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Revision 1.70 by root, Tue Nov 13 22:59:08 2007 UTC vs.
Revision 1.148 by root, Tue Oct 29 00:19:45 2013 UTC

1=head1 NAME 1=head1 NAME
2 2
3JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast 3JSON::XS - JSON serialising/deserialising, done correctly and fast
4
5=encoding utf-8
4 6
5JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ 7JSON::XS - 正しくて高速な JSON シリアライザ/デシリアライザ
6 (http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html) 8 (http://fleur.hio.jp/perldoc/mix/lib/JSON/XS.html)
7 9
8=head1 SYNOPSIS 10=head1 SYNOPSIS
10 use JSON::XS; 12 use JSON::XS;
11 13
12 # exported functions, they croak on error 14 # exported functions, they croak on error
13 # and expect/generate UTF-8 15 # and expect/generate UTF-8
14 16
15 $utf8_encoded_json_text = to_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref; 17 $utf8_encoded_json_text = encode_json $perl_hash_or_arrayref;
16 $perl_hash_or_arrayref = from_json $utf8_encoded_json_text; 18 $perl_hash_or_arrayref = decode_json $utf8_encoded_json_text;
17 19
18 # OO-interface 20 # OO-interface
19 21
20 $coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref; 22 $coder = JSON::XS->new->ascii->pretty->allow_nonref;
21 $pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar); 23 $pretty_printed_unencoded = $coder->encode ($perl_scalar);
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.
39
40Beginning with version 2.0 of the JSON module, when both JSON and
41JSON::XS are installed, then JSON will fall back on JSON::XS (this can be
42overridden) with no overhead due to emulation (by inheriting constructor
43and methods). If JSON::XS is not available, it will fall back to the
44compatible JSON::PP module as backend, so using JSON instead of JSON::XS
45gives you a portable JSON API that can be fast when you need and doesn't
46require a C compiler when that is a problem.
29 47
30As this is the n-th-something JSON module on CPAN, what was the reason 48As this is the n-th-something JSON module on CPAN, what was the reason
31to write yet another JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON 49to write yet another JSON module? While it seems there are many JSON
32modules, none of them correctly handle all corner cases, and in most cases 50modules, none of them correctly handle all corner cases, and in most cases
33their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug 51their maintainers are unresponsive, gone missing, or not listening to bug
34reports for other reasons. 52reports for other reasons.
35 53
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 54See MAPPING, below, on how JSON::XS maps perl values to JSON values and
39vice versa. 55vice versa.
40 56
41=head2 FEATURES 57=head2 FEATURES
42 58
43=over 4 59=over 4
44 60
45=item * correct Unicode handling 61=item * correct Unicode handling
46 62
47This module knows how to handle Unicode, and even documents how and when 63This module knows how to handle Unicode, documents how and when it does
48it does so. 64so, and even documents what "correct" means.
49 65
50=item * round-trip integrity 66=item * round-trip integrity
51 67
52When you serialise a perl data structure using only datatypes supported 68When you serialise a perl data structure using only data types supported
53by JSON, the deserialised data structure is identical on the Perl level. 69by 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 70level. (e.g. the string "2.0" doesn't suddenly become "2" just because
55like a number). 71it looks like a number). There I<are> minor exceptions to this, read the
72MAPPING section below to learn about those.
56 73
57=item * strict checking of JSON correctness 74=item * strict checking of JSON correctness
58 75
59There is no guessing, no generating of illegal JSON texts by default, 76There 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 77and only JSON is accepted as input by default (the latter is a security
61feature). 78feature).
62 79
63=item * fast 80=item * fast
64 81
65Compared to other JSON modules, this module compares favourably in terms 82Compared to other JSON modules and other serialisers such as Storable,
66of speed, too. 83this module usually compares favourably in terms of speed, too.
67 84
68=item * simple to use 85=item * simple to use
69 86
70This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an OO 87This module has both a simple functional interface as well as an object
71interface. 88oriented interface.
