSING
698
699In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
700texts. While this module always has to keep both JSON text and resulting
701Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
702JSON stream incrementally. It does so by accumulating text until it has
703a full JSON object, which it then can decode. This process is similar to
704using C<decode_prefix> to see if a full JSON object is available, but
705is much more efficient (and can be implemented with a minimum of method
706calls).
707
708JSON::XS will only attempt to parse the JSON text once it is sure it
709has enough text to get a decisive result, using a very simple but
710truly incremental parser. This means that it sometimes won't stop as
711early as the full parser, for example, it doesn't detect mismatched
712parentheses. The only thing it guarantees is that it starts decoding as
713soon as a syntactically valid JSON text has been seen. This means you need
714to set resource limits (e.g. C<max_size>) to ensure the parser will stop
715parsing in the presence if syntax errors.
716
717The following methods implement this incremental parser.
718
719=over 4
720
721=item [void, scalar or list context] = $json->incr_parse ([$string])
722
723This is the central parsing function. It can both append new text and
724extract objects from the stream accumulated so far (both of these
725functions are optional).
726
727If C<$string> is given, then this string is appended to the already
728existing JSON fragment stored in the C<$json> object.
729
730After that, if the function is called in void context, it will simply
731return without doing anything further. This can be used to add more text
732in as many chunks as you want.
733
734If the method is called in scalar context, then it will try to extract
735exactly I<one> JSON object. If that is successful, it will return this
736object, otherwise it will return C<undef>. If there is a parse error,
737this method will croak just as C<decode> would do (one can then use
738C<incr_skip> to skip the erroneous part). This is the most common way of
739using the method.
740
741And finally, in list context, it will try to extract as many objects
742from the stream as it can find and return them, or the empty list
743otherwise. For this to work, there must be no separators between the JSON
744objects or arrays, instead they must be concatenated back-to-back. If
745an error occurs, an exception will be raised as in the scalar context
746case. Note that in this case, any previously-parsed JSON texts will be
747lost.
748
749Example: Parse some JSON arrays/objects in a given string and return
750them.
751
752 my @objs = JSON::XS->new->incr_parse ("[5][7][1,2]");
753
754=item $lvalue_string = $json->incr_text
755
756This method returns the currently stored JSON fragment as an lvalue, that
757is, you can manipulate it. This I<only> works when a preceding call to
758C<incr_parse> in I<scalar context> successfully returned an object. Under
759all other circumstances you must not call this function (I mean it.
760although in simple tests it might actually work, it I<will> fail under
761real world conditions). As a special exception, you can also call this
762method before having parsed anything.
763
764This function is useful in two cases: a) finding the trailing text after a
765JSON object or b) parsing multiple JSON objects separated by non-JSON text
766(such as commas).
767
768=item $json->incr_skip
769
770This will reset the state of the incremental parser and will remove
771the parsed text from the input buffer so far. This is useful after
772C<incr_parse> died, in which case the input buffer and incremental parser
773state is left unchanged, to skip the text parsed so far and to reset the
774parse state.
775
776The difference to C<incr_reset> is that only text until the parse error
777occurred is removed.
778
779=item $json->incr_reset
780
781This completely resets the incremental parser, that is, after this call,
782it will be as if the parser had never parsed anything.
783
784This is useful if you want to repeatedly parse JSON objects and want to
785ignore any trailing data, which means you have to reset the parser after
786each successful decode.
787
788=back
789
790=head2 LIMITATIONS
791
792All options that affect decoding are supported, except
793C<allow_nonref>. The reason for this is that it cannot be made to work
794sensibly: JSON objects and arrays are self-delimited, i.e. you can
795concatenate them back to back and still decode them perfectly. This does
796not hold true for JSON numbers, however.
797
798For example, is the string C<1> a single JSON number, or is it simply the
799start of C<12>? Or is C<12> a single JSON number, or the concatenation
800of C<1> and C<2>? In neither case you can tell, and this is why JSON::XS
801takes the conservative route and disallows this case.
802
803=head2 EXAMPLES
804
805Some examples will make all this clearer. First, a simple example that
806works similarly to C<decode_prefix>: We want to decode the JSON object at
807the start of a string and identify the portion after the JSON object:
808
809 my $text = "[1,2,3] hello";
810
811 my $json = new JSON::XS;
812
813 my $obj = $json->incr_parse ($text)
814 or die "expected JSON object or array at beginning of string";
815
816 my $tail = $json->incr_text;
817 # $tail now contains " hello"
818
819Easy, isn't it?
820
821Now for a more complicated example: Imagine a hypothetical protocol where
822you read some requests from a TCP stream, and each request is a JSON
823array, without any separation between them (in fact, it is often useful to
824use newlines as "separators", as these get interpreted as whitespace at
825the start of the JSON text, which makes it possible to test said protocol
826with C<telnet>...).
