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Revision 1.13 by root, Fri Mar 23 18:37:30 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.156 by root, Sun Feb 21 15:37:53 2016 UTC

1	=head1 NAME	1	=head1 NAME
2		2
3	JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast	3	JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast
4		4
		5	=encoding utf-8
		6
		7	JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ
		8	(http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html)
		9
5	=head1 SYNOPSIS	10	=head1 SYNOPSIS
6		11
7	use JSON::XS;	12	use JSON::XS;
8		13
9	# exported functions, croak on error	14	# exported functions, they croak on error
		15	# and expect/generate UTF-8
10		16
11	$utf8_encoded_json_text = to_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref;	17	$utf8_encoded_json_text = encode_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref;
12	$perl_hash_or_arrayref = from_json $utf8_encoded_json_text;	18	$perl_hash_or_arrayref = decode_json $utf8_encoded_json_text;
13		19
14	# oo-interface	20	# OO-interface
15		21
16	$coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref;	22	$coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref;
17	$pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar);	23	$pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar);
18	$perl_scalar = $coder->decode ($unicode_json_text);	24	$perl_scalar = $coder->decode ($unicode_json_text);
19		25
		26	# Note that JSON version 2.0 and above will automatically use JSON::XS
		27	# if available, at virtually no speed overhead either, so you should
		28	# be able to just:
		29
		30	use JSON;
		31
		32	# and do the same things, except that you have a pure-perl fallback now.
		33
20	=head1 DESCRIPTION	34	=head1 DESCRIPTION
21		35
22	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
23	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
24	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.
25		47
26	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
27	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
28	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
29	their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug	51	their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug
30	reports for other reasons.	52	reports for other reasons.
31		53
32	See COMPARISON, below, for a comparison to some other JSON modules.
33
34	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
35	vice versa.	55	vice versa.
36		56
37	=head2 FEATURES	57	=head2 FEATURES
38		58
39	=over 4	59	=over 4
40		60
41	=item * correct handling of unicode issues	61	=item * correct Unicode handling
42		62
43	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
44	it does so.	64	so, and even documents what "correct" means.
45		65
46	=item * round-trip integrity	66	=item * round-trip integrity
47		67
48	When you serialise a perl data structure using only datatypes supported	68	When you serialise a perl data structure using only data types supported
49	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
50	(e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2").	70	level. (e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because
		71	it looks like a number). There I<are> minor exceptions to this, read the
		72	MAPPING section below to learn about those.
51		73
52	=item * strict checking of JSON correctness	74	=item * strict checking of JSON correctness
53		75
54	There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON strings by default,	76	There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default,
55	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
56	feature).	78	feature).
57		79
58	=item * fast	80	=item * fast
59		81
60	Compared to other JSON modules, this module compares favourably in terms	82	Compared to other JSON modules and other serialisers such as Storable,
61	of speed, too.	83	this module usually compares favourably in terms of speed, too.
62		84
63	=item * simple to use	85	=item * simple to use
64		86
65	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
66	interface.	88	oriented interface.
67		89
68	=item * reasonably versatile output formats	90	=item * reasonably versatile output formats
69		91
70	You can choose between the most compact guarenteed single-line format	92	You can choose between the most compact guaranteed-single-line format
71	possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ascii format (for	93	possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ASCII format
72	when your transport is not 8-bit clean), or a pretty-printed format (for	94	(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole
73	when you want to read that stuff). Or you can combine those features in	95	Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that
74	whatever way you like.	96	stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.
75		97
76	=back	98	=back
77		99
78	=cut	100	=cut
79		101
80	package JSON::XS;	102	package JSON::XS;
81		103
82	BEGIN {	104	use common::sense;
83	$VERSION = '0.3';	105
		106	our $VERSION = 3.01;
84	@ISA = qw(Exporter);	107	our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
85		108
86	@EXPORT = qw(to_json from_json);	109	our @EXPORT = qw(encode_json decode_json);
87	require Exporter;
88		110
89	require XSLoader;	111	use Exporter;
90	XSLoader::load JSON::XS::, $VERSION;	112	use XSLoader;
91	}	113
		114	use Types::Serialiser ();
92		115
93	=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE	116	=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
94		117
95	The following convinience methods are provided by this module. They are	118	The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are
96	exported by default:	119	exported by default:
97		120
98	=over 4	121	=over 4
99		122
100	=item $json_string = to_json $perl_scalar	123	=item $json_text = encode_json $perl_scalar
101		124
102	Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference to	125	Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string
103	a hash or array) to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string (that is, the string contains	126	(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error.
104	octets only). Croaks on error.
105		127
106	This function call is functionally identical to C<< JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar) >>.	128	This function call is functionally identical to:
107		129
		130	$json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar)
		131
		132	Except being faster.
		133
108	=item $perl_scalar = from_json $json_string	134	=item $perl_scalar = decode_json $json_text
109		135
110	The opposite of C<to_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries to	136	The opposite of C<encode_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries
111	parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON string, returning the resulting simple	137	to parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting
112	scalar or reference. Croaks on error.	138	reference. Croaks on error.
113		139
114	This function call is functionally identical to C<< JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_string) >>.	140	This function call is functionally identical to:
		141
		142	$perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text)
		143
		144	Except being faster.
115		145
116	=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 :)
		195
117		196
118	=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE	197	=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE
119		198
120	The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or	199	The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or
121	decoding style, within the limits of supported formats.	200	decoding style, within the limits of supported formats.
…		…
128	strings. All boolean flags described below are by default I<disabled>.	207	strings. All boolean flags described below are by default I<disabled>.
129		208
130	The mutators for flags all return the JSON object again and thus calls can	209	The mutators for flags all return the JSON object again and thus calls can
131	be chained:	210	be chained:
132		211
133	my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8(1)->space_after(1)->encode ({a => [1,2]})	212	my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]})
134	=> {"a": [1, 2]}	213	=> {"a": [1, 2]}
135		214
136	=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable])	215	=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable])
137		216
		217	=item $enabled = $json->get_ascii
		218
138	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will	219	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
139	not generate characters outside the code range C<0..127>. Any unicode	220	generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any
140	characters outside that range will be escaped using either a single	221	Unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a
141	\uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence, as per	222	single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence,
142	RFC4627.	223	as per RFC4627. The resulting encoded JSON text can be treated as a native
		224	Unicode string, an ascii-encoded, latin1-encoded or UTF-8 encoded string,
		225	or any other superset of ASCII.
143		226
144	If C<$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
145	characters unless necessary.	228	characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results
		229	in a faster and more compact format.
146		230
		231	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		232	document.
		233
		234	The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be
		235	transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not
		236	contain any 8 bit characters.
		237
147	JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode (chr 0x10401)	238	JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])
148	=> \ud801\udc01	239	=> ["\ud801\udc01"]
		240
		241	=item $json = $json->latin1 ([$enable])
		242
		243	=item $enabled = $json->get_latin1
		244
		245	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
		246	the resulting JSON text as latin1 (or iso-8859-1), escaping any characters
		247	outside the code range C<0..255>. The resulting string can be treated as a
		248	latin1-encoded JSON text or a native Unicode string. The C<decode> method
		249	will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default
		250	expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.
		251
		252	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
		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.
		257
		258	The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON
		259	text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded
		260	size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded
		261	in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and
		262	transferring), a rare encoding for JSON. It is therefore most useful when
		263	you want to store data structures known to contain binary data efficiently
		264	in files or databases, not when talking to other JSON encoders/decoders.
		265
		266	JSON::XS->new->latin1->encode (["\x{89}\x{abc}"]
		267	=> ["\x{89}\\u0abc"] # (perl syntax, U+abc escaped, U+89 not)
149		268
150	=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable])	269	=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable])
151		270
		271	=item $enabled = $json->get_utf8
		272
152	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode	273	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
153	the JSON string into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the	274	the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the
154	C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please	275	C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please
155	note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the	276	note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the
156	range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O.	277	range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future
		278	versions, enabling this option might enable autodetection of the UTF-16
		279	and UTF-32 encoding families, as described in RFC4627.
157		280
158	If C<$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
159	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
160	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
161	to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.	284	to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.
162		285
		286	See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
		287	document.