72 89
73=item * reasonably versatile output formats 90=item * reasonably versatile output formats
74 91
75You can choose between the most compact guaranteed single-line format 92You can choose between the most compact guaranteed-single-line format
76possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ascii format 93possible (nice for simple line-based protocols), a pure-ASCII format
77(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole 94(for when your transport is not 8-bit clean, still supports the whole
78Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that 95Unicode range), or a pretty-printed format (for when you want to read that
79stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like. 96stuff). Or you can combine those features in whatever way you like.
80 97
81=back 98=back
82 99
83=cut 100=cut
84 101
85package JSON::XS; 102package JSON::XS;
86 103
87use strict; 104use common::sense;
88 105
89our $VERSION = '1.53'; 106our $VERSION = '3.0';
90our @ISA = qw(Exporter); 107our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
91 108
92our @EXPORT = qw(to_json from_json); 109our @EXPORT = qw(encode_json decode_json);
93 110
94use Exporter; 111use Exporter;
95use XSLoader; 112use XSLoader;
96 113
114use Types::Serialiser ();
115
97=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE 116=head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
98 117
99The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are 118The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are
100exported by default: 119exported by default:
101 120
102=over 4 121=over 4
103 122
104=item $json_text = to_json $perl_scalar 123=item $json_text = encode_json $perl_scalar
105 124
106Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string 125Converts the given Perl data structure to a UTF-8 encoded, binary string
107(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error. 126(that is, the string contains octets only). Croaks on error.
108 127
109This function call is functionally identical to: 128This function call is functionally identical to:
110 129
111 $json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar) 130 $json_text = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ($perl_scalar)
112 131
113except being faster. 132Except being faster.
114 133
115=item $perl_scalar = from_json $json_text 134=item $perl_scalar = decode_json $json_text
116 135
117The opposite of C<to_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries 136The opposite of C<encode_json>: expects an UTF-8 (binary) string and tries
118to parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting 137to parse that as an UTF-8 encoded JSON text, returning the resulting
119reference. Croaks on error. 138reference. Croaks on error.
120 139
121This function call is functionally identical to: 140This function call is functionally identical to:
122 141
123 $perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text) 142 $perl_scalar = JSON::XS->new->utf8->decode ($json_text)
124 143
125except being faster. 144Except 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.
135 145
136=back 146=back
137 147
138 148
139=head1 A FEW NOTES ON UNICODE AND PERL 149=head1 A FEW NOTES ON UNICODE AND PERL
148This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a 158This enables you to store Unicode characters as single characters in a
149Perl string - very natural. 159Perl string - very natural.
150 160
151=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings. 161=item 2. Perl does I<not> associate an encoding with your strings.
152 162
153Unless you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or printing 163... until you force it to, e.g. when matching it against a regex, or
154the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your string as 164printing the scalar to a file, in which case Perl either interprets your
155locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending on various 165string as locale-encoded text, octets/binary, or as Unicode, depending
156settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your data, it is 166on various settings. In no case is an encoding stored together with your
157I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical metadata. 167data, it is I<use> that decides encoding, not any magical meta data.
158 168
159=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the 169=item 3. The internal utf-8 flag has no meaning with regards to the
160encoding of your string. 170encoding of your string.
161 171
162Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in 172Just ignore that flag unless you debug a Perl bug, a module written in
168 178
169If you didn't know about that flag, just the better, pretend it doesn't 179If you didn't know about that flag, just the better, pretend it doesn't
170exist. 180exist.
171 181
172=item 4. A "Unicode String" is simply a string where each character can be 182=item 4. A "Unicode String" is simply a string where each character can be
173validly interpreted as a Unicode codepoint. 183validly interpreted as a Unicode code point.
174 184
175If you have UTF-8 encoded data, it is no longer a Unicode string, but a 185If you have UTF-8 encoded data, it is no longer a Unicode string, but a
176Unicode string encoded in UTF-8, giving you a binary string. 186Unicode string encoded in UTF-8, giving you a binary string.
177 187
178=item 5. A string containing "high" (> 255) character values is I<not> a UTF-8 string. 188=item 5. A string containing "high" (> 255) character values is I<not> a UTF-8 string.
