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Revision 1.66 by root, Sun Oct 14 20:02:57 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.172 by root, Thu Nov 15 23:07:55 2018 UTC

1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast 3JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast
4
5=encoding utf-8
4 6
5JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ 7JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ
6 (http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html) 8 (http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html)
7 9
8=head1 SYNOPSIS 10=head1 SYNOPSIS
10 use JSON::XS; 12 use JSON::XS;
11 13
12 # exported functions, they croak on error 14 # exported functions, they croak on error
13 # and expect/generate UTF-8 15 # and expect/generate UTF-8
14 16
15 $utf8_encoded_json_text = to_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref; 17 $utf8_encoded_json_text = encode_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref;
16 $perl_hash_or_arrayref = from_json $utf8_encoded_json_text; 18 $perl_hash_or_arrayref = decode_json $utf8_encoded_json_text;
17 19
18 # OO-interface 20 # OO-interface
19 21
20 $coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref; 22 $coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref;
21 $pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar); 23 $pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar);
22 $perl_scalar = $coder->decode ($unicode_json_text); 24 $perl_scalar = $coder->decode ($unicode_json_text);
23 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
24=head1 DESCRIPTION 34=head1 DESCRIPTION
25 35
26This module converts Perl data structures to JSON and vice versa. Its 36This module converts Perl data structures to JSON and vice versa. Its
27primary goal is to be I<correct> and its secondary goal is to be 37primary goal is to be I<correct> and its secondary goal is to be
28I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C. 38I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C.
29 39
30As this is the n-th-something JSON module on CPAN, what was the reason
31to write yet another JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON
32modules, none of them correctly handle all corner cases, and in most cases
33their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug
34reports for other reasons.
35
36See COMPARISON, below, for a comparison to some other JSON modules.
37
38See MAPPING, below, on how JSON::XS maps perl values to JSON values and 40See MAPPING, below, on how JSON::XS maps perl values to JSON values and
39vice versa. 41vice versa.
40 42
41=head2 FEATURES 43=head2 FEATURES
42 44
43=over 4 45=over
44 46
45=item * correct unicode handling 47=item * correct Unicode handling
46 48
47This module knows how to handle Unicode, and even documents how and when 49This module knows how to handle Unicode, documents how and when it does
48it does so. 50so, and even documents what "correct" means.
49 51
50=item * round-trip integrity 52=item * round-trip integrity
51 53
52When you serialise a perl data structure using only datatypes supported 54When you serialise a perl data structure using only data types supported
53by JSON, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl level. 55by JSON and Perl, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl
54(e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because it looks 56level. (e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because
55like a number). 57it looks like a number). There I<are> minor exceptions to this, read the
58MAPPING section below to learn about those.
56 59
57=item * strict checking of JSON correctness 60=item * strict checking of JSON correctness
58 61
59There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default, 62There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default,
60and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security 63and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security
61feature). 64feature).
62 65
63=item * fast 66=item * fast
64 67
65Compared to other JSON modules, this module compares favourably in terms 68Compared to other JSON modules and other serialisers such as Storable,
66of speed, too. 69this module usually compares favourably in terms of speed, too.
67 70
68=item * simple to use 71=item * simple to use
69 72
70This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an OO 73This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an object
71interface. 74oriented interface.
72 75
73=item * reasonably versatile output formats 76=item * reasonably versatile output formats
74 77
75You can choose between the most compact guarenteed single-line format 78You can choose between the most compact guaranteed-single-line format
76possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ascii format 79possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ASCII format
77(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole 80(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole
78unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that 81Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that
79stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like. 82stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.
80 83
81=back 84=back
82 85
83=cut 86=cut
84 87
85package JSON::XS; 88package JSON::XS;
86 89
87use strict; 90use common::sense;
88 91
89our $VERSION = '1.51'; 92our $VERSION = '4.0_00';
90our @ISA = qw(Exporter); 93our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
91 94
92our @EXPORT = qw(to_json from_json); 95our @EXPORT = qw(encode_json decode_json);
93 96
94use Exporter; 97use Exporter;
95use XSLoader; 98use XSLoader;
96 99
100use Types::Serialiser ();
101
97=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE 102=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
98 103
99The following convinience methods are provided by this module. They are 104The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are
100exported by default: 105exported by default:
101 106
102=over 4 107=over
103 108
104=item $json_text = to_json $perl_scalar 109=item $json_text = encode_json $perl_scalar
105 110
106Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string 111Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string
107(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error. 112(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error.
108 113
109This function call is functionally identical to: 114This function call is functionally identical to:
110 115
111 $json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar) 116 $json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar)
112 117
113except being faster. 118Except being faster.
114 119
115=item $perl_scalar = from_json $json_text 120=item $perl_scalar = decode_json $json_text
116 121
117The opposite of C<to_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries 122The opposite of C<encode_json>: expects a UTF-8 (binary) string and tries
118to parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting 123to parse that as a UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting
119reference. Croaks on error. 124reference. Croaks on error.
120 125
121This function call is functionally identical to: 126This function call is functionally identical to:
122 127
123 $perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text) 128 $perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text)
124 129
125except being faster. 130Except being faster.
126
127=item $is_boolean = JSON::XS::is_bool $scalar
128
129Returns true if the passed scalar represents either JSON::XS::true or
130JSON::XS::false, two constants that act like C<1> and C<0>, respectively
131and are used to represent JSON C<true> and C<false> values in Perl.
132
133See MAPPING, below, for more information on how JSON values are mapped to
134Perl.
135 131
136=back 132=back
137 133
138 134
139=head1 A FEW NOTES ON UNICODE AND PERL 135=head1 A FEW NOTES ON UNICODE AND PERL
140 136
141Since this often leads to confusion, here are a few very clear words on 137Since this often leads to confusion, here are a few very clear words on
142how Unicode works in Perl, modulo bugs. 138how Unicode works in Perl, modulo bugs.
143 139
144=over 4 140=over
145 141
146=item 1. Perl strings can store characters with ordinal values > 255. 142=item 1. Perl strings can store characters with ordinal values > 255.
147 143
148This enables you to store unicode characters as single characters in a 144This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a
149Perl string - very natural. 145Perl string - very natural.
150 146
151=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings. 147=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings.
152 148
153Unless you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or printing 149... until you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or
154the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your string as 150printing the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your
155locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending on various 151string as locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending
156settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your data, it is 152on various settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your
157I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical metadata. 153data, it is I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical meta data.
158 154
159=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the 155=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the
160encoding of your string. 156encoding of your string.
161 157
162Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in 158Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in
163XS or want to dive into the internals of perl. Otherwise it will only 159XS or want to dive into the internals of perl. Otherwise it will only
164confuse you, as, despite the name, it says nothing about how your string 160confuse you, as, despite the name, it says nothing about how your string
165is encoded. You can have unicode strings with that flag set, with that 161is encoded. You can have Unicode strings with that flag set, with that
166flag clear, and you can have binary data with that flag set and that flag 162flag clear, and you can have binary data with that flag set and that flag
167clear. Other possibilities exist, too. 163clear. Other possibilities exist, too.
168 164
169If you didn't know about that flag, just the better, pretend it doesn't 165If you didn't know about that flag, just the better, pretend it doesn't
170exist. 166exist.
171 167
172=item 4. A "Unicode String" is simply a string where each character can be 168=item 4. A "Unicode String" is simply a string where each character can be
173validly interpreted as a Unicode codepoint. 169validly interpreted as a Unicode code point.
174 170
175If you have UTF-8 encoded data, it is no longer a Unicode string, but a 171If you have UTF-8 encoded data, it is no longer a Unicode string, but a
176Unicode string encoded in UTF-8, giving you a binary string. 172Unicode string encoded in UTF-8, giving you a binary string.
177 173
178=item 5. A string containing "high" (> 255) character values is I<not> a UTF-8 string. 174=item 5. A string containing "high" (> 255) character values is I<not> a UTF-8 string.
179 175
180Its a fact. Learn to live with it. 176It's a fact. Learn to live with it.
181 177
182=back 178=back
183 179
184I hope this helps :) 180I hope this helps :)
185 181
187=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE 183=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE
188 184
189The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or 185The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or
190decoding style, within the limits of supported formats. 186decoding style, within the limits of supported formats.
191 187
192=over 4 188=over
193 189
194=item $json = new JSON::XS 190=item $json = new JSON::XS
195 191
196Creates a new JSON::XS object that can be used to de/encode JSON 192Creates a new JSON::XS object that can be used to de/encode JSON
197strings. All boolean flags described below are by default I<disabled>. 193strings. All boolean flags described below are by default I<disabled>
194(with the exception of C<allow_nonref>, which defaults to I<enabled> since
195version C<4.0>).
198 196
199The mutators for flags all return the JSON object again and thus calls can 197The mutators for flags all return the JSON object again and thus calls can
200be chained: 198be chained:
201 199
202 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]}) 200 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]})
203 => {"a": [1, 2]} 201 => {"a": [1, 2]}
204 202
205=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable]) 203=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable])
206 204
205=item $enabled = $json->get_ascii
206
207If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not 207If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
208generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any 208generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any
209unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a 209Unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a
210single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence, 210single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence,
211as per RFC4627. The resulting encoded JSON text can be treated as a native 211as per RFC4627. The resulting encoded JSON text can be treated as a native
212unicode string, an ascii-encoded, latin1-encoded or UTF-8 encoded string, 212Unicode string, an ascii-encoded, latin1-encoded or UTF-8 encoded string,
213or any other superset of ASCII. 213or any other superset of ASCII.