		288
163	Example, output UTF-16-encoded JSON:	289	Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:
		290
		291	use Encode;
		292	$jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);
		293
		294	Example, decode UTF-32LE-encoded JSON:
		295
		296	use Encode;
		297	$object = JSON::XS->new->decode (decode "UTF-32LE", $jsontext);
164		298
165	=item $json = $json->pretty ([$enable])	299	=item $json = $json->pretty ([$enable])
166		300
167	This enables (or disables) all of the C<indent>, C<space_before> and	301	This enables (or disables) all of the C<indent>, C<space_before> and
168	C<space_after> (and in the future possibly more) flags in one call to	302	C<space_after> (and in the future possibly more) flags in one call to
…		…
179	]	313	]
180	}	314	}
181		315
182	=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable])	316	=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable])
183		317
		318	=item $enabled = $json->get_indent
		319
184	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline	320	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline
185	format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair	321	format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair
186	into its own line, identing them properly.	322	into its own line, indenting them properly.
187		323
188	If C<$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
189	resulting JSON strings is guarenteed not to contain any C<newlines>.	325	resulting JSON text is guaranteed not to contain any C<newlines>.
190		326
191	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON strings.	327	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
192		328
193	=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable])	329	=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable])
		330
		331	=item $enabled = $json->get_space_before
194		332
195	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra	333	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
196	optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects.	334	optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects.
197		335
198	If C<$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
199	space at those places.	337	space at those places.
200		338
201	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON strings. You will also most	339	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts. You will also
202	likely combine this setting with C<space_after>.	340	most likely combine this setting with C<space_after>.
203		341
204	Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled:	342	Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled:
205		343
206	{"key" :"value"}	344	{"key" :"value"}
207		345
208	=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable])	346	=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable])
		347
		348	=item $enabled = $json->get_space_after
209		349
210	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra	350	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
211	optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects	351	optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects
212	and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array	352	and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array
213	members.	353	members.
214		354
215	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra	355	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra
216	space at those places.	356	space at those places.
217		357
218	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON strings.	358	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
219		359
220	Example, space_before and indent disabled, space_after enabled:	360	Example, space_before and indent disabled, space_after enabled:
221		361
222	{"key": "value"}	362	{"key": "value"}
223		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	=item * literal ASCII TAB characters in strings
		410
		411	Literal ASCII TAB characters are now allowed in strings (and treated as
		412	C<\t>).
		413
		414	[
		415	"Hello\tWorld",
		416	"Hello<TAB>World", # literal <TAB> would not normally be allowed
		417	]
		418
		419	=back
		420
224	=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable])	421	=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable])
		422
		423	=item $enabled = $json->get_canonical
225		424
226	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects	425	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects
227	by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.	426	by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.
228		427
229	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value	428	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value
230	pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs	429	pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs
231	of the same script).	430	of the same script, and can change even within the same run from 5.18
		431	onwards).
232		432
233	This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as	433	This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as
234	the same JSON string (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,	434	the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,
235	the same hash migh be encoded differently even if contains the same data,	435	the same hash might be encoded differently even if contains the same data,
236	as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.	436	as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.
237		437
238	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON strings.	438	This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
		439
		440	This setting has currently no effect on tied hashes.
239		441
240	=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])	442	=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])
		443
		444	=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_nonref
241		445
242	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a	446	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a
243	non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value,	447	non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value,
244	which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON	448	which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON
245	values instead of croaking.	449	values instead of croaking.
246		450
247	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will croak if it isn't	451	If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will croak if it isn't
248	passed an arrayref or hashref, as JSON strings must either be an object	452	passed an arrayref or hashref, as JSON texts must either be an object
249	or array. Likewise, C<decode> will croak if given something that is not a	453	or array. Likewise, C<decode> will croak if given something that is not a
250	JSON object or array.	454	JSON object or array.
251		455
252	Example, encode a Perl scalar as JSON value with enabled C<allow_nonref>,	456	Example, encode a Perl scalar as JSON value with enabled C<allow_nonref>,
253	resulting in an invalid JSON text:	457	resulting in an invalid JSON text:
254		458
255	JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!")	459	JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!")
256	=> "Hello, World!"	460	=> "Hello, World!"
257		461
		462	=item $json = $json->allow_unknown ([$enable])
		463
		464	=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_unknown
		465
		466	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
		467	exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in JSON (for
		468	example, filehandles) but instead will encode a JSON C<null> value. Note
		469	that blessed objects are not included here and are handled separately by
		470	c<allow_nonref>.
		471
		472	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
		473	exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as JSON.
		474
		475	This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
		476	leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
		477
		478	=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable])
		479
		480	=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_blessed
		481
		482	See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
		483
		484	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
		485	barf when it encounters a blessed reference that it cannot convert
		486	otherwise. Instead, a JSON C<null> value is encoded instead of the object.
		487
		488	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
		489	exception when it encounters a blessed object that it cannot convert
		490	otherwise.
		491
		492	This setting has no effect on C<decode>.
		493
		494	=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable])
		495
		496	=item $enabled = $json->get_convert_blessed
		497
		498	See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
		499
		500	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
		501	blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method
		502	on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context and
		503	the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object.
		504
		505	The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON>
		506	returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same
		507	way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle
		508	(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other
		509	methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are
		510	usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with any C<to_json>
		511	function or method.
		512
		513	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will not consider
		514	this type of conversion.
		515
		516	This setting has no effect on C<decode>.
		517
		518	=item $json = $json->allow_tags ([$enable])
		519
		520	=item $enabled = $json->allow_tags
		521
		522	See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
		523
		524	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
		525	blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<FREEZE> method on
		526	the object's class. If found, it will be used to serialise the object into
		527	a nonstandard tagged JSON value (that JSON decoders cannot decode).
		528
		529	It also causes C<decode> to parse such tagged JSON values and deserialise
		530	them via a call to the C<THAW> method.
		531
		532	If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will not consider
		533	this type of conversion, and tagged JSON values will cause a parse error
		534	in C<decode>, as if tags were not part of the grammar.
		535
		536	=item $json = $json->filter_json_object ([$coderef->($hashref)])
		537
		538	When C<$coderef> is specified, it will be called from C<decode> each
		539	time it decodes a JSON object. The only argument is a reference to the
		540	newly-created hash. If the code references returns a single scalar (which
		541	need not be a reference), this value (i.e. a copy of that scalar to avoid
		542	aliasing) is inserted into the deserialised data structure. If it returns
		543	an empty list (NOTE: I<not> C<undef>, which is a valid scalar), the
		544	original deserialised hash will be inserted. This setting can slow down
		545	decoding considerably.
		546
		547	When C<$coderef> is omitted or undefined, any existing callback will
		548	be removed and C<decode> will not change the deserialised hash in any
		549	way.
		550
		551	Example, convert all JSON objects into the integer 5:
		552
		553	my $js = JSON::XS->new->filter_json_object (sub { 5 });
		554	# returns [5]
		555	$js->decode ('[{}]')
		556	# throw an exception because allow_nonref is not enabled
		557	# so a lone 5 is not allowed.
		558	$js->decode ('{"a":1, "b":2}');
		559
		560	=item $json = $json->filter_json_single_key_object ($key [=> $coderef->($value)])
		561
		562	Works remotely similar to C<filter_json_object>, but is only called for
		563	JSON objects having a single key named C<$key>.
		564
		565	This C<$coderef> is called before the one specified via
		566	C<filter_json_object>, if any. It gets passed the single value in the JSON
		567	object. If it returns a single value, it will be inserted into the data
		568	structure. If it returns nothing (not even C<undef> but the empty list),
		569	the callback from C<filter_json_object> will be called next, as if no
		570	single-key callback were specified.
		571
		572	If C<$coderef> is omitted or undefined, the corresponding callback will be
		573	disabled. There can only ever be one callback for a given key.
		574
		575	As this callback gets called less often then the C<filter_json_object>
		576	one, decoding speed will not usually suffer as much. Therefore, single-key
		577	objects make excellent targets to serialise Perl objects into, especially
		578	as single-key JSON objects are as close to the type-tagged value concept
		579	as JSON gets (it's basically an ID/VALUE tuple). Of course, JSON does not
		580	support this in any way, so you need to make sure your data never looks
		581	like a serialised Perl hash.
		582
		583	Typical names for the single object key are C<__class_whatever__>, or
		584	C<$__dollars_are_rarely_used__$> or C<}ugly_brace_placement>, or even
		585	things like C<__class_md5sum(classname)__>, to reduce the risk of clashing
		586	with real hashes.