201 211
202 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]}) 212 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after->encode ({a => [1,2]})
203 => {"a": [1, 2]} 213 => {"a": [1, 2]}
204 214
205=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable]) 215=item $json = $json->ascii ([$enable])
216
217=item $enabled = $json->get_ascii
206 218
207If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not 219If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
208generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any 220generate characters outside the code range C<0..127> (which is ASCII). Any
209Unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a 221Unicode characters outside that range will be escaped using either a
210single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence, 222single \uXXXX (BMP characters) or a double \uHHHH\uLLLLL escape sequence,
214 226
215If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode 227If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
216characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results 228characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. This results
217in a faster and more compact format. 229in a faster and more compact format.
218 230
231See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
232document.
233
219The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be 234The main use for this flag is to produce JSON texts that can be
220transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not 235transmitted over a 7-bit channel, as the encoded JSON texts will not
221contain any 8 bit characters. 236contain any 8 bit characters.
222 237
223 JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401]) 238 JSON::XS->new->ascii (1)->encode ([chr 0x10401])
224 => ["\ud801\udc01"] 239 => ["\ud801\udc01"]
225 240
226=item $json = $json->latin1 ([$enable]) 241=item $json = $json->latin1 ([$enable])
242
243=item $enabled = $json->get_latin1
227 244
228If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode 245If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
229the resulting JSON text as latin1 (or iso-8859-1), escaping any characters 246the resulting JSON text as latin1 (or iso-8859-1), escaping any characters
230outside the code range C<0..255>. The resulting string can be treated as a 247outside the code range C<0..255>. The resulting string can be treated as a
231latin1-encoded JSON text or a native Unicode string. The C<decode> method 248latin1-encoded JSON text or a native Unicode string. The C<decode> method
232will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default 249will not be affected in any way by this flag, as C<decode> by default
233expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1. 250expects Unicode, which is a strict superset of latin1.
234 251
235If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode 252If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not escape Unicode
236characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags. 253characters unless required by the JSON syntax or other flags.
254
255See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
256document.
237 257
238The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON 258The main use for this flag is efficiently encoding binary data as JSON
239text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded 259text, as most octets will not be escaped, resulting in a smaller encoded
240size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded 260size. The disadvantage is that the resulting JSON text is encoded
241in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and 261in latin1 (and must correctly be treated as such when storing and
246 JSON::XS->new->latin1->encode (["\x{89}\x{abc}"] 266 JSON::XS->new->latin1->encode (["\x{89}\x{abc}"]
247 => ["\x{89}\\u0abc"] # (perl syntax, U+abc escaped, U+89 not) 267 => ["\x{89}\\u0abc"] # (perl syntax, U+abc escaped, U+89 not)
248 268
249=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable]) 269=item $json = $json->utf8 ([$enable])
250 270
271=item $enabled = $json->get_utf8
272
251If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode 273If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will encode
252the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the 274the JSON result into UTF-8, as required by many protocols, while the
253C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please 275C<decode> method expects to be handled an UTF-8-encoded string. Please
254note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the 276note that UTF-8-encoded strings do not contain any characters outside the
255range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future 277range C<0..255>, they are thus useful for bytewise/binary I/O. In future
258 280
259If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON 281If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will return the JSON
260string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a 282string as a (non-encoded) Unicode string, while C<decode> expects thus a
261Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs 283Unicode string. Any decoding or encoding (e.g. to UTF-8 or UTF-16) needs
262to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module. 284to be done yourself, e.g. using the Encode module.
285
286See also the section I<ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES> later in this
287document.
263 288
264Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON: 289Example, output UTF-16BE-encoded JSON:
265 290
266 use Encode; 291 use Encode;
267 $jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object); 292 $jsontext = encode "UTF-16BE", JSON::XS->new->encode ($object);
288 ] 313 ]
289 } 314 }
290 315
291=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable]) 316=item $json = $json->indent ([$enable])
292 317
318=item $enabled = $json->get_indent
319
293If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline 320If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will use a multiline
294format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair 321format as output, putting every array member or object/hash key-value pair
295into its own line, indenting them properly. 322into its own line, indenting them properly.