827
828Here is how you'd do it (it is trivial to write this in an event-based
829manner):
830
831 my $json = new JSON::XS;
832
833 # read some data from the socket
834 while (sysread $socket, my $buf, 4096) {
835
836 # split and decode as many requests as possible
837 for my $request ($json->incr_parse ($buf)) {
838 # act on the $request
839 }
840 }
841
842Another complicated example: Assume you have a string with JSON objects
843or arrays, all separated by (optional) comma characters (e.g. C<[1],[2],
844[3]>). To parse them, we have to skip the commas between the JSON texts,
845and here is where the lvalue-ness of C<incr_text> comes in useful:
846
847 my $text = "[1],[2], [3]";
848 my $json = new JSON::XS;
849
850 # void context, so no parsing done
851 $json->incr_parse ($text);
852
853 # now extract as many objects as possible. note the
854 # use of scalar context so incr_text can be called.
855 while (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
856 # do something with $obj
857
858 # now skip the optional comma
859 $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* , //x;
860 }
861
862Now lets go for a very complex example: Assume that you have a gigantic
863JSON array-of-objects, many gigabytes in size, and you want to parse it,
864but you cannot load it into memory fully (this has actually happened in
865the real world :).
866
867Well, you lost, you have to implement your own JSON parser. But JSON::XS
868can still help you: You implement a (very simple) array parser and let
869JSON decode the array elements, which are all full JSON objects on their
870own (this wouldn't work if the array elements could be JSON numbers, for
871example):
872
873 my $json = new JSON::XS;
874
875 # open the monster
876 open my $fh, "<bigfile.json"
877 or die "bigfile: $!";
878
879 # first parse the initial "["
880 for (;;) {
881 sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
882 or die "read error: $!";
883 $json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
884
885 # Exit the loop once we found and removed(!) the initial "[".
886 # In essence, we are (ab-)using the $json object as a simple scalar
887 # we append data to.
888 last if $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* \[ //x;
889 }
890
891 # now we have the skipped the initial "[", so continue
892 # parsing all the elements.
893 for (;;) {
894 # in this loop we read data until we got a single JSON object
895 for (;;) {
896 if (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
897 # do something with $obj
898 last;
899 }
900
901 # add more data
902 sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
903 or die "read error: $!";
904 $json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
905 }
906
907 # in this loop we read data until we either found and parsed the
908 # separating "," between elements, or the final "]"
909 for (;;) {
910 # first skip whitespace
911 $json->incr_text =~ s/^\s*//;
912
913 # if we find "]", we are done
914 if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^\]//) {
915 print "finished.\n";
916 exit;
917 }
918
919 # if we find ",", we can continue with the next element
920 if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^,//) {
921 last;
922 }
923
924 # if we find anything else, we have a parse error!
925 if (length $json->incr_text) {
926 die "parse error near ", $json->incr_text;
927 }
928
929 # else add more data
930 sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
931 or die "read error: $!";
932 $json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
933 }
934
935This is a complex example, but most of the complexity comes from the fact
936that we are trying to be correct (bear with me if I am wrong, I never ran
937the above example :).
938
662 939
663 940
664=head1 MAPPING 941=head1 MAPPING
665 942
666This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and 943This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and
696 973
697A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or 974A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or
698string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On 975string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On
699the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all 976the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all
700the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and 977the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and
701might represent more values exactly than (floating point) numbers. 978might represent more values exactly than floating point numbers.
702 979
703If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent 980If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent
704it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as 981it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as
705a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of 982a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of
706precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value. 983precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value (in
984which case you lose roundtripping ability, as the JSON number will be
985re-encoded to a JSON string).
707 986
708Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be 987Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be
709represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of 988represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of
710precision. 989precision (in which case you might lose perfect roundtripping ability, but
990the JSON number will still be re-encoded as a JSON number).
711 991
712This might create round-tripping problems as numbers might become strings, 992Note that precision is not accuracy - binary floating point values cannot
713but as Perl is typeless there is no other way to do it. 993represent most decimal fractions exactly, and when converting from and to
994floating point, JSON::XS only guarantees precision up to but not including
995the least significant bit.
714 996
715=item true, false 997=item true, false
716 998
717These JSON atoms become C<JSON::XS::true> and C<JSON::XS::false>, 999These JSON atoms become C<Types::Serialiser::true> and
718respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers 1000C<Types::Serialiser::false>, respectively. They are overloaded to act
719C<1> and C<0>. You can check whether a scalar is a JSON boolean by using 1001almost exactly like the numbers C<1> and C<0>. You can check whether
720the C<JSON::XS::is_bool> function. 1002a scalar is a JSON boolean by using the C<Types::Serialiser::is_bool>
1003function (after C<use Types::Serialier>, of course).
721 1004
722=item null 1005=item null
723 1006
724A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl. 1007A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.
1008
1009=item shell-style comments (C<< # I<text> >>)
1010
1011As a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax that is enabled by the
1012C<relaxed> setting, shell-style comments are allowed. They can start
1013anywhere outside strings and go till the end of the line.
1014
1015=item tagged values (C<< (I<tag>)I<value> >>).