		587
		588	Example, decode JSON objects of the form C<< { "__widget__" => <id> } >>
		589	into the corresponding C<< $WIDGET{<id>} >> object:
		590
		591	# return whatever is in $WIDGET{5}:
		592	JSON::XS
		593	->new
		594	->filter_json_single_key_object (__widget__ => sub {
		595	$WIDGET{ $_[0] }
		596	})
		597	->decode ('{"__widget__": 5')
		598
		599	# this can be used with a TO_JSON method in some "widget" class
		600	# for serialisation to json:
		601	sub WidgetBase::TO_JSON {
		602	my ($self) = @_;
		603
		604	unless ($self->{id}) {
		605	$self->{id} = ..get..some..id..;
		606	$WIDGET{$self->{id}} = $self;
		607	}
		608
		609	{ __widget__ => $self->{id} }
		610	}
		611
258	=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable])	612	=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable])
259		613
		614	=item $enabled = $json->get_shrink
		615
260	Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for	616	Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for
261	strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either	617	strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either
262	C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save	618	C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save
263	memory when your JSON strings are either very very long or you have many	619	memory when your JSON texts are either very very long or you have many
264	short strings. It will also try to downgrade any strings to octet-form	620	short strings. It will also try to downgrade any strings to octet-form
265	if possible: perl stores strings internally either in an encoding called	621	if possible: perl stores strings internally either in an encoding called
266	UTF-X or in octet-form. The latter cannot store everything but uses less	622	UTF-X or in octet-form. The latter cannot store everything but uses less
267	space in general.	623	space in general (and some buggy Perl or C code might even rely on that
		624	internal representation being used).
268		625
		626	The actual definition of what shrink does might change in future versions,
		627	but it will always try to save space at the expense of time.
		628
269	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), the string returned by C<encode> will be shrunk-to-fit,	629	If C<$enable> is true (or missing), the string returned by C<encode> will
270	while all strings generated by C<decode> will also be shrunk-to-fit.	630	be shrunk-to-fit, while all strings generated by C<decode> will also be
		631	shrunk-to-fit.
271		632
272	If C<$enable> is false, then the normal perl allocation algorithms are used.	633	If C<$enable> is false, then the normal perl allocation algorithms are used.
273	If you work with your data, then this is likely to be faster.	634	If you work with your data, then this is likely to be faster.
274		635
275	In the future, this setting might control other things, such as converting	636	In the future, this setting might control other things, such as converting
276	strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats	637	strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats
277	internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space.	638	internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space.
278		639
		640	=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
		641
		642	=item $max_depth = $json->get_max_depth
		643
		644	Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
		645	or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in JSON text or a Perl
		646	data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
		647	point.
		648
		649	Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
		650	needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
		651	characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
		652	given character in a string.
		653
		654	Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
		655	that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
		656
		657	If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
		658	is rarely useful.
		659
		660	Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
		661	been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
		662	crashing.
		663
		664	See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
		665
		666	=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
		667
		668	=item $max_size = $json->get_max_size
		669
		670	Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is
		671	being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
		672	is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
		673	attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
		674	effect on C<encode> (yet).
		675
		676	If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
		677	C<0> is specified).
		678
		679	See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
		680
279	=item $json_string = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)	681	=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)
280		682
281	Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference	683	Converts the given Perl value or data structure to its JSON
282	to a hash or array) to its JSON representation. Simple scalars will be	684	representation. Croaks on error.
283	converted into JSON string or number sequences, while references to arrays
284	become JSON arrays and references to hashes become JSON objects. Undefined
285	Perl values (e.g. C<undef>) become JSON C<null> values. Neither C<true>
286	nor C<false> values will be generated.
287		685
288	=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_string)	686	=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text)
289		687
290	The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON string and tries to parse it,	688	The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it,
291	returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.	689	returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
292		690
293	JSON numbers and strings become simple Perl scalars. JSON arrays become	691	=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text)
294	Perl arrayrefs and JSON objects become Perl hashrefs. C<true> becomes	692
295	C<1>, C<false> becomes C<0> and C<null> becomes C<undef>.	693	This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
		694	when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will
		695	silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed
		696	so far.
		697
		698	This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
		699	and you need to know where the JSON text ends.
		700
		701	JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail")
		702	=> ([1], 3)
296		703
297	=back	704	=back
		705
		706
		707	=head1 INCREMENTAL PARSING
		708
		709	In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
		710	texts. While this module always has to keep both JSON text and resulting
		711	Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
		712	JSON stream incrementally. It does so by accumulating text until it has
		713	a full JSON object, which it then can decode. This process is similar to
		714	using C<decode_prefix> to see if a full JSON object is available, but
		715	is much more efficient (and can be implemented with a minimum of method
		716	calls).
		717
		718	JSON::XS will only attempt to parse the JSON text once it is sure it
		719	has enough text to get a decisive result, using a very simple but
		720	truly incremental parser. This means that it sometimes won't stop as
		721	early as the full parser, for example, it doesn't detect mismatched
		722	parentheses. The only thing it guarantees is that it starts decoding as
		723	soon as a syntactically valid JSON text has been seen. This means you need
		724	to set resource limits (e.g. C<max_size>) to ensure the parser will stop
		725	parsing in the presence if syntax errors.
		726
		727	The following methods implement this incremental parser.
		728
		729	=over 4
		730
		731	=item [void, scalar or list context] = $json->incr_parse ([$string])
		732
		733	This is the central parsing function. It can both append new text and
		734	extract objects from the stream accumulated so far (both of these
		735	functions are optional).
		736
		737	If C<$string> is given, then this string is appended to the already
		738	existing JSON fragment stored in the C<$json> object.
		739
		740	After that, if the function is called in void context, it will simply
		741	return without doing anything further. This can be used to add more text
		742	in as many chunks as you want.
		743
		744	If the method is called in scalar context, then it will try to extract
		745	exactly I<one> JSON object. If that is successful, it will return this
		746	object, otherwise it will return C<undef>. If there is a parse error,
		747	this method will croak just as C<decode> would do (one can then use
		748	C<incr_skip> to skip the erroneous part). This is the most common way of
		749	using the method.
		750
		751	And finally, in list context, it will try to extract as many objects
		752	from the stream as it can find and return them, or the empty list
		753	otherwise. For this to work, there must be no separators between the JSON
		754	objects or arrays, instead they must be concatenated back-to-back. If
		755	an error occurs, an exception will be raised as in the scalar context
		756	case. Note that in this case, any previously-parsed JSON texts will be
		757	lost.
		758
		759	Example: Parse some JSON arrays/objects in a given string and return
		760	them.
		761
		762	my @objs = JSON::XS->new->incr_parse ("[5][7][1,2]");
		763
		764	=item $lvalue_string = $json->incr_text
		765
		766	This method returns the currently stored JSON fragment as an lvalue, that
		767	is, you can manipulate it. This I<only> works when a preceding call to
		768	C<incr_parse> in I<scalar context> successfully returned an object. Under
		769	all other circumstances you must not call this function (I mean it.
		770	although in simple tests it might actually work, it I<will> fail under
		771	real world conditions). As a special exception, you can also call this
		772	method before having parsed anything.
		773
		774	This function is useful in two cases: a) finding the trailing text after a
		775	JSON object or b) parsing multiple JSON objects separated by non-JSON text
		776	(such as commas).
		777
		778	=item $json->incr_skip
		779
		780	This will reset the state of the incremental parser and will remove
		781	the parsed text from the input buffer so far. This is useful after
		782	C<incr_parse> died, in which case the input buffer and incremental parser
		783	state is left unchanged, to skip the text parsed so far and to reset the
		784	parse state.
		785
		786	The difference to C<incr_reset> is that only text until the parse error
		787	occurred is removed.
		788
		789	=item $json->incr_reset
		790
		791	This completely resets the incremental parser, that is, after this call,
		792	it will be as if the parser had never parsed anything.
		793
		794	This is useful if you want to repeatedly parse JSON objects and want to
		795	ignore any trailing data, which means you have to reset the parser after
		796	each successful decode.
		797
		798	=back
		799
		800	=head2 LIMITATIONS
		801
		802	All options that affect decoding are supported, except
		803	C<allow_nonref>. The reason for this is that it cannot be made to work
		804	sensibly: JSON objects and arrays are self-delimited, i.e. you can
		805	concatenate them back to back and still decode them perfectly. This does
		806	not hold true for JSON numbers, however.
		807
		808	For example, is the string C<1> a single JSON number, or is it simply the
		809	start of C<12>? Or is C<12> a single JSON number, or the concatenation
		810	of C<1> and C<2>? In neither case you can tell, and this is why JSON::XS
		811	takes the conservative route and disallows this case.