214 214
215If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode 215If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
216characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results 216characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results
217in a faster and more compact format. 217in a faster and more compact format.
218 218
219See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
220document.
221
219The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be 222The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be
220transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not 223transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not
221contain any 8 bit characters. 224contain any 8 bit characters.
222 225
223 JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401]) 226 JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])
224 => ["\ud801\udc01"] 227 => ["\ud801\udc01"]
225 228
226=item $json = $json->latin1 ([$enable]) 229=item $json = $json->latin1 ([$enable])
227 230
231=item $enabled = $json->get_latin1
232
228If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode 233If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
229the resulting JSON text as latin1 (or iso-8859-1), escaping any characters 234the resulting JSON text as latin1 (or iso-8859-1), escaping any characters
230outside the code range C<0..255>. The resulting string can be treated as a 235outside the code range C<0..255>. The resulting string can be treated as a
231latin1-encoded JSON text or a native unicode string. The C<decode> method 236latin1-encoded JSON text or a native Unicode string. The C<decode> method
232will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default 237will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default
233expects unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1. 238expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.
234 239
235If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode 240If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
236characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. 241characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags.
242
243See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
244document.
237 245
238The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON 246The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON
239text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded 247text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded
240size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded 248size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded
241in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and 249in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and
242transfering), a rare encoding for JSON. It is therefore most useful when 250transferring), a rare encoding for JSON. It is therefore most useful when
243you want to store data structures known to contain binary data efficiently 251you want to store data structures known to contain binary data efficiently
244in files or databases, not when talking to other JSON encoders/decoders. 252in files or databases, not when talking to other JSON encoders/decoders.
245 253
246 JSON::XS->new->latin1->encode (["\x{89}\x{abc}"] 254 JSON::XS->new->latin1->encode (["\x{89}\x{abc}"]
247 => ["\x{89}\\u0abc"] # (perl syntax, U+abc escaped, U+89 not) 255 => ["\x{89}\\u0abc"] # (perl syntax, U+abc escaped, U+89 not)
248 256
249=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable]) 257=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable])
250 258
259=item $enabled = $json->get_utf8
260
251If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode 261If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
252the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the 262the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the
253C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please 263C<decode> method expects to be handed a UTF-8-encoded string. Please
254note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the 264note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the
255range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future 265range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future
256versions, enabling this option might enable autodetection of the UTF-16 266versions, enabling this option might enable autodetection of the UTF-16
257and UTF-32 encoding families, as described in RFC4627. 267and UTF-32 encoding families, as described in RFC4627.
258 268
259If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON 269If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON
260string as a (non-encoded) unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a 270string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a
261unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs 271Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs
262to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module. 272to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.
273
274See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
275document.
263 276
264Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON: 277Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:
265 278
266 use Encode; 279 use Encode;
267 $jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object); 280 $jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);
288 ] 301 ]
289 } 302 }
290 303
291=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable]) 304=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable])
292 305
306=item $enabled = $json->get_indent
307
293If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline 308If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline
294format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair 309format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair
295into its own line, identing them properly. 310into its own line, indenting them properly.
296 311
297If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the 312If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the
298resulting JSON text is guarenteed not to contain any C<newlines>. 313resulting JSON text is guaranteed not to contain any C<newlines>.
299 314
300This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts. 315This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
301 316
302=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable]) 317=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable])
318
319=item $enabled = $json->get_space_before
303 320
304If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra 321If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
305optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects. 322optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects.
306 323
307If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra 324If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra
313Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled: 330Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled:
314 331
315 {"key" :"value"} 332 {"key" :"value"}
316 333
317=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable]) 334=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable])
335
336=item $enabled = $json->get_space_after
318 337
319If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra 338If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
320optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects 339optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects
321and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array 340and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array
322members. 341members.
330 349
331 {"key": "value"} 350 {"key": "value"}
332 351
333=item $json = $json->relaxed ([$enable]) 352=item $json = $json->relaxed ([$enable])
334 353
354=item $enabled = $json->get_relaxed
355
335If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will accept some 356If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will accept some
336extensions to normal JSON syntax (see below). C<encode> will not be 357extensions to normal JSON syntax (see below). C<encode> will not be
337affected in anyway. I<Be aware that this option makes you accept invalid 358affected in any way. I<Be aware that this option makes you accept invalid
338JSON texts as if they were valid!>. I suggest only to use this option to 359JSON texts as if they were valid!>. I suggest only to use this option to
339parse application-specific files written by humans (configuration files, 360parse application-specific files written by humans (configuration files,
340resource files etc.) 361resource files etc.)
341 362
342If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will only accept 363If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will only accept
343valid JSON texts. 364valid JSON texts.
344 365
345Currently accepted extensions are: 366Currently accepted extensions are:
346 367
347=over 4 368=over
348 369
349=item * list items can have an end-comma 370=item * list items can have an end-comma
350 371
351JSON I<separates> array elements and key-value pairs with commas. This 372JSON I<separates> array elements and key-value pairs with commas. This
352can be annoying if you write JSON texts manually and want to be able to 373can be annoying if you write JSON texts manually and want to be able to
371 [ 392 [
372 1, # this comment not allowed in JSON 393 1, # this comment not allowed in JSON
373 # neither this one... 394 # neither this one...
374 ] 395 ]
375 396
397=item * literal ASCII TAB characters in strings
398
399Literal ASCII TAB characters are now allowed in strings (and treated as
400C<\t>).
401
402 [
403 "Hello\tWorld",
404 "Hello<TAB>World", # literal <TAB> would not normally be allowed
405 ]
406
376=back 407=back
377 408
378=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable]) 409=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable])
410
411=item $enabled = $json->get_canonical
379 412
380If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects 413If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects
381by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead. 414by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.
382 415
383If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value 416If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value
384pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs 417pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs
385of the same script). 418of the same script, and can change even within the same run from 5.18
419onwards).
386 420
387This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as 421This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as
388the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled, 422the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,
389the same hash migh be encoded differently even if contains the same data, 423the same hash might be encoded differently even if contains the same data,
390as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl. 424as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.
391 425
392This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts. 426This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
393 427
428This setting has currently no effect on tied hashes.
429
394=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable]) 430=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])
431
432=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_nonref
433
434Unlike other boolean options, this opotion is enabled by default beginning
435with version C<4.0>. See L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for the gory details.
395 436
396If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a 437If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a
397non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value, 438non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value,
398which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON 439which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON
399values instead of croaking. 440values instead of croaking.
401If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will croak if it isn't 442If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will croak if it isn't
402passed an arrayref or hashref, as JSON texts must either be an object 443passed an arrayref or hashref, as JSON texts must either be an object
403or array. Likewise, C<decode> will croak if given something that is not a 444or array. Likewise, C<decode> will croak if given something that is not a
404JSON object or array. 445JSON object or array.
405 446
406Example, encode a Perl scalar as JSON value with enabled C<allow_nonref>, 447Example, encode a Perl scalar as JSON value without enabled C<allow_nonref>,
407resulting in an invalid JSON text: 448resulting in an error:
408 449
409 JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!") 450 JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref (0)->encode ("Hello, World!")
410 => "Hello, World!" 451 => hash- or arrayref expected...
452
453=item $json = $json->allow_unknown ([$enable])
454
455=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_unknown
456
457If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
458exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in JSON (for
459example, filehandles) but instead will encode a JSON C<null> value. Note
460that blessed objects are not included here and are handled separately by
461c<allow_nonref>.
462
463If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
464exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as JSON.
465
466This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
467leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
411 468
412=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable]) 469=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable])
413 470
471=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_blessed
472
473See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
474
414If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not 475If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
415barf when it encounters a blessed reference. Instead, the value of the 476barf when it encounters a blessed reference that it cannot convert
416B<convert_blessed> option will decide wether C<null> (C<convert_blessed> 477otherwise. Instead, a JSON C<null> value is encoded instead of the object.
417disabled or no C<to_json> method found) or a representation of the
418object (C<convert_blessed> enabled and C<to_json> method found) is being
419encoded. Has no effect on C<decode>.
420 478
421If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an 479If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
422exception when it encounters a blessed object. 480exception when it encounters a blessed object that it cannot convert
481otherwise.
482
483This setting has no effect on C<decode>.
423 484
424=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable]) 485=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable])
486
487=item $enabled = $json->get_convert_blessed
488
489See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
425 490
426If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a 491If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
427blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method 492blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method
428on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context 493on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context and
429and the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object. If no 494the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object.
430C<TO_JSON> method is found, the value of C<allow_blessed> will decide what
431to do.
432 495
433The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON> 496The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON>
434returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same 497returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same
435way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle 498way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle
436(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other 499(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other
437methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are 500methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are
438usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with the C<to_json> 501usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with any C<to_json>
439function. 502function or method.
440 503
441This setting does not yet influence C<decode> in any way, but in the 504If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will not consider
442future, global hooks might get installed that influence C<decode> and are 505this type of conversion.
443enabled by this setting.
444 506
445If C<$enable> is false, then the C<allow_blessed> setting will decide what 507This setting has no effect on C<decode>.
446to do when a blessed object is found. 508
509=item $json = $json->allow_tags ([$enable])
510
511=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_tags
512
513See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
514
515If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
516blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<FREEZE> method on
517the object's class. If found, it will be used to serialise the object into
518a nonstandard tagged JSON value (that JSON decoders cannot decode).