1016
1017Another nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax, enabled with the
1018C<allow_tags> setting, are tagged values. In this implementation, the
1019I<tag> must be a perl package/class name encoded as a JSON string, and the
1020I<value> must be a JSON array encoding optional constructor arguments.
1021
1022See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION>, below, for details.
725 1023
726=back 1024=back
727 1025
728 1026
729=head2 PERL -> JSON 1027=head2 PERL -> JSON
734 1032
735=over 4 1033=over 4
736 1034
737=item hash references 1035=item hash references
738 1036
739Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent ordering 1037Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent
740in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded in a 1038ordering in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded
741pseudo-random order that can change between runs of the same program but 1039in a pseudo-random order. JSON::XS can optionally sort the hash keys
742stays generally the same within a single run of a program. JSON::XS can 1040(determined by the I<canonical> flag), so the same datastructure will
743optionally sort the hash keys (determined by the I<canonical> flag), so 1041serialise to the same JSON text (given same settings and version of
744the same datastructure will serialise to the same JSON text (given same 1042JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead and is only rarely useful,
745settings and version of JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead 1043e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text against another for equality.
746and is only rarely useful, e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text
747against another for equality.
748 1044
749=item array references 1045=item array references
750 1046
751Perl array references become JSON arrays. 1047Perl array references become JSON arrays.
752 1048
753=item other references 1049=item other references
754 1050
755Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an 1051Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an
756exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and 1052exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and
757C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON. You can 1053C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON.
758also use C<JSON::XS::false> and C<JSON::XS::true> to improve readability.
759 1054
1055Since C<JSON::XS> uses the boolean model from L<Types::Serialiser>, you
1056can also C<use Types::Serialiser> and then use C<Types::Serialiser::false>
1057and C<Types::Serialiser::true> to improve readability.
1058
1059 use Types::Serialiser;
760 to_json [\0,JSON::XS::true] # yields [false,true] 1060 encode_json [\0, Types::Serialiser::true] # yields [false,true]
761 1061
762=item JSON::XS::true, JSON::XS::false 1062=item Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::false
763 1063
764These special values become JSON true and JSON false values, 1064These special values from the L<Types::Serialiser> module become JSON true
765respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0> directly if you want. 1065and JSON false values, respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0>
1066directly if you want.
766 1067
767=item blessed objects 1068=item blessed objects
768 1069
769Blessed objects are not allowed. JSON::XS currently tries to encode their 1070Blessed objects are not directly representable in JSON, but C<JSON::XS>
770underlying representation (hash- or arrayref), but this behaviour might 1071allows various ways of handling objects. See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION>,
771change in future versions. 1072below, for details.
772 1073
773=item simple scalars 1074=item simple scalars
774 1075
775Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most 1076Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
776difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as 1077difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as
777JSON null value, scalars that have last been used in a string context 1078JSON C<null> values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
778before encoding as JSON strings and anything else as number value: 1079before encoding as JSON strings, and anything else as number value:
779 1080
780 # dump as number 1081 # dump as number
781 to_json [2] # yields [2] 1082 encode_json [2] # yields [2]
782 to_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17] 1083 encode_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
783 my $value = 5; to_json [$value] # yields [5] 1084 my $value = 5; encode_json [$value] # yields [5]
784 1085
785 # used as string, so dump as string 1086 # used as string, so dump as string
786 print $value; 1087 print $value;
787 to_json [$value] # yields ["5"] 1088 encode_json [$value] # yields ["5"]
788 1089
789 # undef becomes null 1090 # undef becomes null
790 to_json [undef] # yields [null] 1091 encode_json [undef] # yields [null]
791 1092
792You can force the type to be a JSON string by stringifying it: 1093You can force the type to be a JSON string by stringifying it:
793 1094
794 my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number 1095 my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
795 "$x"; # stringified 1096 "$x"; # stringified
801 my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string 1102 my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
802 $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number 1103 $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
803 $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours. 1104 $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
804 1105
805You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me 1106You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
806if you need this capability. 1107if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
1108:).
1109
1110Note that numerical precision has the same meaning as under Perl (so
1111binary to decimal conversion follows the same rules as in Perl, which
1112can differ to other languages). Also, your perl interpreter might expose
1113extensions to the floating point numbers of your platform, such as
1114infinities or NaN's - these cannot be represented in JSON, and it is an
1115error to pass those in.
807 1116
808=back 1117=back
809 1118
1119=head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
810 1120
811=head1 COMPARISON 1121As JSON cannot directly represent Perl objects, you have to choose between
1122a pure JSON representation (without the ability to deserialise the object
1123automatically again), and a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax,
1124tagged values.
812 1125
813As already mentioned, this module was created because none of the existing 1126=head3 SERIALISATION
814JSON modules could be made to work correctly. First I will describe the 1127
815problems (or pleasures) I encountered with various existing JSON modules, 1128What happens when C<JSON::XS> encounters a Perl object depends on the
816followed by some benchmark values. JSON::XS was designed not to suffer 1129C<allow_blessed>, C<convert_blessed> and C<allow_tags> settings, which are
817from any of these problems or limitations. 1130used in this order:
818 1131
819=over 4 1132=over 4
820 1133
821=item JSON 1.07 1134=item 1. C<allow_tags> is enabled and the object has a C<FREEZE> method.