		812
		813	=head2 EXAMPLES
		814
		815	Some examples will make all this clearer. First, a simple example that
		816	works similarly to C<decode_prefix>: We want to decode the JSON object at
		817	the start of a string and identify the portion after the JSON object:
		818
		819	my $text = "[1,2,3] hello";
		820
		821	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		822
		823	my $obj = $json->incr_parse ($text)
		824	or die "expected JSON object or array at beginning of string";
		825
		826	my $tail = $json->incr_text;
		827	# $tail now contains " hello"
		828
		829	Easy, isn't it?
		830
		831	Now for a more complicated example: Imagine a hypothetical protocol where
		832	you read some requests from a TCP stream, and each request is a JSON
		833	array, without any separation between them (in fact, it is often useful to
		834	use newlines as "separators", as these get interpreted as whitespace at
		835	the start of the JSON text, which makes it possible to test said protocol
		836	with C<telnet>...).
		837
		838	Here is how you'd do it (it is trivial to write this in an event-based
		839	manner):
		840
		841	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		842
		843	# read some data from the socket
		844	while (sysread $socket, my $buf, 4096) {
		845
		846	# split and decode as many requests as possible
		847	for my $request ($json->incr_parse ($buf)) {
		848	# act on the $request
		849	}
		850	}
		851
		852	Another complicated example: Assume you have a string with JSON objects
		853	or arrays, all separated by (optional) comma characters (e.g. C<[1],[2],
		854	[3]>). To parse them, we have to skip the commas between the JSON texts,
		855	and here is where the lvalue-ness of C<incr_text> comes in useful:
		856
		857	my $text = "[1],[2], [3]";
		858	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		859
		860	# void context, so no parsing done
		861	$json->incr_parse ($text);
		862
		863	# now extract as many objects as possible. note the
		864	# use of scalar context so incr_text can be called.
		865	while (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
		866	# do something with $obj
		867
		868	# now skip the optional comma
		869	$json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* , //x;
		870	}
		871
		872	Now lets go for a very complex example: Assume that you have a gigantic
		873	JSON array-of-objects, many gigabytes in size, and you want to parse it,
		874	but you cannot load it into memory fully (this has actually happened in
		875	the real world :).
		876
		877	Well, you lost, you have to implement your own JSON parser. But JSON::XS
		878	can still help you: You implement a (very simple) array parser and let
		879	JSON decode the array elements, which are all full JSON objects on their
		880	own (this wouldn't work if the array elements could be JSON numbers, for
		881	example):
		882
		883	my $json = new JSON::XS;
		884
		885	# open the monster
		886	open my $fh, "<bigfile.json"
		887	or die "bigfile: $!";
		888
		889	# first parse the initial "["
		890	for (;;) {
		891	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		892	or die "read error: $!";
		893	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		894
		895	# Exit the loop once we found and removed(!) the initial "[".
		896	# In essence, we are (ab-)using the $json object as a simple scalar
		897	# we append data to.
		898	last if $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* \[ //x;
		899	}
		900
		901	# now we have the skipped the initial "[", so continue
		902	# parsing all the elements.
		903	for (;;) {
		904	# in this loop we read data until we got a single JSON object
		905	for (;;) {
		906	if (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
		907	# do something with $obj
		908	last;
		909	}
		910
		911	# add more data
		912	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		913	or die "read error: $!";
		914	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		915	}
		916
		917	# in this loop we read data until we either found and parsed the
		918	# separating "," between elements, or the final "]"
		919	for (;;) {
		920	# first skip whitespace
		921	$json->incr_text =~ s/^\s*//;
		922
		923	# if we find "]", we are done
		924	if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^\]//) {
		925	print "finished.\n";
		926	exit;
		927	}
		928
		929	# if we find ",", we can continue with the next element
		930	if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^,//) {
		931	last;
		932	}
		933
		934	# if we find anything else, we have a parse error!
		935	if (length $json->incr_text) {
		936	die "parse error near ", $json->incr_text;
		937	}
		938
		939	# else add more data
		940	sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
		941	or die "read error: $!";
		942	$json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
		943	}
		944
		945	This is a complex example, but most of the complexity comes from the fact
		946	that we are trying to be correct (bear with me if I am wrong, I never ran
		947	the above example :).
		948
		949
298		950
299	=head1 MAPPING	951	=head1 MAPPING
300		952
301	This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and	953	This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and
302	vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most	954	vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
303	circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics	955	circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
304	(what you put in comes out as something equivalent).	956	(what you put in comes out as something equivalent).
305		957
306	For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,	958	For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,
307	lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppcercase I<Perl>	959	lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppercase I<Perl>
308	refers to the abstract Perl language itself.	960	refers to the abstract Perl language itself.
309		961
		962
310	=head2 JSON -> PERL	963	=head2 JSON -> PERL
311		964
312	=over 4	965	=over 4
313		966
314	=item object	967	=item object
315		968
316	A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object	969	A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object
317	keys is preserved.	970	keys is preserved (JSON does not preserve object key ordering itself).
318		971
319	=item array	972	=item array
320		973
321	A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl.	974	A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl.
322		975
…		…
326	are represented by the same codepoints in the Perl string, so no manual	979	are represented by the same codepoints in the Perl string, so no manual
327	decoding is necessary.	980	decoding is necessary.
328		981
329	=item number	982	=item number
330		983
331	A JSON number becomes either an integer or numeric (floating point)	984	A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or
332	scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On the	985	string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On
333	Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all the	986	the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all
334	conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and might	987	the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and
335	represent more values exactly than (floating point) numbers.	988	might represent more values exactly than floating point numbers.
		989
		990	If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent
		991	it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as
		992	a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of
		993	precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value (in
		994	which case you lose roundtripping ability, as the JSON number will be
		995	re-encoded to a JSON string).
		996
		997	Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be
		998	represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of
		999	precision (in which case you might lose perfect roundtripping ability, but
		1000	the JSON number will still be re-encoded as a JSON number).
		1001
		1002	Note that precision is not accuracy - binary floating point values cannot
		1003	represent most decimal fractions exactly, and when converting from and to
		1004	floating point, JSON::XS only guarantees precision up to but not including
		1005	the least significant bit.
336		1006
337	=item true, false	1007	=item true, false
338		1008
339	These JSON atoms become C<0>, C<1>, respectively. Information is lost in	1009	These JSON atoms become C<Types::Serialiser::true> and
340	this process. Future versions might represent those values differently,	1010	C<Types::Serialiser::false>, respectively. They are overloaded to act
341	but they will be guarenteed to act like these integers would normally in	1011	almost exactly like the numbers C<1> and C<0>. You can check whether
342	Perl.	1012	a scalar is a JSON boolean by using the C<Types::Serialiser::is_bool>
		1013	function (after C<use Types::Serialier>, of course).
343		1014
344	=item null	1015	=item null
345		1016
346	A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.	1017	A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.
347		1018
		1019	=item shell-style comments (C<< # I<text> >>)
		1020
		1021	As a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax that is enabled by the
		1022	C<relaxed> setting, shell-style comments are allowed. They can start
		1023	anywhere outside strings and go till the end of the line.
		1024
		1025	=item tagged values (C<< (I<tag>)I<value> >>).
		1026
		1027	Another nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax, enabled with the
		1028	C<allow_tags> setting, are tagged values. In this implementation, the
		1029	I<tag> must be a perl package/class name encoded as a JSON string, and the
		1030	I<value> must be a JSON array encoding optional constructor arguments.
		1031
		1032	See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION>, below, for details.
		1033
348	=back	1034	=back
		1035
349		1036
350	=head2 PERL -> JSON	1037	=head2 PERL -> JSON
351		1038
352	The mapping from Perl to JSON is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a	1039	The mapping from Perl to JSON is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a
353	truly typeless language, so we can only guess which JSON type is meant by	1040	truly typeless language, so we can only guess which JSON type is meant by
…		…
355		1042
356	=over 4	1043	=over 4
357		1044
358	=item hash references	1045	=item hash references
359		1046
360	Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent ordering	1047	Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent
361	in hash keys, they will usually be encoded in a pseudo-random order that	1048	ordering in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded
362	can change between runs of the same program but stays generally the same	1049	in a pseudo-random order. JSON::XS can optionally sort the hash keys
363	within the single run of a program. JSON::XS can optionally sort the hash
364	keys (determined by the I<canonical> flag), so the same datastructure	1050	(determined by the I<canonical> flag), so the same datastructure will
365	will serialise to the same JSON text (given same settings and version of	1051	serialise to the same JSON text (given same settings and version of
366	JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead.	1052	JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead and is only rarely useful,
		1053	e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text against another for equality.