519
520It also causes C<decode> to parse such tagged JSON values and deserialise
521them via a call to the C<THAW> method.
522
523If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will not consider
524this type of conversion, and tagged JSON values will cause a parse error
525in C<decode>, as if tags were not part of the grammar.
526
527=item $json->boolean_values ([$false, $true])
528
529=item ($false, $true) = $json->get_boolean_values
530
531By default, JSON booleans will be decoded as overloaded
532C<$Types::Serialiser::false> and C<$Types::Serialiser::true> objects.
533
534With this method you can specify your own boolean values for decoding -
535on decode, JSON C<false> will be decoded as a copy of C<$false>, and JSON
536C<true> will be decoded as C<$true> ("copy" here is the same thing as
537assigning a value to another variable, i.e. C<$copy = $false>).
538
539Calling this method without any arguments will reset the booleans
540to their default values.
541
542C<get_boolean_values> will return both C<$false> and C<$true> values, or
543the empty list when they are set to the default.
447 544
448=item $json = $json->filter_json_object ([$coderef->($hashref)]) 545=item $json = $json->filter_json_object ([$coderef->($hashref)])
449 546
450When C<$coderef> is specified, it will be called from C<decode> each 547When C<$coderef> is specified, it will be called from C<decode> each
451time it decodes a JSON object. The only argument is a reference to the 548time it decodes a JSON object. The only argument is a reference to
452newly-created hash. If the code references returns a single scalar (which 549the newly-created hash. If the code reference returns a single scalar
453need not be a reference), this value (i.e. a copy of that scalar to avoid 550(which need not be a reference), this value (or rather a copy of it) is
454aliasing) is inserted into the deserialised data structure. If it returns 551inserted into the deserialised data structure. If it returns an empty
455an empty list (NOTE: I<not> C<undef>, which is a valid scalar), the 552list (NOTE: I<not> C<undef>, which is a valid scalar), the original
456original deserialised hash will be inserted. This setting can slow down 553deserialised hash will be inserted. This setting can slow down decoding
457decoding considerably. 554considerably.
458 555
459When C<$coderef> is omitted or undefined, any existing callback will 556When C<$coderef> is omitted or undefined, any existing callback will
460be removed and C<decode> will not change the deserialised hash in any 557be removed and C<decode> will not change the deserialised hash in any
461way. 558way.
462 559
486 583
487As this callback gets called less often then the C<filter_json_object> 584As this callback gets called less often then the C<filter_json_object>
488one, decoding speed will not usually suffer as much. Therefore, single-key 585one, decoding speed will not usually suffer as much. Therefore, single-key
489objects make excellent targets to serialise Perl objects into, especially 586objects make excellent targets to serialise Perl objects into, especially
490as single-key JSON objects are as close to the type-tagged value concept 587as single-key JSON objects are as close to the type-tagged value concept
491as JSON gets (its basically an ID/VALUE tuple). Of course, JSON does not 588as JSON gets (it's basically an ID/VALUE tuple). Of course, JSON does not
492support this in any way, so you need to make sure your data never looks 589support this in any way, so you need to make sure your data never looks
493like a serialised Perl hash. 590like a serialised Perl hash.
494 591
495Typical names for the single object key are C<__class_whatever__>, or 592Typical names for the single object key are C<__class_whatever__>, or
496C<$__dollars_are_rarely_used__$> or C<}ugly_brace_placement>, or even 593C<$__dollars_are_rarely_used__$> or C<}ugly_brace_placement>, or even
520 617
521 { __widget__ => $self->{id} } 618 { __widget__ => $self->{id} }
522 } 619 }
523 620
524=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable]) 621=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable])
622
623=item $enabled = $json->get_shrink
525 624
526Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for 625Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for
527strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either 626strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either
528C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save 627C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save
529memory when your JSON texts are either very very long or you have many 628memory when your JSON texts are either very very long or you have many
547strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats 646strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats
548internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space. 647internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space.
549 648
550=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth]) 649=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
551 650
651=item $max_depth = $json->get_max_depth
652
552Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding 653Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
553or decoding. If the JSON text or Perl data structure has an equal or 654or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in JSON text or a Perl
554higher nesting level then this limit, then the encoder and decoder will 655data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
555stop and croak at that point. 656point.
556 657
557Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder 658Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
558needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[> 659needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
559characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a 660characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
560given character in a string. 661given character in a string.
561 662
562Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures 663Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
563that the object is only a single hash/object or array. 664that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
564 665
565The argument to C<max_depth> will be rounded up to the next highest power
566of two. If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be 666If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
567used, which is rarely useful. 667is rarely useful.
668
669Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
670been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
671crashing.
568 672
569See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful. 673See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
570 674
571=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size]) 675=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
676
677=item $max_size = $json->get_max_size
572 678
573Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is 679Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is
574being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode> 680being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
575is called on a string longer then this number of characters it will not 681is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
576attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no 682attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
577effect on C<encode> (yet). 683effect on C<encode> (yet).
578 684
579The argument to C<max_size> will be rounded up to the next B<highest> 685If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
580power of two (so may be more than requested). If no argument is given, the 686C<0> is specified).
581limit check will be deactivated (same as when C<0> is specified).
582 687
583See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful. 688See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
584 689
585=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar) 690=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)
586 691
587Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference 692Converts the given Perl value or data structure to its JSON
588to a hash or array) to its JSON representation. Simple scalars will be 693representation. Croaks on error.
589converted into JSON string or number sequences, while references to arrays
590become JSON arrays and references to hashes become JSON objects. Undefined
591Perl values (e.g. C<undef>) become JSON C<null> values. Neither C<true>
592nor C<false> values will be generated.
593 694
594=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text) 695=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text)
595 696
596The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it, 697The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it,
597returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error. 698returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
598
599JSON numbers and strings become simple Perl scalars. JSON arrays become
600Perl arrayrefs and JSON objects become Perl hashrefs. C<true> becomes
601C<1>, C<false> becomes C<0> and C<null> becomes C<undef>.
602 699
603=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text) 700=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text)
604 701
605This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception 702This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
606when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will 703when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will
607silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed 704silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed
608so far. 705so far.
609 706
610This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol 707This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
611(which is not the brightest thing to do in the first place) and you need
612to know where the JSON text ends. 708and you need to know where the JSON text ends.
613 709
614 JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail") 710 JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail")
615 => ([], 3) 711 => ([1], 3)
616 712
617=back 713=back
714
715
716=head1 INCREMENTAL PARSING
717
718In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
719texts. While this module always has to keep both JSON text and resulting
720Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
721JSON stream incrementally. It does so by accumulating text until it has
722a full JSON object, which it then can decode. This process is similar to
723using C<decode_prefix> to see if a full JSON object is available, but
724is much more efficient (and can be implemented with a minimum of method
725calls).
726
727JSON::XS will only attempt to parse the JSON text once it is sure it
728has enough text to get a decisive result, using a very simple but
729truly incremental parser. This means that it sometimes won't stop as
730early as the full parser, for example, it doesn't detect mismatched
731parentheses. The only thing it guarantees is that it starts decoding as
732soon as a syntactically valid JSON text has been seen. This means you need
733to set resource limits (e.g. C<max_size>) to ensure the parser will stop
734parsing in the presence if syntax errors.
735
736The following methods implement this incremental parser.
737
738=over
739
740=item [void, scalar or list context] = $json->incr_parse ([$string])
741
742This is the central parsing function. It can both append new text and
743extract objects from the stream accumulated so far (both of these
744functions are optional).
745
746If C<$string> is given, then this string is appended to the already
747existing JSON fragment stored in the C<$json> object.
748
749After that, if the function is called in void context, it will simply
750return without doing anything further. This can be used to add more text
751in as many chunks as you want.
752
753If the method is called in scalar context, then it will try to extract
754exactly I<one> JSON object. If that is successful, it will return this
755object, otherwise it will return C<undef>. If there is a parse error,
756this method will croak just as C<decode> would do (one can then use
757C<incr_skip> to skip the erroneous part). This is the most common way of
758using the method.
759
760And finally, in list context, it will try to extract as many objects
761from the stream as it can find and return them, or the empty list
762otherwise. For this to work, there must be no separators (other than
763whitespace) between the JSON objects or arrays, instead they must be
764concatenated back-to-back. If an error occurs, an exception will be
765raised as in the scalar context case. Note that in this case, any
766previously-parsed JSON texts will be lost.
767
768Example: Parse some JSON arrays/objects in a given string and return
769them.
770
771 my @objs = JSON::XS->new->incr_parse ("[5][7][1,2]");
772
773=item $lvalue_string = $json->incr_text
774
775This method returns the currently stored JSON fragment as an lvalue, that
776is, you can manipulate it. This I<only> works when a preceding call to
777C<incr_parse> in I<scalar context> successfully returned an object. Under
778all other circumstances you must not call this function (I mean it.
779although in simple tests it might actually work, it I<will> fail under
780real world conditions). As a special exception, you can also call this
781method before having parsed anything.
782
783That means you can only use this function to look at or manipulate text
784before or after complete JSON objects, not while the parser is in the
785middle of parsing a JSON object.
786
787This function is useful in two cases: a) finding the trailing text after a
788JSON object or b) parsing multiple JSON objects separated by non-JSON text
789(such as commas).
790
791=item $json->incr_skip
792
793This will reset the state of the incremental parser and will remove
794the parsed text from the input buffer so far. This is useful after
795C<incr_parse> died, in which case the input buffer and incremental parser
796state is left unchanged, to skip the text parsed so far and to reset the
797parse state.