822 1135
823Slow (but very portable, as it is written in pure Perl). 1136In this case, C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> object
1137serialisation protocol to create a tagged JSON value, using a nonstandard
1138extension to the JSON syntax.
824 1139
825Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling (how JSON handles Unicode values is 1140This works by invoking the C<FREEZE> method on the object, with the first
826undocumented. One can get far by feeding it Unicode strings and doing 1141argument being the object to serialise, and the second argument being the
827en-/decoding oneself, but Unicode escapes are not working properly). 1142constant string C<JSON> to distinguish it from other serialisers.
828 1143
829No round-tripping (strings get clobbered if they look like numbers, e.g. 1144The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
830the string C<2.0> will encode to C<2.0> instead of C<"2.0">, and that will 1145more). These values and the paclkage/classname of the object will then be
831decode into the number 2. 1146encoded as a tagged JSON value in the following format:
832 1147
833=item JSON::PC 0.01 1148 ("classname")[FREEZE return values...]
834 1149
835Very fast. 1150e.g.:
836 1151
837Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling. 1152 ("URI")["http://www.google.com/"]
1153 ("MyDate")[2013,10,29]
1154 ("ImageData::JPEG")["Z3...VlCg=="]
838 1155
839No round-tripping. 1156For example, the hypothetical C<My::Object> C<FREEZE> method might use the
1157objects C<type> and C<id> members to encode the object:
840 1158
841Has problems handling many Perl values (e.g. regex results and other magic 1159 sub My::Object::FREEZE {
842values will make it croak). 1160 my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
843 1161
844Does not even generate valid JSON (C<{1,2}> gets converted to C<{1:2}> 1162 ($self->{type}, $self->{id})
845which is not a valid JSON text. 1163 }
846 1164
847Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not 1165=item 2. C<convert_blessed> is enabled and the object has a C<TO_JSON> method.
848getting fixed).
849 1166
850=item JSON::Syck 0.21 1167In this case, the C<TO_JSON> method of the object is invoked in scalar
1168context. It must return a single scalar that can be directly encoded into
1169JSON. This scalar replaces the object in the JSON text.
851 1170
852Very buggy (often crashes). 1171For example, the following C<TO_JSON> method will convert all L<URI>
1172objects to JSON strings when serialised. The fatc that these values
1173originally were L<URI> objects is lost.
853 1174
854Very inflexible (no human-readable format supported, format pretty much 1175 sub URI::TO_JSON {
855undocumented. I need at least a format for easy reading by humans and a 1176 my ($uri) = @_;
856single-line compact format for use in a protocol, and preferably a way to 1177 $uri->as_string
857generate ASCII-only JSON texts). 1178 }
858 1179
859Completely broken (and confusingly documented) Unicode handling (Unicode 1180=item 3. C<allow_blessed> is enabled.
860escapes are not working properly, you need to set ImplicitUnicode to
861I<different> values on en- and decoding to get symmetric behaviour).
862 1181
863No round-tripping (simple cases work, but this depends on whether the scalar 1182The object will be serialised as a JSON null value.
864value was used in a numeric context or not).
865 1183
866Dumping hashes may skip hash values depending on iterator state. 1184=item 4. none of the above
867 1185
868Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not 1186If none of the settings are enabled or the respective methods are missing,
869getting fixed). 1187C<JSON::XS> throws an exception.
870
871Does not check input for validity (i.e. will accept non-JSON input and
872return "something" instead of raising an exception. This is a security
873issue: imagine two banks transferring money between each other using
874JSON. One bank might parse a given non-JSON request and deduct money,
875while the other might reject the transaction with a syntax error. While a
876good protocol will at least recover, that is extra unnecessary work and
877the transaction will still not succeed).
878
879=item JSON::DWIW 0.04
880
881Very fast. Very natural. Very nice.
882
883Undocumented Unicode handling (but the best of the pack. Unicode escapes
884still don't get parsed properly).
885
886Very inflexible.
887
888No round-tripping.
889
890Does not generate valid JSON texts (key strings are often unquoted, empty keys
891result in nothing being output)
892
893Does not check input for validity.
894 1188
895=back 1189=back
896 1190
1191=head3 DESERIALISATION
1192
1193For deserialisation there are only two cases to consider: either
1194nonstandard tagging was used, in which case C<allow_tags> decides,
1195or objects cannot be automatically be deserialised, in which
1196case you can use postprocessing or the C<filter_json_object> or
1197C<filter_json_single_key_object> callbacks to get some real objects our of
1198your JSON.
1199
1200This section only considers the tagged value case: I a tagged JSON object
1201is encountered during decoding and C<allow_tags> is disabled, a parse
1202error will result (as if tagged values were not part of the grammar).