367		1054
368	=item array references	1055	=item array references
369		1056
370	Perl array references become JSON arrays.	1057	Perl array references become JSON arrays.
371		1058
		1059	=item other references
		1060
		1061	Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an
		1062	exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and
		1063	C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON.
		1064
		1065	Since C<JSON::XS> uses the boolean model from L<Types::Serialiser>, you
		1066	can also C<use Types::Serialiser> and then use C<Types::Serialiser::false>
		1067	and C<Types::Serialiser::true> to improve readability.
		1068
		1069	use Types::Serialiser;
		1070	encode_json [\0, Types::Serialiser::true] # yields [false,true]
		1071
		1072	=item Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::false
		1073
		1074	These special values from the L<Types::Serialiser> module become JSON true
		1075	and JSON false values, respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0>
		1076	directly if you want.
		1077
372	=item blessed objects	1078	=item blessed objects
373		1079
374	Blessed objects are not allowed. JSON::XS currently tries to encode their	1080	Blessed objects are not directly representable in JSON, but C<JSON::XS>
375	underlying representation (hash- or arrayref), but this behaviour might	1081	allows various ways of handling objects. See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION>,
376	change in future versions.	1082	below, for details.
377		1083
378	=item simple scalars	1084	=item simple scalars
379		1085
380	Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most	1086	Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
381	difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as	1087	difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as
382	JSON null value, scalars that have last been used in a string context	1088	JSON C<null> values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
383	before encoding as JSON strings and anything else as number value:	1089	before encoding as JSON strings, and anything else as number value:
384		1090
385	# dump as number	1091	# dump as number
386	to_json [2] # yields [2]	1092	encode_json [2] # yields [2]
387	to_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]	1093	encode_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
388	my $value = 5; to_json [$value] # yields [5]	1094	my $value = 5; encode_json [$value] # yields [5]
389		1095
390	# used as string, so dump as string	1096	# used as string, so dump as string
391	print $value;	1097	print $value;
392	to_json [$value] # yields ["5"]	1098	encode_json [$value] # yields ["5"]
393		1099
394	# undef becomes null	1100	# undef becomes null
395	to_json [undef] # yields [null]	1101	encode_json [undef] # yields [null]
396		1102
397	You can force the type to be a string by stringifying it:	1103	You can force the type to be a JSON string by stringifying it:
398		1104
399	my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number	1105	my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
400	"$x"; # stringified	1106	"$x"; # stringified
401	$x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify	1107	$x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify
402	print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often	1108	print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often
403		1109
404	You can force the type to be a number by numifying it:	1110	You can force the type to be a JSON number by numifying it:
405		1111
406	my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string	1112	my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
407	$x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number	1113	$x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
408	$x *= 1; # same thing, the choise is yours.	1114	$x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
409		1115
410	You can not currently output JSON booleans or force the type in other,	1116	You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
411	less obscure, ways. Tell me if you need this capability.	1117	if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
		1118	:).
412		1119
413	=item circular data structures	1120	Note that numerical precision has the same meaning as under Perl (so
414		1121	binary to decimal conversion follows the same rules as in Perl, which
415	Those will be encoded until memory or stackspace runs out.	1122	can differ to other languages). Also, your perl interpreter might expose
		1123	extensions to the floating point numbers of your platform, such as
		1124	infinities or NaN's - these cannot be represented in JSON, and it is an
		1125	error to pass those in.
416		1126
417	=back	1127	=back
418		1128
419	=head1 COMPARISON	1129	=head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
420		1130
421	As already mentioned, this module was created because none of the existing	1131	As JSON cannot directly represent Perl objects, you have to choose between
422	JSON modules could be made to work correctly. First I will describe the	1132	a pure JSON representation (without the ability to deserialise the object
423	problems (or pleasures) I encountered with various existing JSON modules,	1133	automatically again), and a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax,
424	followed by some benchmark values. JSON::XS was designed not to suffer	1134	tagged values.
425	from any of these problems or limitations.	1135
		1136	=head3 SERIALISATION
		1137
		1138	What happens when C<JSON::XS> encounters a Perl object depends on the
		1139	C<allow_blessed>, C<convert_blessed> and C<allow_tags> settings, which are
		1140	used in this order:
426		1141
427	=over 4	1142	=over 4
428		1143
429	=item JSON 1.07	1144	=item 1. C<allow_tags> is enabled and the object has a C<FREEZE> method.
430		1145
431	Slow (but very portable, as it is written in pure Perl).	1146	In this case, C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> object
		1147	serialisation protocol to create a tagged JSON value, using a nonstandard
		1148	extension to the JSON syntax.
432		1149
433	Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling (how JSON handles unicode values is	1150	This works by invoking the C<FREEZE> method on the object, with the first
434	undocumented. One can get far by feeding it unicode strings and doing	1151	argument being the object to serialise, and the second argument being the
435	en-/decoding oneself, but unicode escapes are not working properly).	1152	constant string C<JSON> to distinguish it from other serialisers.
436		1153
437	No roundtripping (strings get clobbered if they look like numbers, e.g.	1154	The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
438	the string C<2.0> will encode to C<2.0> instead of C<"2.0">, and that will	1155	more). These values and the paclkage/classname of the object will then be
439	decode into the number 2.	1156	encoded as a tagged JSON value in the following format:
440		1157
441	=item JSON::PC 0.01	1158	("classname")[FREEZE return values...]
442		1159
443	Very fast.	1160	e.g.:
444		1161
445	Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling.	1162	("URI")["http://www.google.com/"]
		1163	("MyDate")[2013,10,29]
		1164	("ImageData::JPEG")["Z3...VlCg=="]
446		1165
447	No roundtripping.	1166	For example, the hypothetical C<My::Object> C<FREEZE> method might use the
		1167	objects C<type> and C<id> members to encode the object:
448		1168
449	Has problems handling many Perl values (e.g. regex results and other magic	1169	sub My::Object::FREEZE {
450	values will make it croak).	1170	my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
451		1171
452	Does not even generate valid JSON (C<{1,2}> gets converted to C<{1:2}>	1172	($self->{type}, $self->{id})
453	which is not a valid JSON string.	1173	}
454		1174
455	Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not	1175	=item 2. C<convert_blessed> is enabled and the object has a C<TO_JSON> method.
456	getting fixed).
457		1176
458	=item JSON::Syck 0.21	1177	In this case, the C<TO_JSON> method of the object is invoked in scalar
		1178	context. It must return a single scalar that can be directly encoded into
		1179	JSON. This scalar replaces the object in the JSON text.
459		1180
460	Very buggy (often crashes).	1181	For example, the following C<TO_JSON> method will convert all L<URI>
		1182	objects to JSON strings when serialised. The fatc that these values
		1183	originally were L<URI> objects is lost.
461		1184
462	Very inflexible (no human-readable format supported, format pretty much	1185	sub URI::TO_JSON {
463	undocumented. I need at least a format for easy reading by humans and a	1186	my ($uri) = @_;
464	single-line compact format for use in a protocol, and preferably a way to	1187	$uri->as_string
465	generate ASCII-only JSON strings).	1188	}
466		1189
467	Completely broken (and confusingly documented) Unicode handling (unicode	1190	=item 3. C<allow_blessed> is enabled.
468	escapes are not working properly, you need to set ImplicitUnicode to
469	I<different> values on en- and decoding to get symmetric behaviour).
470		1191
471	No roundtripping (simple cases work, but this depends on wether the scalar	1192	The object will be serialised as a JSON null value.
472	value was used in a numeric context or not).
473		1193
474	Dumping hashes may skip hash values depending on iterator state.	1194	=item 4. none of the above
475		1195
476	Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not	1196	If none of the settings are enabled or the respective methods are missing,
477	getting fixed).	1197	C<JSON::XS> throws an exception.
478
479	Does not check input for validity (i.e. will accept non-JSON input and
480	return "something" instead of raising an exception. This is a security
481	issue: imagine two banks transfering money between each other using
482	JSON. One bank might parse a given non-JSON request and deduct money,
483	while the other might reject the transaction with a syntax error. While a
484	good protocol will at least recover, that is extra unnecessary work and
485	the transaction will still not succeed).