798
799The difference to C<incr_reset> is that only text until the parse error
800occurred is removed.
801
802=item $json->incr_reset
803
804This completely resets the incremental parser, that is, after this call,
805it will be as if the parser had never parsed anything.
806
807This is useful if you want to repeatedly parse JSON objects and want to
808ignore any trailing data, which means you have to reset the parser after
809each successful decode.
810
811=back
812
813=head2 LIMITATIONS
814
815The incremental parser is a non-exact parser: it works by gathering as
816much text as possible that I<could> be a valid JSON text, followed by
817trying to decode it.
818
819That means it sometimes needs to read more data than strictly necessary to
820diagnose an invalid JSON text. For example, after parsing the following
821fragment, the parser I<could> stop with an error, as this fragment
822I<cannot> be the beginning of a valid JSON text:
823
824 [,
825
826In reality, hopwever, the parser might continue to read data until a
827length limit is exceeded or it finds a closing bracket.
828
829=head2 EXAMPLES
830
831Some examples will make all this clearer. First, a simple example that
832works similarly to C<decode_prefix>: We want to decode the JSON object at
833the start of a string and identify the portion after the JSON object:
834
835 my $text = "[1,2,3] hello";
836
837 my $json = new JSON::XS;
838
839 my $obj = $json->incr_parse ($text)
840 or die "expected JSON object or array at beginning of string";
841
842 my $tail = $json->incr_text;
843 # $tail now contains " hello"
844
845Easy, isn't it?
846
847Now for a more complicated example: Imagine a hypothetical protocol where
848you read some requests from a TCP stream, and each request is a JSON
849array, without any separation between them (in fact, it is often useful to
850use newlines as "separators", as these get interpreted as whitespace at
851the start of the JSON text, which makes it possible to test said protocol
852with C<telnet>...).
853
854Here is how you'd do it (it is trivial to write this in an event-based
855manner):
856
857 my $json = new JSON::XS;
858
859 # read some data from the socket
860 while (sysread $socket, my $buf, 4096) {
861
862 # split and decode as many requests as possible
863 for my $request ($json->incr_parse ($buf)) {
864 # act on the $request
865 }
866 }
867
868Another complicated example: Assume you have a string with JSON objects
869or arrays, all separated by (optional) comma characters (e.g. C<[1],[2],
870[3]>). To parse them, we have to skip the commas between the JSON texts,
871and here is where the lvalue-ness of C<incr_text> comes in useful:
872
873 my $text = "[1],[2], [3]";
874 my $json = new JSON::XS;
875
876 # void context, so no parsing done
877 $json->incr_parse ($text);
878
879 # now extract as many objects as possible. note the
880 # use of scalar context so incr_text can be called.
881 while (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
882 # do something with $obj
883
884 # now skip the optional comma
885 $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* , //x;
886 }
887
888Now lets go for a very complex example: Assume that you have a gigantic
889JSON array-of-objects, many gigabytes in size, and you want to parse it,
890but you cannot load it into memory fully (this has actually happened in
891the real world :).
892
893Well, you lost, you have to implement your own JSON parser. But JSON::XS
894can still help you: You implement a (very simple) array parser and let
895JSON decode the array elements, which are all full JSON objects on their
896own (this wouldn't work if the array elements could be JSON numbers, for
897example):
898
899 my $json = new JSON::XS;
900
901 # open the monster
902 open my $fh, "<bigfile.json"
903 or die "bigfile: $!";
904
905 # first parse the initial "["
906 for (;;) {
907 sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
908 or die "read error: $!";
909 $json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
910
911 # Exit the loop once we found and removed(!) the initial "[".
912 # In essence, we are (ab-)using the $json object as a simple scalar
913 # we append data to.
914 last if $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* \[ //x;
915 }
916
917 # now we have the skipped the initial "[", so continue
918 # parsing all the elements.
919 for (;;) {
920 # in this loop we read data until we got a single JSON object
921 for (;;) {
922 if (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
923 # do something with $obj
924 last;
925 }
926
927 # add more data
928 sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
929 or die "read error: $!";
930 $json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
931 }
932
933 # in this loop we read data until we either found and parsed the
934 # separating "," between elements, or the final "]"
935 for (;;) {
936 # first skip whitespace
937 $json->incr_text =~ s/^\s*//;
938
939 # if we find "]", we are done
940 if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^\]//) {
941 print "finished.\n";
942 exit;
943 }
944
945 # if we find ",", we can continue with the next element
946 if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^,//) {
947 last;
948 }
949
950 # if we find anything else, we have a parse error!
951 if (length $json->incr_text) {
952 die "parse error near ", $json->incr_text;
953 }
954
955 # else add more data
956 sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
957 or die "read error: $!";
958 $json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
959 }
960
961This is a complex example, but most of the complexity comes from the fact
962that we are trying to be correct (bear with me if I am wrong, I never ran
963the above example :).
964
618 965
619 966
620=head1 MAPPING 967=head1 MAPPING
621 968
622This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and 969This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and
623vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most 970vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
624circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics 971circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
625(what you put in comes out as something equivalent). 972(what you put in comes out as something equivalent).
626 973
627For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions, 974For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,
628lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppcercase I<Perl> 975lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppercase I<Perl>
629refers to the abstract Perl language itself. 976refers to the abstract Perl language itself.
630 977
631 978
632=head2 JSON -> PERL 979=head2 JSON -> PERL
633 980
634=over 4 981=over
635 982
636=item object 983=item object
637 984
638A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object 985A JSON object becomes a reference to a hash in Perl. No ordering of object
639keys is preserved (JSON does not preserver object key ordering itself). 986keys is preserved (JSON does not preserve object key ordering itself).
640 987
641=item array 988=item array
642 989
643A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl. 990A JSON array becomes a reference to an array in Perl.
644 991
652 999
653A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or 1000A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or
654string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On 1001string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On
655the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all 1002the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all
656the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and 1003the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and
657might represent more values exactly than (floating point) numbers. 1004might represent more values exactly than floating point numbers.
658 1005
659If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent 1006If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent
660it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as 1007it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as
661a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of 1008a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of
662precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value. 1009precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value (in
1010which case you lose roundtripping ability, as the JSON number will be
1011re-encoded to a JSON string).
663 1012
664Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be 1013Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be
665represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of 1014represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of
666precision. 1015precision (in which case you might lose perfect roundtripping ability, but
1016the JSON number will still be re-encoded as a JSON number).
667 1017
668This might create round-tripping problems as numbers might become strings, 1018Note that precision is not accuracy - binary floating point values cannot
669but as Perl is typeless there is no other way to do it. 1019represent most decimal fractions exactly, and when converting from and to
1020floating point, JSON::XS only guarantees precision up to but not including
1021the least significant bit.
670 1022
671=item true, false 1023=item true, false
672 1024
673These JSON atoms become C<JSON::XS::true> and C<JSON::XS::false>, 1025These JSON atoms become C<Types::Serialiser::true> and
674respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers 1026C<Types::Serialiser::false>, respectively. They are overloaded to act
675C<1> and C<0>. You can check wether a scalar is a JSON boolean by using 1027almost exactly like the numbers C<1> and C<0>. You can check whether
676the C<JSON::XS::is_bool> function. 1028a scalar is a JSON boolean by using the C<Types::Serialiser::is_bool>
1029function (after C<use Types::Serialier>, of course).
677 1030
678=item null 1031=item null
679 1032
680A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl. 1033A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.
1034
1035=item shell-style comments (C<< # I<text> >>)
1036
1037As a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax that is enabled by the
1038C<relaxed> setting, shell-style comments are allowed. They can start
1039anywhere outside strings and go till the end of the line.
1040
1041=item tagged values (C<< (I<tag>)I<value> >>).
1042
1043Another nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax, enabled with the
1044C<allow_tags> setting, are tagged values. In this implementation, the
1045I<tag> must be a perl package/class name encoded as a JSON string, and the
1046I<value> must be a JSON array encoding optional constructor arguments.
1047
1048See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION>, below, for details.
681 1049
682=back 1050=back
683 1051
684 1052
685=head2 PERL -> JSON 1053=head2 PERL -> JSON
686 1054
687The mapping from Perl to JSON is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a 1055The mapping from Perl to JSON is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a
688truly typeless language, so we can only guess which JSON type is meant by 1056truly typeless language, so we can only guess which JSON type is meant by
689a Perl value. 1057a Perl value.
690 1058
691=over 4 1059=over
692 1060
693=item hash references 1061=item hash references
694 1062
695Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent ordering 1063Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent
696in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded in a 1064ordering in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded
697pseudo-random order that can change between runs of the same program but 1065in a pseudo-random order. JSON::XS can optionally sort the hash keys
698stays generally the same within a single run of a program. JSON::XS can 1066(determined by the I<canonical> flag), so the same datastructure will
699optionally sort the hash keys (determined by the I<canonical> flag), so 1067serialise to the same JSON text (given same settings and version of
700the same datastructure will serialise to the same JSON text (given same 1068JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead and is only rarely useful,
701settings and version of JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead 1069e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text against another for equality.
702and is only rarely useful, e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text
703against another for equality.
704 1070
705=item array references 1071=item array references
706 1072
707Perl array references become JSON arrays. 1073Perl array references become JSON arrays.
708 1074
709=item other references 1075=item other references
710 1076
711Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an 1077Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an
712exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and 1078exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and
713C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON. You can 1079C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON.