1203
1204If C<allow_tags> is enabled, C<JSON::XS> will look up the C<THAW> method
1205of the package/classname used during serialisation (it will not attempt
1206to load the package as a Perl module). If there is no such method, the
1207decoding will fail with an error.
1208
1209Otherwise, the C<THAW> method is invoked with the classname as first
1210argument, the constant string C<JSON> as second argument, and all the
1211values from the JSON array (the values originally returned by the
1212C<FREEZE> method) as remaining arguments.
1213
1214The method must then return the object. While technically you can return
1215any Perl scalar, you might have to enable the C<enable_nonref> setting to
1216make that work in all cases, so better return an actual blessed reference.
1217
1218As an example, let's implement a C<THAW> function that regenerates the
1219C<My::Object> from the C<FREEZE> example earlier:
1220
1221 sub My::Object::THAW {
1222 my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id) = @_;
1223
1224 $class->new (type => $type, id => $id)
1225 }
1226
1227
1228=head1 ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES
1229
1230The interested reader might have seen a number of flags that signify
1231encodings or codesets - C<utf8>, C<latin1> and C<ascii>. There seems to be
1232some confusion on what these do, so here is a short comparison:
1233
1234C<utf8> controls whether the JSON text created by C<encode> (and expected
1235by C<decode>) is UTF-8 encoded or not, while C<latin1> and C<ascii> only
1236control whether C<encode> escapes character values outside their respective
1237codeset range. Neither of these flags conflict with each other, although
1238some combinations make less sense than others.
1239
1240Care has been taken to make all flags symmetrical with respect to
1241C<encode> and C<decode>, that is, texts encoded with any combination of
1242these flag values will be correctly decoded when the same flags are used
1243- in general, if you use different flag settings while encoding vs. when
1244decoding you likely have a bug somewhere.
1245
1246Below comes a verbose discussion of these flags. Note that a "codeset" is
1247simply an abstract set of character-codepoint pairs, while an encoding
1248takes those codepoint numbers and I<encodes> them, in our case into
1249octets. Unicode is (among other things) a codeset, UTF-8 is an encoding,
1250and ISO-8859-1 (= latin 1) and ASCII are both codesets I<and> encodings at
1251the same time, which can be confusing.
1252
1253=over 4
1254
1255=item C<utf8> flag disabled
1256
1257When C<utf8> is disabled (the default), then C<encode>/C<decode> generate
1258and expect Unicode strings, that is, characters with high ordinal Unicode
1259values (> 255) will be encoded as such characters, and likewise such
1260characters are decoded as-is, no changes to them will be done, except
1261"(re-)interpreting" them as Unicode codepoints or Unicode characters,
1262respectively (to Perl, these are the same thing in strings unless you do
1263funny/weird/dumb stuff).
1264
1265This is useful when you want to do the encoding yourself (e.g. when you
1266want to have UTF-16 encoded JSON texts) or when some other layer does
1267the encoding for you (for example, when printing to a terminal using a
1268filehandle that transparently encodes to UTF-8 you certainly do NOT want
1269to UTF-8 encode your data first and have Perl encode it another time).
1270
1271=item C<utf8> flag enabled
1272
1273If the C<utf8>-flag is enabled, C<encode>/C<decode> will encode all
1274characters using the corresponding UTF-8 multi-byte sequence, and will
1275expect your input strings to be encoded as UTF-8, that is, no "character"
1276of the input string must have any value > 255, as UTF-8 does not allow
1277that.
1278
1279The C<utf8> flag therefore switches between two modes: disabled means you
1280will get a Unicode string in Perl, enabled means you get an UTF-8 encoded
1281octet/binary string in Perl.
1282
1283=item C<latin1> or C<ascii> flags enabled
1284
1285With C<latin1> (or C<ascii>) enabled, C<encode> will escape characters
1286with ordinal values > 255 (> 127 with C<ascii>) and encode the remaining
1287characters as specified by the C<utf8> flag.
1288
1289If C<utf8> is disabled, then the result is also correctly encoded in those
1290character sets (as both are proper subsets of Unicode, meaning that a
1291Unicode string with all character values < 256 is the same thing as a
1292ISO-8859-1 string, and a Unicode string with all character values < 128 is
1293the same thing as an ASCII string in Perl).
1294
1295If C<utf8> is enabled, you still get a correct UTF-8-encoded string,
1296regardless of these flags, just some more characters will be escaped using
1297C<\uXXXX> then before.
1298
1299Note that ISO-8859-1-I<encoded> strings are not compatible with UTF-8
1300encoding, while ASCII-encoded strings are. That is because the ISO-8859-1
1301encoding is NOT a subset of UTF-8 (despite the ISO-8859-1 I<codeset> being
1302a subset of Unicode), while ASCII is.
1303
1304Surprisingly, C<decode> will ignore these flags and so treat all input
1305values as governed by the C<utf8> flag. If it is disabled, this allows you
1306to decode ISO-8859-1- and ASCII-encoded strings, as both strict subsets of
1307Unicode. If it is enabled, you can correctly decode UTF-8 encoded strings.