486
487	=item JSON::DWIW 0.04
488
489	Very fast. Very natural. Very nice.
490
491	Undocumented unicode handling (but the best of the pack. Unicode escapes
492	still don't get parsed properly).
493
494	Very inflexible.
495
496	No roundtripping.
497
498	Does not generate valid JSON (key strings are often unquoted, empty keys
499	result in nothing being output)
500
501	Does not check input for validity.
502		1198
503	=back	1199	=back
		1200
		1201	=head3 DESERIALISATION
		1202
		1203	For deserialisation there are only two cases to consider: either
		1204	nonstandard tagging was used, in which case C<allow_tags> decides,
		1205	or objects cannot be automatically be deserialised, in which
		1206	case you can use postprocessing or the C<filter_json_object> or
		1207	C<filter_json_single_key_object> callbacks to get some real objects our of
		1208	your JSON.
		1209
		1210	This section only considers the tagged value case: I a tagged JSON object
		1211	is encountered during decoding and C<allow_tags> is disabled, a parse
		1212	error will result (as if tagged values were not part of the grammar).
		1213
		1214	If C<allow_tags> is enabled, C<JSON::XS> will look up the C<THAW> method
		1215	of the package/classname used during serialisation (it will not attempt
		1216	to load the package as a Perl module). If there is no such method, the
		1217	decoding will fail with an error.
		1218
		1219	Otherwise, the C<THAW> method is invoked with the classname as first
		1220	argument, the constant string C<JSON> as second argument, and all the
		1221	values from the JSON array (the values originally returned by the
		1222	C<FREEZE> method) as remaining arguments.
		1223
		1224	The method must then return the object. While technically you can return
		1225	any Perl scalar, you might have to enable the C<enable_nonref> setting to
		1226	make that work in all cases, so better return an actual blessed reference.
		1227
		1228	As an example, let's implement a C<THAW> function that regenerates the
		1229	C<My::Object> from the C<FREEZE> example earlier:
		1230
		1231	sub My::Object::THAW {
		1232	my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id) = @_;
		1233
		1234	$class->new (type => $type, id => $id)
		1235	}
		1236
		1237
		1238	=head1 ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES
		1239
		1240	The interested reader might have seen a number of flags that signify
		1241	encodings or codesets - C<utf8>, C<latin1> and C<ascii>. There seems to be
		1242	some confusion on what these do, so here is a short comparison:
		1243
		1244	C<utf8> controls whether the JSON text created by C<encode> (and expected
		1245	by C<decode>) is UTF-8 encoded or not, while C<latin1> and C<ascii> only
		1246	control whether C<encode> escapes character values outside their respective
		1247	codeset range. Neither of these flags conflict with each other, although
		1248	some combinations make less sense than others.
		1249
		1250	Care has been taken to make all flags symmetrical with respect to
		1251	C<encode> and C<decode>, that is, texts encoded with any combination of
		1252	these flag values will be correctly decoded when the same flags are used
		1253	- in general, if you use different flag settings while encoding vs. when
		1254	decoding you likely have a bug somewhere.
		1255
		1256	Below comes a verbose discussion of these flags. Note that a "codeset" is
		1257	simply an abstract set of character-codepoint pairs, while an encoding
		1258	takes those codepoint numbers and I<encodes> them, in our case into
		1259	octets. Unicode is (among other things) a codeset, UTF-8 is an encoding,
		1260	and ISO-8859-1 (= latin 1) and ASCII are both codesets I<and> encodings at
		1261	the same time, which can be confusing.
		1262
		1263	=over 4
		1264
		1265	=item C<utf8> flag disabled
		1266
		1267	When C<utf8> is disabled (the default), then C<encode>/C<decode> generate
		1268	and expect Unicode strings, that is, characters with high ordinal Unicode
		1269	values (> 255) will be encoded as such characters, and likewise such
		1270	characters are decoded as-is, no changes to them will be done, except
		1271	"(re-)interpreting" them as Unicode codepoints or Unicode characters,
		1272	respectively (to Perl, these are the same thing in strings unless you do
		1273	funny/weird/dumb stuff).
		1274
		1275	This is useful when you want to do the encoding yourself (e.g. when you
		1276	want to have UTF-16 encoded JSON texts) or when some other layer does
		1277	the encoding for you (for example, when printing to a terminal using a
		1278	filehandle that transparently encodes to UTF-8 you certainly do NOT want
		1279	to UTF-8 encode your data first and have Perl encode it another time).
		1280
		1281	=item C<utf8> flag enabled
		1282
		1283	If the C<utf8>-flag is enabled, C<encode>/C<decode> will encode all
		1284	characters using the corresponding UTF-8 multi-byte sequence, and will
		1285	expect your input strings to be encoded as UTF-8, that is, no "character"
		1286	of the input string must have any value > 255, as UTF-8 does not allow
		1287	that.
		1288
		1289	The C<utf8> flag therefore switches between two modes: disabled means you
		1290	will get a Unicode string in Perl, enabled means you get an UTF-8 encoded
		1291	octet/binary string in Perl.
		1292
		1293	=item C<latin1> or C<ascii> flags enabled
		1294
		1295	With C<latin1> (or C<ascii>) enabled, C<encode> will escape characters
		1296	with ordinal values > 255 (> 127 with C<ascii>) and encode the remaining
		1297	characters as specified by the C<utf8> flag.
		1298
		1299	If C<utf8> is disabled, then the result is also correctly encoded in those
		1300	character sets (as both are proper subsets of Unicode, meaning that a
		1301	Unicode string with all character values < 256 is the same thing as a
		1302	ISO-8859-1 string, and a Unicode string with all character values < 128 is
		1303	the same thing as an ASCII string in Perl).
		1304
		1305	If C<utf8> is enabled, you still get a correct UTF-8-encoded string,
		1306	regardless of these flags, just some more characters will be escaped using
		1307	C<\uXXXX> then before.
		1308
		1309	Note that ISO-8859-1-I<encoded> strings are not compatible with UTF-8
		1310	encoding, while ASCII-encoded strings are. That is because the ISO-8859-1
		1311	encoding is NOT a subset of UTF-8 (despite the ISO-8859-1 I<codeset> being
		1312	a subset of Unicode), while ASCII is.
		1313
		1314	Surprisingly, C<decode> will ignore these flags and so treat all input
		1315	values as governed by the C<utf8> flag. If it is disabled, this allows you
		1316	to decode ISO-8859-1- and ASCII-encoded strings, as both strict subsets of
		1317	Unicode. If it is enabled, you can correctly decode UTF-8 encoded strings.
		1318
		1319	So neither C<latin1> nor C<ascii> are incompatible with the C<utf8> flag -
		1320	they only govern when the JSON output engine escapes a character or not.
		1321
		1322	The main use for C<latin1> is to relatively efficiently store binary data
		1323	as JSON, at the expense of breaking compatibility with most JSON decoders.
		1324
		1325	The main use for C<ascii> is to force the output to not contain characters
		1326	with values > 127, which means you can interpret the resulting string
		1327	as UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ASCII, KOI8-R or most about any character set and
		1328	8-bit-encoding, and still get the same data structure back. This is useful
		1329	when your channel for JSON transfer is not 8-bit clean or the encoding
		1330	might be mangled in between (e.g. in mail), and works because ASCII is a
		1331	proper subset of most 8-bit and multibyte encodings in use in the world.
		1332
		1333	=back
		1334
		1335
		1336	=head2 JSON and ECMAscript
		1337
		1338	JSON syntax is based on how literals are represented in javascript (the
		1339	not-standardised predecessor of ECMAscript) which is presumably why it is
		1340	called "JavaScript Object Notation".
		1341
		1342	However, JSON is not a subset (and also not a superset of course) of
		1343	ECMAscript (the standard) or javascript (whatever browsers actually
		1344	implement).
		1345
		1346	If you want to use javascript's C<eval> function to "parse" JSON, you
		1347	might run into parse errors for valid JSON texts, or the resulting data
		1348	structure might not be queryable:
		1349
		1350	One of the problems is that U+2028 and U+2029 are valid characters inside
		1351	JSON strings, but are not allowed in ECMAscript string literals, so the
		1352	following Perl fragment will not output something that can be guaranteed
		1353	to be parsable by javascript's C<eval>:
		1354
		1355	use JSON::XS;
		1356
		1357	print encode_json [chr 0x2028];
		1358
		1359	The right fix for this is to use a proper JSON parser in your javascript
		1360	programs, and not rely on C<eval> (see for example Douglas Crockford's
		1361	F<json2.js> parser).
		1362
		1363	If this is not an option, you can, as a stop-gap measure, simply encode to
		1364	ASCII-only JSON:
		1365
		1366	use JSON::XS;
		1367
		1368	print JSON::XS->new->ascii->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
		1369
		1370	Note that this will enlarge the resulting JSON text quite a bit if you
		1371	have many non-ASCII characters. You might be tempted to run some regexes
		1372	to only escape U+2028 and U+2029, e.g.:
		1373
		1374	# DO NOT USE THIS!