714also use C<JSON::XS::false> and C<JSON::XS::true> to improve readability.
715 1080
1081Since C<JSON::XS> uses the boolean model from L<Types::Serialiser>, you
1082can also C<use Types::Serialiser> and then use C<Types::Serialiser::false>
1083and C<Types::Serialiser::true> to improve readability.
1084
1085 use Types::Serialiser;
716 to_json [\0,JSON::XS::true] # yields [false,true] 1086 encode_json [\0, Types::Serialiser::true] # yields [false,true]
717 1087
718=item JSON::XS::true, JSON::XS::false 1088=item Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::false
719 1089
720These special values become JSON true and JSON false values, 1090These special values from the L<Types::Serialiser> module become JSON true
721respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0> directly if you want. 1091and JSON false values, respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0>
1092directly if you want.
722 1093
723=item blessed objects 1094=item blessed objects
724 1095
725Blessed objects are not allowed. JSON::XS currently tries to encode their 1096Blessed objects are not directly representable in JSON, but C<JSON::XS>
726underlying representation (hash- or arrayref), but this behaviour might 1097allows various ways of handling objects. See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION>,
727change in future versions. 1098below, for details.
728 1099
729=item simple scalars 1100=item simple scalars
730 1101
731Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most 1102Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
732difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as 1103difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as
733JSON null value, scalars that have last been used in a string context 1104JSON C<null> values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
734before encoding as JSON strings and anything else as number value: 1105before encoding as JSON strings, and anything else as number value:
735 1106
736 # dump as number 1107 # dump as number
737 to_json [2] # yields [2] 1108 encode_json [2] # yields [2]
738 to_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17] 1109 encode_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
739 my $value = 5; to_json [$value] # yields [5] 1110 my $value = 5; encode_json [$value] # yields [5]
740 1111
741 # used as string, so dump as string 1112 # used as string, so dump as string
742 print $value; 1113 print $value;
743 to_json [$value] # yields ["5"] 1114 encode_json [$value] # yields ["5"]
744 1115
745 # undef becomes null 1116 # undef becomes null
746 to_json [undef] # yields [null] 1117 encode_json [undef] # yields [null]
747 1118
748You can force the type to be a string by stringifying it: 1119You can force the type to be a JSON string by stringifying it:
749 1120
750 my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number 1121 my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
751 "$x"; # stringified 1122 "$x"; # stringified
752 $x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify 1123 $x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify
753 print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often 1124 print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often
754 1125
755You can force the type to be a number by numifying it: 1126You can force the type to be a JSON number by numifying it:
756 1127
757 my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string 1128 my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
758 $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number 1129 $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
759 $x *= 1; # same thing, the choise is yours. 1130 $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
760 1131
761You can not currently output JSON booleans or force the type in other, 1132You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
762less obscure, ways. Tell me if you need this capability. 1133if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
1134:).
1135
1136Note that numerical precision has the same meaning as under Perl (so
1137binary to decimal conversion follows the same rules as in Perl, which
1138can differ to other languages). Also, your perl interpreter might expose
1139extensions to the floating point numbers of your platform, such as
1140infinities or NaN's - these cannot be represented in JSON, and it is an
1141error to pass those in.
763 1142
764=back 1143=back
765 1144
1145=head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
766 1146
767=head1 COMPARISON 1147As JSON cannot directly represent Perl objects, you have to choose between
1148a pure JSON representation (without the ability to deserialise the object
1149automatically again), and a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax,
1150tagged values.
768 1151
769As already mentioned, this module was created because none of the existing 1152=head3 SERIALISATION
770JSON modules could be made to work correctly. First I will describe the
771problems (or pleasures) I encountered with various existing JSON modules,
772followed by some benchmark values. JSON::XS was designed not to suffer
773from any of these problems or limitations.
774 1153
1154What happens when C<JSON::XS> encounters a Perl object depends on the
1155C<allow_blessed>, C<convert_blessed> and C<allow_tags> settings, which are
1156used in this order:
1157
775=over 4 1158=over
776 1159
777=item JSON 1.07 1160=item 1. C<allow_tags> is enabled and the object has a C<FREEZE> method.
778 1161
779Slow (but very portable, as it is written in pure Perl). 1162In this case, C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> object
1163serialisation protocol to create a tagged JSON value, using a nonstandard
1164extension to the JSON syntax.
780 1165
781Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling (how JSON handles unicode values is 1166This works by invoking the C<FREEZE> method on the object, with the first
782undocumented. One can get far by feeding it unicode strings and doing 1167argument being the object to serialise, and the second argument being the
783en-/decoding oneself, but unicode escapes are not working properly). 1168constant string C<JSON> to distinguish it from other serialisers.
784 1169
785No roundtripping (strings get clobbered if they look like numbers, e.g. 1170The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
786the string C<2.0> will encode to C<2.0> instead of C<"2.0">, and that will 1171more). These values and the paclkage/classname of the object will then be
787decode into the number 2. 1172encoded as a tagged JSON value in the following format:
788 1173
789=item JSON::PC 0.01 1174 ("classname")[FREEZE return values...]
790 1175
791Very fast. 1176e.g.:
792 1177
793Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling. 1178 ("URI")["http://www.google.com/"]
1179 ("MyDate")[2013,10,29]
1180 ("ImageData::JPEG")["Z3...VlCg=="]
794 1181
795No roundtripping. 1182For example, the hypothetical C<My::Object> C<FREEZE> method might use the
1183objects C<type> and C<id> members to encode the object:
796 1184
797Has problems handling many Perl values (e.g. regex results and other magic 1185 sub My::Object::FREEZE {
798values will make it croak). 1186 my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
799 1187
800Does not even generate valid JSON (C<{1,2}> gets converted to C<{1:2}> 1188 ($self->{type}, $self->{id})
801which is not a valid JSON text. 1189 }
802 1190
803Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not 1191=item 2. C<convert_blessed> is enabled and the object has a C<TO_JSON> method.
804getting fixed).
805 1192
806=item JSON::Syck 0.21 1193In this case, the C<TO_JSON> method of the object is invoked in scalar
1194context. It must return a single scalar that can be directly encoded into
1195JSON. This scalar replaces the object in the JSON text.
807 1196
808Very buggy (often crashes). 1197For example, the following C<TO_JSON> method will convert all L<URI>
1198objects to JSON strings when serialised. The fatc that these values
1199originally were L<URI> objects is lost.
809 1200
810Very inflexible (no human-readable format supported, format pretty much 1201 sub URI::TO_JSON {
811undocumented. I need at least a format for easy reading by humans and a 1202 my ($uri) = @_;
812single-line compact format for use in a protocol, and preferably a way to 1203 $uri->as_string
813generate ASCII-only JSON texts). 1204 }
814 1205
815Completely broken (and confusingly documented) Unicode handling (unicode 1206=item 3. C<allow_blessed> is enabled.
816escapes are not working properly, you need to set ImplicitUnicode to
817I<different> values on en- and decoding to get symmetric behaviour).
818 1207
819No roundtripping (simple cases work, but this depends on wether the scalar 1208The object will be serialised as a JSON null value.
820value was used in a numeric context or not).
821 1209
822Dumping hashes may skip hash values depending on iterator state. 1210=item 4. none of the above
823 1211
824Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not 1212If none of the settings are enabled or the respective methods are missing,
825getting fixed). 1213C<JSON::XS> throws an exception.
826
827Does not check input for validity (i.e. will accept non-JSON input and
828return "something" instead of raising an exception. This is a security
829issue: imagine two banks transfering money between each other using
830JSON. One bank might parse a given non-JSON request and deduct money,
831while the other might reject the transaction with a syntax error. While a
832good protocol will at least recover, that is extra unnecessary work and
833the transaction will still not succeed).
834
835=item JSON::DWIW 0.04
836
837Very fast. Very natural. Very nice.
838
839Undocumented unicode handling (but the best of the pack. Unicode escapes
840still don't get parsed properly).
841
842Very inflexible.
843
844No roundtripping.
845
846Does not generate valid JSON texts (key strings are often unquoted, empty keys
847result in nothing being output)
848
849Does not check input for validity.
850 1214
851=back 1215=back
852 1216
1217=head3 DESERIALISATION
1218
1219For deserialisation there are only two cases to consider: either
1220nonstandard tagging was used, in which case C<allow_tags> decides,
1221or objects cannot be automatically be deserialised, in which
1222case you can use postprocessing or the C<filter_json_object> or
1223C<filter_json_single_key_object> callbacks to get some real objects our of
1224your JSON.
1225
1226This section only considers the tagged value case: I a tagged JSON object
1227is encountered during decoding and C<allow_tags> is disabled, a parse
1228error will result (as if tagged values were not part of the grammar).
1229
1230If C<allow_tags> is enabled, C<JSON::XS> will look up the C<THAW> method
1231of the package/classname used during serialisation (it will not attempt
1232to load the package as a Perl module). If there is no such method, the
1233decoding will fail with an error.
1234
1235Otherwise, the C<THAW> method is invoked with the classname as first
1236argument, the constant string C<JSON> as second argument, and all the
1237values from the JSON array (the values originally returned by the
1238C<FREEZE> method) as remaining arguments.
1239
1240The method must then return the object. While technically you can return
1241any Perl scalar, you might have to enable the C<enable_nonref> setting to
1242make that work in all cases, so better return an actual blessed reference.