1308
1309So neither C<latin1> nor C<ascii> are incompatible with the C<utf8> flag -
1310they only govern when the JSON output engine escapes a character or not.
1311
1312The main use for C<latin1> is to relatively efficiently store binary data
1313as JSON, at the expense of breaking compatibility with most JSON decoders.
1314
1315The main use for C<ascii> is to force the output to not contain characters
1316with values > 127, which means you can interpret the resulting string
1317as UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ASCII, KOI8-R or most about any character set and
13188-bit-encoding, and still get the same data structure back. This is useful
1319when your channel for JSON transfer is not 8-bit clean or the encoding
1320might be mangled in between (e.g. in mail), and works because ASCII is a
1321proper subset of most 8-bit and multibyte encodings in use in the world.
1322
1323=back
1324
1325
1326=head2 JSON and ECMAscript
1327
1328JSON syntax is based on how literals are represented in javascript (the
1329not-standardised predecessor of ECMAscript) which is presumably why it is
1330called "JavaScript Object Notation".
1331
1332However, JSON is not a subset (and also not a superset of course) of
1333ECMAscript (the standard) or javascript (whatever browsers actually
1334implement).
1335
1336If you want to use javascript's C<eval> function to "parse" JSON, you
1337might run into parse errors for valid JSON texts, or the resulting data
1338structure might not be queryable:
1339
1340One of the problems is that U+2028 and U+2029 are valid characters inside
1341JSON strings, but are not allowed in ECMAscript string literals, so the
1342following Perl fragment will not output something that can be guaranteed
1343to be parsable by javascript's C<eval>:
1344
1345 use JSON::XS;
1346
1347 print encode_json [chr 0x2028];
1348
1349The right fix for this is to use a proper JSON parser in your javascript
1350programs, and not rely on C<eval> (see for example Douglas Crockford's
1351F<json2.js> parser).
1352
1353If this is not an option, you can, as a stop-gap measure, simply encode to
1354ASCII-only JSON:
1355
1356 use JSON::XS;
1357
1358 print JSON::XS->new->ascii->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
1359
1360Note that this will enlarge the resulting JSON text quite a bit if you
1361have many non-ASCII characters. You might be tempted to run some regexes
1362to only escape U+2028 and U+2029, e.g.:
1363
1364 # DO NOT USE THIS!
1365 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
1366 $json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa8/\\u2028/g; # escape U+2028
1367 $json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa9/\\u2029/g; # escape U+2029
1368 print $json;
1369
1370Note that I<this is a bad idea>: the above only works for U+2028 and
1371U+2029 and thus only for fully ECMAscript-compliant parsers. Many existing
1372javascript implementations, however, have issues with other characters as
1373well - using C<eval> naively simply I<will> cause problems.
1374
1375Another problem is that some javascript implementations reserve
1376some property names for their own purposes (which probably makes
1377them non-ECMAscript-compliant). For example, Iceweasel reserves the
1378C<__proto__> property name for its own purposes.
1379
1380If that is a problem, you could parse try to filter the resulting JSON
1381output for these property strings, e.g.:
1382
1383 $json =~ s/"__proto__"\s*:/"__proto__renamed":/g;
1384
1385This works because C<__proto__> is not valid outside of strings, so every
1386occurrence of C<"__proto__"\s*:> must be a string used as property name.
1387
1388If you know of other incompatibilities, please let me know.
1389
897 1390
898=head2 JSON and YAML 1391=head2 JSON and YAML
899 1392
900You often hear that JSON is a subset (or a close subset) of YAML. This is, 1393You often hear that JSON is a subset of YAML. This is, however, a mass
901however, a mass hysteria and very far from the truth. In general, there is 1394hysteria(*) and very far from the truth (as of the time of this writing),
902no way to configure JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML. 1395so let me state it clearly: I<in general, there is no way to configure
1396JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML> that works in all
1397cases.
903 1398
904If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this 1399If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this
905algorithm (subject to change in future versions): 1400algorithm (subject to change in future versions):
906 1401
907 my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1); 1402 my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);
908 my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n"; 1403 my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";
909 1404
910This will usually generate JSON texts that also parse as valid 1405This will I<usually> generate JSON texts that also parse as valid
911YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key 1406YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key
912lengths that JSON doesn't have, so you should make sure that your hash 1407lengths that JSON doesn't have and also has different and incompatible
1408unicode character escape syntax, so you should make sure that your hash
913keys are noticeably shorter than the 1024 characters YAML allows. 1409keys are noticeably shorter than the 1024 "stream characters" YAML allows
1410and that you do not have characters with codepoint values outside the
1411Unicode BMP (basic multilingual page). YAML also does not allow C<\/>
1412sequences in strings (which JSON::XS does not I<currently> generate, but
1413other JSON generators might).
914 1414
915There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of. In general 1415There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of (or the YAML
1416specification has been changed yet again - it does so quite often). In
916you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice versa, 1417general you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice
917or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are high 1418versa, or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are
918that you will run into severe interoperability problems. 1419high that you will run into severe interoperability problems when you
1420least expect it.