		1375	my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
		1376	$json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa8/\\u2028/g; # escape U+2028
		1377	$json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa9/\\u2029/g; # escape U+2029
		1378	print $json;
		1379
		1380	Note that I<this is a bad idea>: the above only works for U+2028 and
		1381	U+2029 and thus only for fully ECMAscript-compliant parsers. Many existing
		1382	javascript implementations, however, have issues with other characters as
		1383	well - using C<eval> naively simply I<will> cause problems.
		1384
		1385	Another problem is that some javascript implementations reserve
		1386	some property names for their own purposes (which probably makes
		1387	them non-ECMAscript-compliant). For example, Iceweasel reserves the
		1388	C<__proto__> property name for its own purposes.
		1389
		1390	If that is a problem, you could parse try to filter the resulting JSON
		1391	output for these property strings, e.g.:
		1392
		1393	$json =~ s/"__proto__"\s*:/"__proto__renamed":/g;
		1394
		1395	This works because C<__proto__> is not valid outside of strings, so every
		1396	occurrence of C<"__proto__"\s*:> must be a string used as property name.
		1397
		1398	If you know of other incompatibilities, please let me know.
		1399
		1400
		1401	=head2 JSON and YAML
		1402
		1403	You often hear that JSON is a subset of YAML. This is, however, a mass
		1404	hysteria(*) and very far from the truth (as of the time of this writing),
		1405	so let me state it clearly: I<in general, there is no way to configure
		1406	JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML> that works in all
		1407	cases.
		1408
		1409	If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this
		1410	algorithm (subject to change in future versions):
		1411
		1412	my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);
		1413	my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";
		1414
		1415	This will I<usually> generate JSON texts that also parse as valid
		1416	YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key
		1417	lengths that JSON doesn't have and also has different and incompatible
		1418	unicode character escape syntax, so you should make sure that your hash
		1419	keys are noticeably shorter than the 1024 "stream characters" YAML allows
		1420	and that you do not have characters with codepoint values outside the
		1421	Unicode BMP (basic multilingual page). YAML also does not allow C<\/>
		1422	sequences in strings (which JSON::XS does not I<currently> generate, but
		1423	other JSON generators might).
		1424
		1425	There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of (or the YAML
		1426	specification has been changed yet again - it does so quite often). In
		1427	general you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice
		1428	versa, or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are
		1429	high that you will run into severe interoperability problems when you
		1430	least expect it.
		1431
		1432	=over 4
		1433
		1434	=item (*)
		1435
		1436	I have been pressured multiple times by Brian Ingerson (one of the
		1437	authors of the YAML specification) to remove this paragraph, despite him
		1438	acknowledging that the actual incompatibilities exist. As I was personally
		1439	bitten by this "JSON is YAML" lie, I refused and said I will continue to
		1440	educate people about these issues, so others do not run into the same
		1441	problem again and again. After this, Brian called me a (quote)I<complete
		1442	and worthless idiot>(unquote).
		1443
		1444	In my opinion, instead of pressuring and insulting people who actually
		1445	clarify issues with YAML and the wrong statements of some of its
		1446	proponents, I would kindly suggest reading the JSON spec (which is not
		1447	that difficult or long) and finally make YAML compatible to it, and
		1448	educating users about the changes, instead of spreading lies about the
		1449	real compatibility for many I<years> and trying to silence people who
		1450	point out that it isn't true.
		1451
		1452	Addendum/2009: the YAML 1.2 spec is still incompatible with JSON, even
		1453	though the incompatibilities have been documented (and are known to Brian)
		1454	for many years and the spec makes explicit claims that YAML is a superset
		1455	of JSON. It would be so easy to fix, but apparently, bullying people and
		1456	corrupting userdata is so much easier.
		1457
		1458	=back
		1459
504		1460
505	=head2 SPEED	1461	=head2 SPEED
506		1462
507	It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following	1463	It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following
508	tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program	1464	tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program
509	in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own	1465	in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own
510	system.	1466	system.
511		1467
512	First comes a comparison between various modules using a very short JSON	1468	First comes a comparison between various modules using
513	string (83 bytes), showing the number of encodes/decodes per second	1469	a very short single-line JSON string (also available at
		1470	L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/short.json>).
		1471
		1472	{"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1",
		1473	"we were just talking"], "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7,
		1474	1, 0]}
		1475
		1476	It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses
514	(JSON::XS is the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 is the OO	1477	the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface
515	interface with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled). Higher is	1478	with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables
516	better:	1479	shrink. JSON::DWIW/DS uses the deserialise function, while JSON::DWIW::FJ
		1480	uses the from_json method). Higher is better:
517		1481
518	module | encode | decode |	1482	module | encode | decode |
519	-----------|------------|------------|	1483	--------------|------------|------------|
520	JSON | 14006 | 6820 |	1484	JSON::DWIW/DS | 86302.551 | 102300.098 |
521	JSON::DWIW | 200937 | 120386 |	1485	JSON::DWIW/FJ | 86302.551 | 75983.768 |
522	JSON::PC | 85065 | 129366 |	1486	JSON::PP | 15827.562 | 6638.658 |
523	JSON::Syck | 59898 | 44232 |	1487	JSON::Syck | 63358.066 | 47662.545 |
524	JSON::XS | 1171478 | 342435 |	1488	JSON::XS | 511500.488 | 511500.488 |
525	JSON::XS/2 | 730760 | 328714 |	1489	JSON::XS/2 | 291271.111 | 388361.481 |
		1490	JSON::XS/3 | 361577.931 | 361577.931 |
		1491	Storable | 66788.280 | 265462.278 |
526	-----------+------------+------------+	1492	--------------+------------+------------+
527		1493
528	That is, JSON::XS is 6 times faster than than JSON::DWIW and about 80	1494	That is, JSON::XS is almost six times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding,
529	times faster than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting.	1495	about five times faster on decoding, and over thirty to seventy times
		1496	faster than JSON's pure perl implementation. It also compares favourably
		1497	to Storable for small amounts of data.
530		1498
531	Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals	1499	Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals
532	search API (http://nanoref.com/yahooapis/mgPdGg):	1500	search API (L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/long.json>).
533		1501
534	module | encode | decode |	1502	module | encode | decode |
535	-----------|------------|------------|	1503	--------------|------------|------------|
536	JSON | 673 | 38 |	1504	JSON::DWIW/DS | 1647.927 | 2673.916 |
537	JSON::DWIW | 5271 | 770 |	1505	JSON::DWIW/FJ | 1630.249 | 2596.128 |
538	JSON::PC | 9901 | 2491 |	1506	JSON::PP | 400.640 | 62.311 |
539	JSON::Syck | 2360 | 786 |	1507	JSON::Syck | 1481.040 | 1524.869 |
540	JSON::XS | 37398 | 3202 |	1508	JSON::XS | 20661.596 | 9541.183 |
541	JSON::XS/2 | 13765 | 3153 |	1509	JSON::XS/2 | 10683.403 | 9416.938 |
		1510	JSON::XS/3 | 20661.596 | 9400.054 |
		1511	Storable | 19765.806 | 10000.725 |
542	-----------+------------+------------+	1512	--------------+------------+------------+
543		1513
544	Again, JSON::XS leads by far in the encoding case, while still beating	1514	Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly
545	every other module in the decoding case.	1515	decodes a bit faster).
546		1516
547	On large strings containing lots of unicode characters, some modules	1517	On large strings containing lots of high Unicode characters, some modules
548	(such as JSON::PC) decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result will be	1518	(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result
549	broken due to missing unicode handling. Others refuse to decode or encode	1519	will be broken due to missing (or wrong) Unicode handling. Others refuse
550	properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair comparison table for that	1520	to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair
551	case.	1521	comparison table for that case.