296 323
297If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the 324If C<$enable> is false, no newlines or indenting will be produced, and the
299 326
300This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts. 327This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
301 328
302=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable]) 329=item $json = $json->space_before ([$enable])
303 330
331=item $enabled = $json->get_space_before
332
304If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra 333If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra
305optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects. 334optional space before the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects.
306 335
307If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra 336If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will not add any extra
308space at those places. 337space at those places.
313Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled: 342Example, space_before enabled, space_after and indent disabled:
314 343
315 {"key" :"value"} 344 {"key" :"value"}
316 345
317=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable]) 346=item $json = $json->space_after ([$enable])
347
348=item $enabled = $json->get_space_after
318 349
319If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will add an extra 350If 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 351optional space after the C<:> separating keys from values in JSON objects
321and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array 352and extra whitespace after the C<,> separating key-value pairs and array
322members. 353members.
329Example, space_before and indent disabled, space_after enabled: 360Example, space_before and indent disabled, space_after enabled:
330 361
331 {"key": "value"} 362 {"key": "value"}
332 363
333=item $json = $json->relaxed ([$enable]) 364=item $json = $json->relaxed ([$enable])
365
366=item $enabled = $json->get_relaxed
334 367
335If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will accept some 368If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will accept some
336extensions to normal JSON syntax (see below). C<encode> will not be 369extensions to normal JSON syntax (see below). C<encode> will not be
337affected in anyway. I<Be aware that this option makes you accept invalid 370affected in anyway. 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 371JSON texts as if they were valid!>. I suggest only to use this option to
375 408
376=back 409=back
377 410
378=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable]) 411=item $json = $json->canonical ([$enable])
379 412
413=item $enabled = $json->get_canonical
414
380If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects 415If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will output JSON objects
381by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead. 416by sorting their keys. This is adding a comparatively high overhead.
382 417
383If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value 418If C<$enable> is false, then the C<encode> method will output key-value
384pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs 419pairs in the order Perl stores them (which will likely change between runs
385of the same script). 420of the same script, and can change even within the same run from 5.18
421onwards).
386 422
387This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as 423This option is useful if you want the same data structure to be encoded as
388the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled, 424the same JSON text (given the same overall settings). If it is disabled,
389the same hash might be encoded differently even if contains the same data, 425the same hash might be encoded differently even if contains the same data,
390as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl. 426as key-value pairs have no inherent ordering in Perl.
391 427
392This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts. 428This setting has no effect when decoding JSON texts.
393 429
430This setting has currently no effect on tied hashes.
431
394=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable]) 432=item $json = $json->allow_nonref ([$enable])
433
434=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_nonref
395 435
396If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a 436If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method can convert a
397non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value, 437non-reference into its corresponding string, number or null JSON value,
398which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON 438which is an extension to RFC4627. Likewise, C<decode> will accept those JSON
399values instead of croaking. 439values instead of croaking.
407resulting in an invalid JSON text: 447resulting in an invalid JSON text:
408 448
409 JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!") 449 JSON::XS->new->allow_nonref->encode ("Hello, World!")
410 => "Hello, World!" 450 => "Hello, World!"
411 451
452=item $json = $json->allow_unknown ([$enable])
453
454=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_unknown
455
456If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
457exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in JSON (for
458example, filehandles) but instead will encode a JSON C<null> value. Note
459that blessed objects are not included here and are handled separately by
460c<allow_nonref>.
461
462If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
463exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as JSON.
464
465This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
466leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
467
412=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable]) 468=item $json = $json->allow_blessed ([$enable])
413 469
470=item $enabled = $json->get_allow_blessed
471
472See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
473
414If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not 474If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then the C<encode> method will not
415barf when it encounters a blessed reference. Instead, the value of the 475barf when it encounters a blessed reference that it cannot convert
416B<convert_blessed> option will decide whether C<null> (C<convert_blessed> 476otherwise. Instead, a JSON C<null> value is encoded instead of the object.
417disabled or no C<to_json> method found) or a representation of the
418object (C<convert_blessed> enabled and C<to_json> method found) is being
419encoded. Has no effect on C<decode>.
420 477
421If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an 478If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
422exception when it encounters a blessed object. 479exception when it encounters a blessed object that it cannot convert
480otherwise.