1421
1422=over 4
1423
1424=item (*)
1425
1426I have been pressured multiple times by Brian Ingerson (one of the
1427authors of the YAML specification) to remove this paragraph, despite him
1428acknowledging that the actual incompatibilities exist. As I was personally
1429bitten by this "JSON is YAML" lie, I refused and said I will continue to
1430educate people about these issues, so others do not run into the same
1431problem again and again. After this, Brian called me a (quote)I<complete
1432and worthless idiot>(unquote).
1433
1434In my opinion, instead of pressuring and insulting people who actually
1435clarify issues with YAML and the wrong statements of some of its
1436proponents, I would kindly suggest reading the JSON spec (which is not
1437that difficult or long) and finally make YAML compatible to it, and
1438educating users about the changes, instead of spreading lies about the
1439real compatibility for many I<years> and trying to silence people who
1440point out that it isn't true.
1441
1442Addendum/2009: the YAML 1.2 spec is still incompatible with JSON, even
1443though the incompatibilities have been documented (and are known to Brian)
1444for many years and the spec makes explicit claims that YAML is a superset
1445of JSON. It would be so easy to fix, but apparently, bullying people and
1446corrupting userdata is so much easier.
1447
1448=back
919 1449
920 1450
921=head2 SPEED 1451=head2 SPEED
922 1452
923It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following 1453It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following
924tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program 1454tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program
925in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own 1455in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own
926system. 1456system.
927 1457
928First comes a comparison between various modules using a very short 1458First comes a comparison between various modules using
929single-line JSON string: 1459a very short single-line JSON string (also available at
1460L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/short.json>).
930 1461
931 {"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1", "we were just talking"], \ 1462 {"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1",
932 "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7, true, false]} 1463 "we were just talking"], "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7,
1464 1, 0]}
933 1465
934It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses 1466It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses
935the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface 1467the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface
936with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables 1468with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables
937shrink). Higher is better: 1469shrink. JSON::DWIW/DS uses the deserialise function, while JSON::DWIW::FJ
1470uses the from_json method). Higher is better:
938 1471
939 module | encode | decode | 1472 module | encode | decode |
940 -----------|------------|------------| 1473 --------------|------------|------------|
941 JSON 1.x | 4990.842 | 4088.813 | 1474 JSON::DWIW/DS | 86302.551 | 102300.098 |
942 JSON::DWIW | 51653.990 | 71575.154 | 1475 JSON::DWIW/FJ | 86302.551 | 75983.768 |
943 JSON::PC | 65948.176 | 74631.744 | 1476 JSON::PP | 15827.562 | 6638.658 |
944 JSON::PP | 8931.652 | 3817.168 | 1477 JSON::Syck | 63358.066 | 47662.545 |
945 JSON::Syck | 24877.248 | 27776.848 | 1478 JSON::XS | 511500.488 | 511500.488 |
946 JSON::XS | 388361.481 | 227951.304 | 1479 JSON::XS/2 | 291271.111 | 388361.481 |
947 JSON::XS/2 | 227951.304 | 218453.333 | 1480 JSON::XS/3 | 361577.931 | 361577.931 |
948 JSON::XS/3 | 338250.323 | 218453.333 | 1481 Storable | 66788.280 | 265462.278 |
949 Storable | 16500.016 | 135300.129 |
950 -----------+------------+------------+ 1482 --------------+------------+------------+
951 1483
952That is, JSON::XS is about five times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding, 1484That is, JSON::XS is almost six times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding,
953about three times faster on decoding, and over forty times faster 1485about five times faster on decoding, and over thirty to seventy times
954than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting. It also compares 1486faster than JSON's pure perl implementation. It also compares favourably
955favourably to Storable for small amounts of data. 1487to Storable for small amounts of data.
956 1488
957Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals 1489Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals
958search API (http://nanoref.com/yahooapis/mgPdGg): 1490search API (L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/long.json>).
959 1491
960 module | encode | decode | 1492 module | encode | decode |
961 -----------|------------|------------| 1493 --------------|------------|------------|
962 JSON 1.x | 55.260 | 34.971 | 1494 JSON::DWIW/DS | 1647.927 | 2673.916 |
963 JSON::DWIW | 825.228 | 1082.513 | 1495 JSON::DWIW/FJ | 1630.249 | 2596.128 |
964 JSON::PC | 3571.444 | 2394.829 |
965 JSON::PP | 210.987 | 32.574 | 1496 JSON::PP | 400.640 | 62.311 |
966 JSON::Syck | 552.551 | 787.544 | 1497 JSON::Syck | 1481.040 | 1524.869 |
967 JSON::XS | 5780.463 | 4854.519 | 1498 JSON::XS | 20661.596 | 9541.183 |
968 JSON::XS/2 | 3869.998 | 4798.975 | 1499 JSON::XS/2 | 10683.403 | 9416.938 |
969 JSON::XS/3 | 5862.880 | 4798.975 | 1500 JSON::XS/3 | 20661.596 | 9400.054 |
970 Storable | 4445.002 | 5235.027 | 1501 Storable | 19765.806 | 10000.725 |
971 -----------+------------+------------+ 1502 --------------+------------+------------+
972 1503
973Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly 1504Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly
974decodes faster). 1505decodes a bit faster).