552		1522
553	=head1 RESOURCE LIMITS
554		1523
555	JSON::XS does not impose any limits on the size of JSON texts or Perl	1524	=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
556	values they represent - if your machine can handle it, JSON::XS will	1525
557	encode or decode it. Future versions might optionally impose structure	1526	When you are using JSON in a protocol, talking to untrusted potentially
558	depth and memory use resource limits.	1527	hostile creatures requires relatively few measures.
		1528
		1529	First of all, your JSON decoder should be secure, that is, should not have
		1530	any buffer overflows. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am
		1531	trying hard on making that true, but you never know.
		1532
		1533	Second, you need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should
		1534	limit the size of JSON texts you accept, or make sure then when your
		1535	resources run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that
		1536	can crash safely). The size of a JSON text in octets or characters is
		1537	usually a good indication of the size of the resources required to decode
		1538	it into a Perl structure. While JSON::XS can check the size of the JSON
		1539	text, it might be too late when you already have it in memory, so you
		1540	might want to check the size before you accept the string.
		1541
		1542	Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and
		1543	arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64
		1544	machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but
		1545	only 14k nested JSON objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak
		1546	to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be
		1547	conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process
		1548	has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the
		1549	C<max_depth> method.
		1550
		1551	Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
		1552	case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
		1553
		1554	Also keep in mind that JSON::XS might leak contents of your Perl data
		1555	structures in its error messages, so when you serialise sensitive
		1556	information you might want to make sure that exceptions thrown by JSON::XS
		1557	will not end up in front of untrusted eyes.
		1558
		1559	If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption
		1560	by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at
		1561	L<http://blog.archive.jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security/> to
		1562	see whether you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really
		1563	are browser design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with
		1564	it, as major browser developers care only for features, not about getting
		1565	security right).
		1566
		1567
		1568	=head1 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER MODULES
		1569
		1570	C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> module to provide boolean
		1571	constants. That means that the JSON true and false values will be
		1572	comaptible to true and false values of iother modules that do the same,
		1573	such as L<JSON::PP> and L<CBOR::XS>.
		1574
		1575
		1576	=head1 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER JSON DECODERS
		1577
		1578	As long as you only serialise data that can be directly expressed in JSON,
		1579	C<JSON::XS> is incapable of generating invalid JSON output (modulo bugs,
		1580	but C<JSON::XS> has found more bugs in the official JSON testsuite (1)
		1581	than the official JSON testsuite has found in C<JSON::XS> (0)).
		1582
		1583	When you have trouble decoding JSON generated by this module using other
		1584	decoders, then it is very likely that you have an encoding mismatch or the
		1585	other decoder is broken.
		1586
		1587	When decoding, C<JSON::XS> is strict by default and will likely catch all
		1588	errors. There are currently two settings that change this: C<relaxed>
		1589	makes C<JSON::XS> accept (but not generate) some non-standard extensions,
		1590	and C<allow_tags> will allow you to encode and decode Perl objects, at the
		1591	cost of not outputting valid JSON anymore.
		1592
		1593	=head2 TAGGED VALUE SYNTAX AND STANDARD JSON EN/DECODERS
		1594
		1595	When you use C<allow_tags> to use the extended (and also nonstandard and
		1596	invalid) JSON syntax for serialised objects, and you still want to decode
		1597	the generated When you want to serialise objects, you can run a regex
		1598	to replace the tagged syntax by standard JSON arrays (it only works for
		1599	"normal" packagesnames without comma, newlines or single colons). First,
		1600	the readable Perl version:
		1601
		1602	# if your FREEZE methods return no values, you need this replace first:
		1603	$json =~ s/\( \s* (" (?: [^\\":,]+|\\.|::)* ") \s* \) \s* \[\s*\]/[$1]/gx;
		1604
		1605	# this works for non-empty constructor arg lists:
		1606	$json =~ s/\( \s* (" (?: [^\\":,]+|\\.|::)* ") \s* \) \s* \[/[$1,/gx;
		1607
		1608	And here is a less readable version that is easy to adapt to other
		1609	languages:
		1610
		1611	$json =~ s/\(\s*("([^\\":,]+|\\.|::)*")\s*\)\s*\[/[$1,/g;
		1612
		1613	Here is an ECMAScript version (same regex):
		1614
		1615	json = json.replace (/\(\s*("([^\\":,]+|\\.|::)*")\s*\)\s*\[/g, "[$1,");
		1616
		1617	Since this syntax converts to standard JSON arrays, it might be hard to
		1618	distinguish serialised objects from normal arrays. You can prepend a
		1619	"magic number" as first array element to reduce chances of a collision:
		1620
		1621	$json =~ s/\(\s*("([^\\":,]+|\\.|::)*")\s*\)\s*\[/["XU1peReLzT4ggEllLanBYq4G9VzliwKF",$1,/g;
		1622
		1623	And after decoding the JSON text, you could walk the data
		1624	structure looking for arrays with a first element of
		1625	C<XU1peReLzT4ggEllLanBYq4G9VzliwKF>.
		1626
		1627	The same approach can be used to create the tagged format with another
		1628	encoder. First, you create an array with the magic string as first member,
		1629	the classname as second, and constructor arguments last, encode it as part
		1630	of your JSON structure, and then:
		1631
		1632	$json =~ s/\[\s*"XU1peReLzT4ggEllLanBYq4G9VzliwKF"\s*,\s*("([^\\":,]+|\\.|::)*")\s*,/($1)[/g;
		1633
		1634	Again, this has some limitations - the magic string must not be encoded
		1635	with character escapes, and the constructor arguments must be non-empty.
		1636
		1637
		1638	=head1 RFC7159
		1639
		1640	Since this module was written, Google has written a new JSON RFC, RFC 7159
		1641	(and RFC7158). Unfortunately, this RFC breaks compatibility with both the
		1642	original JSON specification on www.json.org and RFC4627.
		1643
		1644	As far as I can see, you can get partial compatibility when parsing by
		1645	using C<< ->allow_nonref >>. However, consider thew security implications
		1646	of doing so.
		1647
		1648	I haven't decided yet when to break compatibility with RFC4627 by default
		1649	(and potentially leave applications insecure) and change the default to
		1650	follow RFC7159, but application authors are well advised to call C<<
		1651	->allow_nonref(0) >> even if this is the current default, if they cannot
		1652	handle non-reference values, in preparation for the day when the4 default
		1653	will change.
		1654
		1655
		1656	=head1 THREADS
		1657
		1658	This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
		1659	plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
		1660	horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
		1661	process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
		1662
		1663	(It might actually work, but you have been warned).
		1664
		1665
		1666	=head1 THE PERILS OF SETLOCALE
		1667
		1668	Sometimes people avoid the Perl locale support and directly call the
		1669	system's setlocale function with C<LC_ALL>.
		1670
		1671	This breaks both perl and modules such as JSON::XS, as stringification of
		1672	numbers no longer works correctly (e.g. C<$x = 0.1; print "$x"+1> might
		1673	print C<1>, and JSON::XS might output illegal JSON as JSON::XS relies on
		1674	perl to stringify numbers).
		1675
		1676	The solution is simple: don't call C<setlocale>, or use it for only those
		1677	categories you need, such as C<LC_MESSAGES> or C<LC_CTYPE>.
		1678
		1679	If you need C<LC_NUMERIC>, you should enable it only around the code that
		1680	actually needs it (avoiding stringification of numbers), and restore it
		1681	afterwards.
		1682
559		1683
560	=head1 BUGS	1684	=head1 BUGS
561		1685
562	While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does	1686	While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
563	not mean its bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. It is	1687	not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
564	still very young and not well-tested. If you keep reporting bugs they will	1688	keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
565	be fixed swiftly, though.	1689
		1690	Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
		1691	service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
566		1692
567	=cut	1693	=cut
568		1694
569	1;	1695	BEGIN {
		1696	*true = \$Types::Serialiser::true;
		1697	*true = \&Types::Serialiser::true;
		1698	*false = \$Types::Serialiser::false;
		1699	*false = \&Types::Serialiser::false;
		1700	*is_bool = \&Types::Serialiser::is_bool;
		1701
		1702	*JSON::XS::Boolean:: = *Types::Serialiser::Boolean::;
		1703	}
		1704
		1705	XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION;
		1706
		1707	=head1 SEE ALSO
		1708
		1709	The F<json_xs> command line utility for quick experiments.
570		1710
571	=head1 AUTHOR	1711	=head1 AUTHOR
572		1712
573	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>	1713	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
574	http://home.schmorp.de/	1714	http://home.schmorp.de/
575		1715
576	=cut	1716	=cut
577		1717
		1718	1
		1719

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