481
482This setting has no effect on C<decode>.
423 483
424=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable]) 484=item $json = $json->convert_blessed ([$enable])
485
486=item $enabled = $json->get_convert_blessed
487
488See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
425 489
426If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a 490If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
427blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method 491blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<TO_JSON> method
428on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context 492on the object's class. If found, it will be called in scalar context and
429and the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object. If no 493the resulting scalar will be encoded instead of the object.
430C<TO_JSON> method is found, the value of C<allow_blessed> will decide what
431to do.
432 494
433The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON> 495The C<TO_JSON> method may safely call die if it wants. If C<TO_JSON>
434returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same 496returns other blessed objects, those will be handled in the same
435way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle 497way. C<TO_JSON> must take care of not causing an endless recursion cycle
436(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other 498(== crash) in this case. The name of C<TO_JSON> was chosen because other
437methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are 499methods called by the Perl core (== not by the user of the object) are
438usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with the C<to_json> 500usually in upper case letters and to avoid collisions with any C<to_json>
439function. 501function or method.
440 502
441This setting does not yet influence C<decode> in any way, but in the 503If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will not consider
442future, global hooks might get installed that influence C<decode> and are 504this type of conversion.
443enabled by this setting.
444 505
445If C<$enable> is false, then the C<allow_blessed> setting will decide what 506This setting has no effect on C<decode>.
446to do when a blessed object is found. 507
508=item $json = $json->allow_tags ([$enable])
509
510=item $enabled = $json->allow_tags
511
512See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
513
514If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode>, upon encountering a
515blessed object, will check for the availability of the C<FREEZE> method on
516the object's class. If found, it will be used to serialise the object into
517a nonstandard tagged JSON value (that JSON decoders cannot decode).
518
519It also causes C<decode> to parse such tagged JSON values and deserialise
520them via a call to the C<THAW> method.
521
522If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will not consider
523this type of conversion, and tagged JSON values will cause a parse error
524in C<decode>, as if tags were not part of the grammar.
447 525
448=item $json = $json->filter_json_object ([$coderef->($hashref)]) 526=item $json = $json->filter_json_object ([$coderef->($hashref)])
449 527
450When C<$coderef> is specified, it will be called from C<decode> each 528When C<$coderef> is specified, it will be called from C<decode> each
451time it decodes a JSON object. The only argument is a reference to the 529time it decodes a JSON object. The only argument is a reference to the
520 598
521 { __widget__ => $self->{id} } 599 { __widget__ => $self->{id} }
522 } 600 }
523 601
524=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable]) 602=item $json = $json->shrink ([$enable])
603
604=item $enabled = $json->get_shrink
525 605
526Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for 606Perl usually over-allocates memory a bit when allocating space for
527strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either 607strings. This flag optionally resizes strings generated by either
528C<encode> or C<decode> to their minimum size possible. This can save 608C<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 609memory when your JSON texts are either very very long or you have many
547strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats 627strings that look like integers or floats into integers or floats
548internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space. 628internally (there is no difference on the Perl level), saving space.
549 629
550=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth]) 630=item $json = $json->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
551 631
632=item $max_depth = $json->get_max_depth
633
552Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding 634Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
553or decoding. If the JSON text or Perl data structure has an equal or 635or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in JSON text or a Perl
554higher nesting level then this limit, then the encoder and decoder will 636data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
555stop and croak at that point. 637point.
556 638
557Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder 639Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
558needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[> 640needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
559characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a 641characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
560given character in a string. 642given character in a string.
561 643
562Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures 644Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
563that the object is only a single hash/object or array. 645that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
564 646
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 647If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
567used, which is rarely useful. 648is rarely useful.
649
650Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
651been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
652crashing.
568 653
569See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful. 654See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
570 655
571=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size]) 656=item $json = $json->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
657
658=item $max_size = $json->get_max_size
572 659
573Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is 660Set the maximum length a JSON text may have (in bytes) where decoding is
574being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode> 661being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
575is called on a string longer then this number of characters it will not 662is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
576attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no 663attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
577effect on C<encode> (yet). 664effect on C<encode> (yet).