1243
1244As an example, let's implement a C<THAW> function that regenerates the
1245C<My::Object> from the C<FREEZE> example earlier:
1246
1247 sub My::Object::THAW {
1248 my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id) = @_;
1249
1250 $class->new (type => $type, id => $id)
1251 }
1252
1253
1254=head1 ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES
1255
1256The interested reader might have seen a number of flags that signify
1257encodings or codesets - C<utf8>, C<latin1> and C<ascii>. There seems to be
1258some confusion on what these do, so here is a short comparison:
1259
1260C<utf8> controls whether the JSON text created by C<encode> (and expected
1261by C<decode>) is UTF-8 encoded or not, while C<latin1> and C<ascii> only
1262control whether C<encode> escapes character values outside their respective
1263codeset range. Neither of these flags conflict with each other, although
1264some combinations make less sense than others.
1265
1266Care has been taken to make all flags symmetrical with respect to
1267C<encode> and C<decode>, that is, texts encoded with any combination of
1268these flag values will be correctly decoded when the same flags are used
1269- in general, if you use different flag settings while encoding vs. when
1270decoding you likely have a bug somewhere.
1271
1272Below comes a verbose discussion of these flags. Note that a "codeset" is
1273simply an abstract set of character-codepoint pairs, while an encoding
1274takes those codepoint numbers and I<encodes> them, in our case into
1275octets. Unicode is (among other things) a codeset, UTF-8 is an encoding,
1276and ISO-8859-1 (= latin 1) and ASCII are both codesets I<and> encodings at
1277the same time, which can be confusing.
1278
1279=over
1280
1281=item C<utf8> flag disabled
1282
1283When C<utf8> is disabled (the default), then C<encode>/C<decode> generate
1284and expect Unicode strings, that is, characters with high ordinal Unicode
1285values (> 255) will be encoded as such characters, and likewise such
1286characters are decoded as-is, no changes to them will be done, except
1287"(re-)interpreting" them as Unicode codepoints or Unicode characters,
1288respectively (to Perl, these are the same thing in strings unless you do
1289funny/weird/dumb stuff).
1290
1291This is useful when you want to do the encoding yourself (e.g. when you
1292want to have UTF-16 encoded JSON texts) or when some other layer does
1293the encoding for you (for example, when printing to a terminal using a
1294filehandle that transparently encodes to UTF-8 you certainly do NOT want
1295to UTF-8 encode your data first and have Perl encode it another time).
1296
1297=item C<utf8> flag enabled
1298
1299If the C<utf8>-flag is enabled, C<encode>/C<decode> will encode all
1300characters using the corresponding UTF-8 multi-byte sequence, and will
1301expect your input strings to be encoded as UTF-8, that is, no "character"
1302of the input string must have any value > 255, as UTF-8 does not allow
1303that.
1304
1305The C<utf8> flag therefore switches between two modes: disabled means you
1306will get a Unicode string in Perl, enabled means you get a UTF-8 encoded
1307octet/binary string in Perl.
1308
1309=item C<latin1> or C<ascii> flags enabled
1310
1311With C<latin1> (or C<ascii>) enabled, C<encode> will escape characters
1312with ordinal values > 255 (> 127 with C<ascii>) and encode the remaining
1313characters as specified by the C<utf8> flag.
1314
1315If C<utf8> is disabled, then the result is also correctly encoded in those
1316character sets (as both are proper subsets of Unicode, meaning that a
1317Unicode string with all character values < 256 is the same thing as a
1318ISO-8859-1 string, and a Unicode string with all character values < 128 is
1319the same thing as an ASCII string in Perl).
1320
1321If C<utf8> is enabled, you still get a correct UTF-8-encoded string,
1322regardless of these flags, just some more characters will be escaped using
1323C<\uXXXX> then before.
1324
1325Note that ISO-8859-1-I<encoded> strings are not compatible with UTF-8
1326encoding, while ASCII-encoded strings are. That is because the ISO-8859-1
1327encoding is NOT a subset of UTF-8 (despite the ISO-8859-1 I<codeset> being
1328a subset of Unicode), while ASCII is.
1329
1330Surprisingly, C<decode> will ignore these flags and so treat all input
1331values as governed by the C<utf8> flag. If it is disabled, this allows you
1332to decode ISO-8859-1- and ASCII-encoded strings, as both strict subsets of
1333Unicode. If it is enabled, you can correctly decode UTF-8 encoded strings.
1334
1335So neither C<latin1> nor C<ascii> are incompatible with the C<utf8> flag -
1336they only govern when the JSON output engine escapes a character or not.
1337
1338The main use for C<latin1> is to relatively efficiently store binary data
1339as JSON, at the expense of breaking compatibility with most JSON decoders.
1340
1341The main use for C<ascii> is to force the output to not contain characters
1342with values > 127, which means you can interpret the resulting string
1343as UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ASCII, KOI8-R or most about any character set and
13448-bit-encoding, and still get the same data structure back. This is useful
1345when your channel for JSON transfer is not 8-bit clean or the encoding
1346might be mangled in between (e.g. in mail), and works because ASCII is a
1347proper subset of most 8-bit and multibyte encodings in use in the world.
1348
1349=back
1350
1351
1352=head2 JSON and ECMAscript
1353
1354JSON syntax is based on how literals are represented in javascript (the
1355not-standardised predecessor of ECMAscript) which is presumably why it is
1356called "JavaScript Object Notation".
1357
1358However, JSON is not a subset (and also not a superset of course) of
1359ECMAscript (the standard) or javascript (whatever browsers actually
1360implement).
1361
1362If you want to use javascript's C<eval> function to "parse" JSON, you
1363might run into parse errors for valid JSON texts, or the resulting data
1364structure might not be queryable:
1365
1366One of the problems is that U+2028 and U+2029 are valid characters inside
1367JSON strings, but are not allowed in ECMAscript string literals, so the
1368following Perl fragment will not output something that can be guaranteed
1369to be parsable by javascript's C<eval>:
1370
1371 use JSON::XS;
1372
1373 print encode_json [chr 0x2028];
1374
1375The right fix for this is to use a proper JSON parser in your javascript
1376programs, and not rely on C<eval> (see for example Douglas Crockford's
1377F<json2.js> parser).
1378
1379If this is not an option, you can, as a stop-gap measure, simply encode to
1380ASCII-only JSON:
1381
1382 use JSON::XS;
1383
1384 print JSON::XS->new->ascii->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
1385
1386Note that this will enlarge the resulting JSON text quite a bit if you
1387have many non-ASCII characters. You might be tempted to run some regexes
1388to only escape U+2028 and U+2029, e.g.:
1389
1390 # DO NOT USE THIS!
1391 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
1392 $json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa8/\\u2028/g; # escape U+2028
1393 $json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa9/\\u2029/g; # escape U+2029
1394 print $json;
1395
1396Note that I<this is a bad idea>: the above only works for U+2028 and
1397U+2029 and thus only for fully ECMAscript-compliant parsers. Many existing
1398javascript implementations, however, have issues with other characters as
1399well - using C<eval> naively simply I<will> cause problems.
1400
1401Another problem is that some javascript implementations reserve
1402some property names for their own purposes (which probably makes
1403them non-ECMAscript-compliant). For example, Iceweasel reserves the
1404C<__proto__> property name for its own purposes.
1405
1406If that is a problem, you could parse try to filter the resulting JSON
1407output for these property strings, e.g.:
1408
1409 $json =~ s/"__proto__"\s*:/"__proto__renamed":/g;
1410
1411This works because C<__proto__> is not valid outside of strings, so every
1412occurrence of C<"__proto__"\s*:> must be a string used as property name.
1413
1414If you know of other incompatibilities, please let me know.
1415
853 1416
854=head2 JSON and YAML 1417=head2 JSON and YAML
855 1418
856You often hear that JSON is a subset (or a close subset) of YAML. This is, 1419You often hear that JSON is a subset of YAML. This is, however, a mass
857however, a mass hysteria and very far from the truth. In general, there is 1420hysteria(*) and very far from the truth (as of the time of this writing),
858no way to configure JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML. 1421so let me state it clearly: I<in general, there is no way to configure
1422JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML> that works in all
1423cases.
859 1424
860If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this 1425If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this
861algorithm (subject to change in future versions): 1426algorithm (subject to change in future versions):
862 1427
863 my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1); 1428 my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);
864 my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n"; 1429 my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";
865 1430
866This will usually generate JSON texts that also parse as valid 1431This will I<usually> generate JSON texts that also parse as valid
867YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key 1432YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key
868lengths that JSON doesn't have, so you should make sure that your hash 1433lengths that JSON doesn't have and also has different and incompatible
1434unicode character escape syntax, so you should make sure that your hash
869keys are noticably shorter than the 1024 characters YAML allows. 1435keys are noticeably shorter than the 1024 "stream characters" YAML allows
1436and that you do not have characters with codepoint values outside the
1437Unicode BMP (basic multilingual page). YAML also does not allow C<\/>
1438sequences in strings (which JSON::XS does not I<currently> generate, but
1439other JSON generators might).
870 1440
871There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of. In general 1441There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of (or the YAML
1442specification has been changed yet again - it does so quite often). In
872you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice versa, 1443general you should not try to generate YAML with a JSON generator or vice
873or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are high 1444versa, or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are
874that you will run into severe interoperability problems. 1445high that you will run into severe interoperability problems when you
1446least expect it.
1447
1448=over
1449
1450=item (*)
1451
1452I have been pressured multiple times by Brian Ingerson (one of the
1453authors of the YAML specification) to remove this paragraph, despite him
1454acknowledging that the actual incompatibilities exist. As I was personally
1455bitten by this "JSON is YAML" lie, I refused and said I will continue to
1456educate people about these issues, so others do not run into the same
1457problem again and again. After this, Brian called me a (quote)I<complete
1458and worthless idiot>(unquote).