975 1506
976On large strings containing lots of high Unicode characters, some modules 1507On large strings containing lots of high Unicode characters, some modules
977(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result 1508(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result
978will be broken due to missing (or wrong) Unicode handling. Others refuse 1509will be broken due to missing (or wrong) Unicode handling. Others refuse
979to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair 1510to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair
1000 1531
1001Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and 1532Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and
1002arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64 1533arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64
1003machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but 1534machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but
1004only 14k nested JSON objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak 1535only 14k nested JSON objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak
1005to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. to be 1536to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be
1006conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process 1537conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process
1007has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the 1538has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the
1008C<max_depth> method. 1539C<max_depth> method.
1009 1540
1010And last but least, something else could bomb you that I forgot to think 1541Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
1011of. In that case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, 1542case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
1012though... 1543
1544Also keep in mind that JSON::XS might leak contents of your Perl data
1545structures in its error messages, so when you serialise sensitive
1546information you might want to make sure that exceptions thrown by JSON::XS
1547will not end up in front of untrusted eyes.
1013 1548
1014If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption 1549If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption
1015by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at 1550by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at
1016L<http://jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security> to see whether 1551L<http://blog.archive.jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security/> to
1017you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really are browser 1552see whether you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really
1018design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with it, as major 1553are browser design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with
1019browser developers care only for features, not about doing security 1554it, as major browser developers care only for features, not about getting
1020right). 1555security right).
1556
1557
1558=head1 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER MODULES
1559
1560C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> module to provide boolean
1561constants. That means that the JSON true and false values will be
1562comaptible to true and false values of iother modules that do the same,
1563such as L<JSON::PP> and L<CBOR::XS>.
1021 1564
1022 1565
1023=head1 THREADS 1566=head1 THREADS
1024 1567
1025This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no 1568This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
1026plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the 1569plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
1027horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated 1570horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
1028process simulations - use fork, its I<much> faster, cheaper, better). 1571process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
1029 1572
1030(It might actually work, but you have been warned). 1573(It might actually work, but you have been warned).
1031 1574
1032 1575
1576=head1 THE PERILS OF SETLOCALE
1577
1578Sometimes people avoid the Perl locale support and directly call the
1579system's setlocale function with C<LC_ALL>.
1580
1581This breaks both perl and modules such as JSON::XS, as stringification of
1582numbers no longer works correctly (e.g. C<$x = 0.1; print "$x"+1> might
1583print C<1>, and JSON::XS might output illegal JSON as JSON::XS relies on
1584perl to stringify numbers).
1585
1586The solution is simple: don't call C<setlocale>, or use it for only those
1587categories you need, such as C<LC_MESSAGES> or C<LC_CTYPE>.
1588
1589If you need C<LC_NUMERIC>, you should enable it only around the code that
1590actually needs it (avoiding stringification of numbers), and restore it
1591afterwards.
1592
1593
1033=head1 BUGS 1594=head1 BUGS
1034 1595
1035While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does 1596While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
1036not mean its bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. It is 1597not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
1037still relatively early in its development. If you keep reporting bugs they 1598keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
1038will be fixed swiftly, though.
1039 1599
1040Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting 1600Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
1041service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason. 1601service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
1042 1602
1043=cut 1603=cut
1044 1604
1045our $true = do { bless \(my $dummy = 1), "JSON::XS::Boolean" }; 1605BEGIN {
1046our $false = do { bless \(my $dummy = 0), "JSON::XS::Boolean" }; 1606 *true = \$Types::Serialiser::true;
1607 *true = \&Types::Serialiser::true;
1608 *false = \$Types::Serialiser::false;
1609 *false = \&Types::Serialiser::false;
1610 *is_bool = \&Types::Serialiser::is_bool;
1047 1611
1048sub true() { $true } 1612 *JSON::XS::Boolean:: = *Types::Serialiser::Boolean::;
1049sub false() { $false }
1050
1051sub is_bool($) {
1052 UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::XS::Boolean"
1053# or UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::Literal"
1054} 1613}
1055 1614
1056XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION; 1615XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION;
1057 1616
1058package JSON::XS::Boolean; 1617=head1 SEE ALSO
1059 1618
1060use overload 1619The F<json_xs> command line utility for quick experiments.
1061 "0+" => sub { ${$_[0]} },
1062 "++" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} + 1 },
1063 "--" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} - 1 },
1064 fallback => 1;
1065
10661;
1067 1620
1068=head1 AUTHOR 1621=head1 AUTHOR
1069 1622
1070 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de> 1623 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1071 http://home.schmorp.de/ 1624 http://home.schmorp.de/
1072 1625
1073=cut 1626=cut
1074 1627
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1629

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