578 665
579The argument to C<max_size> will be rounded up to the next B<highest> 666If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
580power of two (so may be more than requested). If no argument is given, the 667C<0> is specified).
581limit check will be deactivated (same as when C<0> is specified).
582 668
583See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful. 669See SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS, below, for more info on why this is useful.
584 670
585=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar) 671=item $json_text = $json->encode ($perl_scalar)
586 672
587Converts the given Perl data structure (a simple scalar or a reference 673Converts the given Perl value or data structure to its JSON
588to a hash or array) to its JSON representation. Simple scalars will be 674representation. 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.
593 675
594=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text) 676=item $perl_scalar = $json->decode ($json_text)
595 677
596The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it, 678The opposite of C<encode>: expects a JSON text and tries to parse it,
597returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error. 679returning 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>.
602 680
603=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text) 681=item ($perl_scalar, $characters) = $json->decode_prefix ($json_text)
604 682
605This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception 683This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
606when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will 684when there is trailing garbage after the first JSON object, it will
607silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed 685silently stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed
608so far. 686so far.
609 687
610This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol 688This is useful if your JSON texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
611(which is not the brightest thing to do in the first place) and you need
612to know where the JSON text ends. 689and you need to know where the JSON text ends.
613 690
614 JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail") 691 JSON::XS->new->decode_prefix ("[1] the tail")
615 => ([], 3) 692 => ([], 3)
616 693
617=back 694=back
695
696
697=head1 INCREMENTAL PARSING
698
699In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
700texts. While this module always has to keep both JSON text and resulting
701Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
702JSON stream incrementally. It does so by accumulating text until it has
703a full JSON object, which it then can decode. This process is similar to
704using C<decode_prefix> to see if a full JSON object is available, but
705is much more efficient (and can be implemented with a minimum of method
706calls).
707
708JSON::XS will only attempt to parse the JSON text once it is sure it
709has enough text to get a decisive result, using a very simple but
710truly incremental parser. This means that it sometimes won't stop as
711early as the full parser, for example, it doesn't detect mismatched
712parentheses. The only thing it guarantees is that it starts decoding as
713soon as a syntactically valid JSON text has been seen. This means you need
714to set resource limits (e.g. C<max_size>) to ensure the parser will stop
715parsing in the presence if syntax errors.
716
717The following methods implement this incremental parser.
718
719=over 4
720
721=item [void, scalar or list context] = $json->incr_parse ([$string])
722
723This is the central parsing function. It can both append new text and
724extract objects from the stream accumulated so far (both of these
725functions are optional).
726
727If C<$string> is given, then this string is appended to the already
728existing JSON fragment stored in the C<$json> object.
729
730After that, if the function is called in void context, it will simply
731return without doing anything further. This can be used to add more text
732in as many chunks as you want.
733
734If the method is called in scalar context, then it will try to extract
735exactly I<one> JSON object. If that is successful, it will return this
736object, otherwise it will return C<undef>. If there is a parse error,
737this method will croak just as C<decode> would do (one can then use
738C<incr_skip> to skip the erroneous part). This is the most common way of
739using the method.
740
741And finally, in list context, it will try to extract as many objects
742from the stream as it can find and return them, or the empty list
743otherwise. For this to work, there must be no separators between the JSON
744objects or arrays, instead they must be concatenated back-to-back. If
745an error occurs, an exception will be raised as in the scalar context
746case. Note that in this case, any previously-parsed JSON texts will be
747lost.
748
749Example: Parse some JSON arrays/objects in a given string and return
750them.
751
752 my @objs = JSON::XS->new->incr_parse ("[5][7][1,2]");
753
754=item $lvalue_string = $json->incr_text
755
756This method returns the currently stored JSON fragment as an lvalue, that
757is, you can manipulate it. This I<only> works when a preceding call to
758C<incr_parse> in I<scalar context> successfully returned an object. Under
759all other circumstances you must not call this function (I mean it.
760although in simple tests it might actually work, it I<will> fail under
761real world conditions). As a special exception, you can also call this
762method before having parsed anything.
763
764This function is useful in two cases: a) finding the trailing text after a
765JSON object or b) parsing multiple JSON objects separated by non-JSON text
766(such as commas).