1459
1460In my opinion, instead of pressuring and insulting people who actually
1461clarify issues with YAML and the wrong statements of some of its
1462proponents, I would kindly suggest reading the JSON spec (which is not
1463that difficult or long) and finally make YAML compatible to it, and
1464educating users about the changes, instead of spreading lies about the
1465real compatibility for many I<years> and trying to silence people who
1466point out that it isn't true.
1467
1468Addendum/2009: the YAML 1.2 spec is still incompatible with JSON, even
1469though the incompatibilities have been documented (and are known to Brian)
1470for many years and the spec makes explicit claims that YAML is a superset
1471of JSON. It would be so easy to fix, but apparently, bullying people and
1472corrupting userdata is so much easier.
1473
1474=back
875 1475
876 1476
877=head2 SPEED 1477=head2 SPEED
878 1478
879It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following 1479It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following
880tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program 1480tables. They have been generated with the help of the C<eg/bench> program
881in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own 1481in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own
882system. 1482system.
883 1483
884First comes a comparison between various modules using a very short 1484First comes a comparison between various modules using
885single-line JSON string: 1485a very short single-line JSON string (also available at
1486L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/short.json>).
886 1487
887 {"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1", "we were just talking"], \ 1488 {"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1",
888 "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7, true, false]} 1489 "we were just talking"], "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7,
1490 1, 0]}
889 1491
890It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses 1492It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses
891the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface 1493the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface
892with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables 1494with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables
893shrink). Higher is better: 1495shrink. JSON::DWIW/DS uses the deserialise function, while JSON::DWIW::FJ
1496uses the from_json method). Higher is better:
894 1497
895 Storable | 15779.925 | 14169.946 |
896 -----------+------------+------------+
897 module | encode | decode | 1498 module | encode | decode |
898 -----------|------------|------------| 1499 --------------|------------|------------|
899 JSON | 4990.842 | 4088.813 | 1500 JSON::DWIW/DS | 86302.551 | 102300.098 |
900 JSON::DWIW | 51653.990 | 71575.154 | 1501 JSON::DWIW/FJ | 86302.551 | 75983.768 |
901 JSON::PC | 65948.176 | 74631.744 | 1502 JSON::PP | 15827.562 | 6638.658 |
902 JSON::PP | 8931.652 | 3817.168 | 1503 JSON::Syck | 63358.066 | 47662.545 |
903 JSON::Syck | 24877.248 | 27776.848 | 1504 JSON::XS | 511500.488 | 511500.488 |
904 JSON::XS | 388361.481 | 227951.304 | 1505 JSON::XS/2 | 291271.111 | 388361.481 |
905 JSON::XS/2 | 227951.304 | 218453.333 | 1506 JSON::XS/3 | 361577.931 | 361577.931 |
906 JSON::XS/3 | 338250.323 | 218453.333 | 1507 Storable | 66788.280 | 265462.278 |
907 Storable | 16500.016 | 135300.129 |
908 -----------+------------+------------+ 1508 --------------+------------+------------+
909 1509
910That is, JSON::XS is about five times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding, 1510That is, JSON::XS is almost six times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding,
911about three times faster on decoding, and over fourty times faster 1511about five times faster on decoding, and over thirty to seventy times
912than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting. It also compares 1512faster than JSON's pure perl implementation. It also compares favourably
913favourably to Storable for small amounts of data. 1513to Storable for small amounts of data.
914 1514
915Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals 1515Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals
916search API (http://nanoref.com/yahooapis/mgPdGg): 1516search API (L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/long.json>).
917 1517
918 module | encode | decode | 1518 module | encode | decode |
919 -----------|------------|------------| 1519 --------------|------------|------------|
920 JSON | 55.260 | 34.971 | 1520 JSON::DWIW/DS | 1647.927 | 2673.916 |
921 JSON::DWIW | 825.228 | 1082.513 | 1521 JSON::DWIW/FJ | 1630.249 | 2596.128 |
922 JSON::PC | 3571.444 | 2394.829 |
923 JSON::PP | 210.987 | 32.574 | 1522 JSON::PP | 400.640 | 62.311 |
924 JSON::Syck | 552.551 | 787.544 | 1523 JSON::Syck | 1481.040 | 1524.869 |
925 JSON::XS | 5780.463 | 4854.519 | 1524 JSON::XS | 20661.596 | 9541.183 |
926 JSON::XS/2 | 3869.998 | 4798.975 | 1525 JSON::XS/2 | 10683.403 | 9416.938 |
927 JSON::XS/3 | 5862.880 | 4798.975 | 1526 JSON::XS/3 | 20661.596 | 9400.054 |
928 Storable | 4445.002 | 5235.027 | 1527 Storable | 19765.806 | 10000.725 |
929 -----------+------------+------------+ 1528 --------------+------------+------------+
930 1529
931Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly 1530Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly
932decodes faster). 1531decodes a bit faster).
933 1532
934On large strings containing lots of high unicode characters, some modules 1533On large strings containing lots of high Unicode characters, some modules
935(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result 1534(such as JSON::PC) seem to decode faster than JSON::XS, but the result
936will be broken due to missing (or wrong) unicode handling. Others refuse 1535will be broken due to missing (or wrong) Unicode handling. Others refuse
937to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair 1536to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair
938comparison table for that case. 1537comparison table for that case.
939 1538
940 1539
941=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS 1540=head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
947any buffer overflows. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am 1546any buffer overflows. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am
948trying hard on making that true, but you never know. 1547trying hard on making that true, but you never know.
949 1548
950Second, you need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should 1549Second, you need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should
951limit the size of JSON texts you accept, or make sure then when your 1550limit the size of JSON texts you accept, or make sure then when your
952resources run out, thats just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that 1551resources run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that
953can crash safely). The size of a JSON text in octets or characters is 1552can crash safely). The size of a JSON text in octets or characters is
954usually a good indication of the size of the resources required to decode 1553usually a good indication of the size of the resources required to decode
955it into a Perl structure. While JSON::XS can check the size of the JSON 1554it into a Perl structure. While JSON::XS can check the size of the JSON
956text, it might be too late when you already have it in memory, so you 1555text, it might be too late when you already have it in memory, so you
957might want to check the size before you accept the string. 1556might want to check the size before you accept the string.
958 1557
959Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and 1558Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and
960arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64 1559arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64
961machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but 1560machine with 8MB of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but
962only 14k nested JSON objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak 1561only 14k nested JSON objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak
963to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. to be 1562to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be
964conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process 1563conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process
965has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the 1564has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the
966C<max_depth> method. 1565C<max_depth> method.
967 1566
968And last but least, something else could bomb you that I forgot to think 1567Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
969of. In that case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, 1568case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
970though... 1569
1570Also keep in mind that JSON::XS might leak contents of your Perl data
1571structures in its error messages, so when you serialise sensitive
1572information you might want to make sure that exceptions thrown by JSON::XS
1573will not end up in front of untrusted eyes.
971 1574
972If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption 1575If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption
973by javascript scripts in a browser you should have a look at 1576by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at
974L<http://jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security> to see wether 1577L<http://blog.archive.jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security/> to
975you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really are browser 1578see whether you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really
976design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with it, as major 1579are browser design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with
977browser developers care only for features, not about doing security 1580it, as major browser developers care only for features, not about getting
978right). 1581security right).
979 1582
980 1583
1584=head2 "OLD" VS. "NEW" JSON (RFC4627 VS. RFC7159)
1585
1586JSON originally required JSON texts to represent an array or object -
1587scalar values were explicitly not allowed. This has changed, and versions
1588of JSON::XS beginning with C<4.0> reflect this by allowing scalar values
1589by default.
1590
1591One reason why one might not want this is that this removes a fundamental
1592property of JSON texts, namely that they are self-delimited and
1593self-contained, or in other words, you could take any number of "old"
1594JSON texts and paste them together, and the result would be unambiguously
1595parseable:
1596
1597 [1,3]{"k":5}[][null] # four JSON texts, without doubt
1598
1599By allowing scalars, this property is lost: in the following example, is
1600this one JSON text (the number 12) or two JSON texts (the numbers 1 and
16012):
1602
1603 12 # could be 12, or 1 and 2
1604
1605Another lost property of "old" JSON is that no lookahead is required to
1606know the end of a JSON text, i.e. the JSON text definitely ended at the
1607last C<]> or C<}> character, there was no need to read extra characters.
1608
1609For example, a viable network protocol with "old" JSON was to simply
1610exchange JSON texts without delimiter. For "new" JSON, you have to use a
1611suitable delimiter (such as a newline) after every JSON text or ensure you
1612never encode/decode scalar values.
1613
1614Most protocols do work by only transferring arrays or objects, and the
1615easiest way to avoid problems with the "new" JSON definition is to
1616explicitly disallow scalar values in your encoder and decoder:
1617
1618 $json_coder = JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref (0)
1619
1620This is a somewhat unhappy situation, and the blame can fully be put on
1621JSON's inmventor, Douglas Crockford, who unilaterally changed the format
1622in 2006 without consulting the IETF, forcing the IETF to either fork the
1623format or go with it (as I was told, the IETF wasn't amused).
1624
1625
1626=head1 RELATIONSHIP WITH I-JSON
1627
1628JSON is a somewhat sloppily-defined format - it carries around obvious
1629Javascript baggage, such as not really defining number range, probably
1630because Javascript only has one type of numbers: IEEE 64 bit floats
1631("binary64").
1632
1633For this reaosn, RFC7493 defines "Internet JSON", which is a restricted
1634subset of JSON that is supposedly more interoperable on the internet.
1635
1636While C<JSON::XS> does not offer specific support for I-JSON, it of course
1637accepts valid I-JSON and by default implements some of the limitations
1638of I-JSON, such as parsing numbers as perl numbers, which are usually a
1639superset of binary64 numbers.
1640
1641To generate I-JSON, follow these rules:
1642
1643=over
1644
1645=item * always generate UTF-8
1646
1647I-JSON must be encoded in UTF-8, the default for C<encode_json>.
1648
1649=item * numbers should be within IEEE 754 binary64 range
1650
1651Basically all existing perl installations use binary64 to represent
1652floating point numbers, so all you need to do is to avoid large integers.
1653
1654=item * objects must not have duplicate keys
1655
1656This is trivially done, as C<JSON::XS> does not allow duplicate keys.
1657
1658=item * do not generate scalar JSON texts, use C<< ->allow_nonref (0) >>
1659
1660I-JSON strongly requests you to only encode arrays and objects into JSON.
1661
1662=item * times should be strings in ISO 8601 format
1663
1664There are a myriad of modules on CPAN dealing with ISO 8601 - search for
1665C<ISO8601> on CPAN and use one.
1666
1667=item * encode binary data as base64
1668
1669While it's tempting to just dump binary data as a string (and let
1670C<JSON::XS> do the escaping), for I-JSON, it's I<recommended> to encode
1671binary data as base64.
1672
1673=back
1674
1675There are some other considerations - read RFC7493 for the details if
1676interested.
1677
1678
1679=head1 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER MODULES
1680
1681C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> module to provide boolean
1682constants. That means that the JSON true and false values will be
1683comaptible to true and false values of other modules that do the same,
1684such as L<JSON::PP> and L<CBOR::XS>.
1685
1686
1687=head1 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER JSON DECODERS
1688
1689As long as you only serialise data that can be directly expressed in JSON,
1690C<JSON::XS> is incapable of generating invalid JSON output (modulo bugs,
1691but C<JSON::XS> has found more bugs in the official JSON testsuite (1)
1692than the official JSON testsuite has found in C<JSON::XS> (0)).
1693
1694When you have trouble decoding JSON generated by this module using other
1695decoders, then it is very likely that you have an encoding mismatch or the
1696other decoder is broken.
1697
1698When decoding, C<JSON::XS> is strict by default and will likely catch all
1699errors. There are currently two settings that change this: C<relaxed>
1700makes C<JSON::XS> accept (but not generate) some non-standard extensions,
1701and C<allow_tags> will allow you to encode and decode Perl objects, at the
1702cost of not outputting valid JSON anymore.
1703
1704=head2 TAGGED VALUE SYNTAX AND STANDARD JSON EN/DECODERS
1705
1706When you use C<allow_tags> to use the extended (and also nonstandard and
1707invalid) JSON syntax for serialised objects, and you still want to decode
1708the generated When you want to serialise objects, you can run a regex
1709to replace the tagged syntax by standard JSON arrays (it only works for
1710"normal" package names without comma, newlines or single colons). First,
1711the readable Perl version:
1712
1713 # if your FREEZE methods return no values, you need this replace first:
1714 $json =~ s/\( \s* (" (?: [^\\":,]+|\\.|::)* ") \s* \) \s* \[\s*\]/[$1]/gx;
1715
1716 # this works for non-empty constructor arg lists:
1717 $json =~ s/\( \s* (" (?: [^\\":,]+|\\.|::)* ") \s* \) \s* \[/[$1,/gx;
1718
1719And here is a less readable version that is easy to adapt to other
1720languages:
1721
1722 $json =~ s/\(\s*("([^\\":,]+|\\.|::)*")\s*\)\s*\[/[$1,/g;
1723
1724Here is an ECMAScript version (same regex):
1725
1726 json = json.replace (/\(\s*("([^\\":,]+|\\.|::)*")\s*\)\s*\[/g, "[$1,");
1727
1728Since this syntax converts to standard JSON arrays, it might be hard to
1729distinguish serialised objects from normal arrays. You can prepend a
1730"magic number" as first array element to reduce chances of a collision:
1731
1732 $json =~ s/\(\s*("([^\\":,]+|\\.|::)*")\s*\)\s*\[/["XU1peReLzT4ggEllLanBYq4G9VzliwKF",$1,/g;
1733
1734And after decoding the JSON text, you could walk the data
1735structure looking for arrays with a first element of
1736C<XU1peReLzT4ggEllLanBYq4G9VzliwKF>.
1737
1738The same approach can be used to create the tagged format with another
1739encoder. First, you create an array with the magic string as first member,
1740the classname as second, and constructor arguments last, encode it as part
1741of your JSON structure, and then:
1742
1743 $json =~ s/\[\s*"XU1peReLzT4ggEllLanBYq4G9VzliwKF"\s*,\s*("([^\\":,]+|\\.|::)*")\s*,/($1)[/g;
1744
1745Again, this has some limitations - the magic string must not be encoded
1746with character escapes, and the constructor arguments must be non-empty.
1747
1748
981=head1 THREADS 1749=head1 (I-)THREADS
982 1750
983This module is I<not> guarenteed to be thread safe and there are no 1751This module is I<not> guaranteed to be ithread (or MULTIPLICITY-) safe
984plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the 1752and there are no plans to change this. Note that perl's builtin so-called
985horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated 1753threads/ithreads are officially deprecated and should not be used.
986process simulations - use fork, its I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
987 1754
988(It might actually work, but you ahve ben warned). 1755
1756=head1 THE PERILS OF SETLOCALE
1757
1758Sometimes people avoid the Perl locale support and directly call the
1759system's setlocale function with C<LC_ALL>.
1760
1761This breaks both perl and modules such as JSON::XS, as stringification of
1762numbers no longer works correctly (e.g. C<$x = 0.1; print "$x"+1> might
1763print C<1>, and JSON::XS might output illegal JSON as JSON::XS relies on
1764perl to stringify numbers).
1765
1766The solution is simple: don't call C<setlocale>, or use it for only those
1767categories you need, such as C<LC_MESSAGES> or C<LC_CTYPE>.
1768
1769If you need C<LC_NUMERIC>, you should enable it only around the code that
1770actually needs it (avoiding stringification of numbers), and restore it
1771afterwards.
1772
1773
1774=head1 SOME HISTORY
1775
1776At the time this module was created there already were a number of JSON
1777modules available on CPAN, so what was the reason to write yet another
1778JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON modules, none of them
1779correctly handled all corner cases, and in most cases their maintainers
1780are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug reports for other
1781reasons.
1782
1783Beginning with version 2.0 of the JSON module, when both JSON and
1784JSON::XS are installed, then JSON will fall back on JSON::XS (this can be
1785overridden) with no overhead due to emulation (by inheriting constructor
1786and methods). If JSON::XS is not available, it will fall back to the
1787compatible JSON::PP module as backend, so using JSON instead of JSON::XS
1788gives you a portable JSON API that can be fast when you need it and
1789doesn't require a C compiler when that is a problem.
1790
1791Somewhere around version 3, this module was forked into
1792C<Cpanel::JSON::XS>, because its maintainer had serious trouble
1793understanding JSON and insisted on a fork with many bugs "fixed" that
1794weren't actually bugs, while spreading FUD about this module without
1795actually giving any details on his accusations. You be the judge, but
1796in my personal opinion, if you want quality, you will stay away from
1797dangerous forks like that.
989 1798
990 1799
991=head1 BUGS 1800=head1 BUGS
992 1801
993While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does 1802While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
994not mean its bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. It is 1803not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
995still relatively early in its development. If you keep reporting bugs they 1804keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
996will be fixed swiftly, though.
997 1805
998Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting 1806Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
999service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason. 1807service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
1000 1808
1001=cut 1809=cut
1002 1810
1003our $true = do { bless \(my $dummy = 1), "JSON::XS::Boolean" }; 1811BEGIN {
1004our $false = do { bless \(my $dummy = 0), "JSON::XS::Boolean" }; 1812 *true = \$Types::Serialiser::true;
1813 *true = \&Types::Serialiser::true;
1814 *false = \$Types::Serialiser::false;
1815 *false = \&Types::Serialiser::false;
1816 *is_bool = \&Types::Serialiser::is_bool;
1005 1817
1006sub true() { $true } 1818 *JSON::XS::Boolean:: = *Types::Serialiser::Boolean::;
1007sub false() { $false }
1008
1009sub is_bool($) {
1010 UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::XS::Boolean"
1011# or UNIVERSAL::isa $_[0], "JSON::Literal"
1012} 1819}
1013 1820
1014XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION; 1821XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION;
1015 1822
1016package JSON::XS::Boolean; 1823=head1 SEE ALSO
1017 1824
1018use overload 1825The F<json_xs> command line utility for quick experiments.
1019 "0+" => sub { ${$_[0]} },
1020 "++" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} + 1 },
1021 "--" => sub { $_[0] = ${$_[0]} - 1 },
1022 fallback => 1;
1023
10241;
1025 1826
1026=head1 AUTHOR 1827=head1 AUTHOR
1027 1828
1028 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de> 1829 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1029 http://home.schmorp.de/ 1830 http://home.schmorp.de/
1030 1831
1031=cut 1832=cut
1032 1833
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