767
768=item $json->incr_skip
769
770This will reset the state of the incremental parser and will remove
771the parsed text from the input buffer so far. This is useful after
772C<incr_parse> died, in which case the input buffer and incremental parser
773state is left unchanged, to skip the text parsed so far and to reset the
774parse state.
775
776The difference to C<incr_reset> is that only text until the parse error
777occurred is removed.
778
779=item $json->incr_reset
780
781This completely resets the incremental parser, that is, after this call,
782it will be as if the parser had never parsed anything.
783
784This is useful if you want to repeatedly parse JSON objects and want to
785ignore any trailing data, which means you have to reset the parser after
786each successful decode.
787
788=back
789
790=head2 LIMITATIONS
791
792All options that affect decoding are supported, except
793C<allow_nonref>. The reason for this is that it cannot be made to work
794sensibly: JSON objects and arrays are self-delimited, i.e. you can
795concatenate them back to back and still decode them perfectly. This does
796not hold true for JSON numbers, however.
797
798For example, is the string C<1> a single JSON number, or is it simply the
799start of C<12>? Or is C<12> a single JSON number, or the concatenation
800of C<1> and C<2>? In neither case you can tell, and this is why JSON::XS
801takes the conservative route and disallows this case.
802
803=head2 EXAMPLES
804
805Some examples will make all this clearer. First, a simple example that
806works similarly to C<decode_prefix>: We want to decode the JSON object at
807the start of a string and identify the portion after the JSON object:
808
809 my $text = "[1,2,3] hello";
810
811 my $json = new JSON::XS;
812
813 my $obj = $json->incr_parse ($text)
814 or die "expected JSON object or array at beginning of string";
815
816 my $tail = $json->incr_text;
817 # $tail now contains " hello"
818
819Easy, isn't it?
820
821Now for a more complicated example: Imagine a hypothetical protocol where
822you read some requests from a TCP stream, and each request is a JSON
823array, without any separation between them (in fact, it is often useful to
824use newlines as "separators", as these get interpreted as whitespace at
825the start of the JSON text, which makes it possible to test said protocol
826with C<telnet>...).
827
828Here is how you'd do it (it is trivial to write this in an event-based
829manner):
830
831 my $json = new JSON::XS;
832
833 # read some data from the socket
834 while (sysread $socket, my $buf, 4096) {
835
836 # split and decode as many requests as possible
837 for my $request ($json->incr_parse ($buf)) {
838 # act on the $request
839 }
840 }
841
842Another complicated example: Assume you have a string with JSON objects
843or arrays, all separated by (optional) comma characters (e.g. C<[1],[2],
844[3]>). To parse them, we have to skip the commas between the JSON texts,
845and here is where the lvalue-ness of C<incr_text> comes in useful:
846
847 my $text = "[1],[2], [3]";
848 my $json = new JSON::XS;
849
850 # void context, so no parsing done
851 $json->incr_parse ($text);
852
853 # now extract as many objects as possible. note the
854 # use of scalar context so incr_text can be called.
855 while (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
856 # do something with $obj
857
858 # now skip the optional comma
859 $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* , //x;
860 }
861
862Now lets go for a very complex example: Assume that you have a gigantic
863JSON array-of-objects, many gigabytes in size, and you want to parse it,
864but you cannot load it into memory fully (this has actually happened in
865the real world :).
866
867Well, you lost, you have to implement your own JSON parser. But JSON::XS
868can still help you: You implement a (very simple) array parser and let
869JSON decode the array elements, which are all full JSON objects on their
870own (this wouldn't work if the array elements could be JSON numbers, for
871example):
872
873 my $json = new JSON::XS;
874
875 # open the monster
876 open my $fh, "<bigfile.json"
877 or die "bigfile: $!";
878
879 # first parse the initial "["
880 for (;;) {
881 sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
882 or die "read error: $!";
883 $json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
884
885 # Exit the loop once we found and removed(!) the initial "[".
886 # In essence, we are (ab-)using the $json object as a simple scalar
887 # we append data to.
888 last if $json->incr_text =~ s/^ \s* \[ //x;
889 }
890
891 # now we have the skipped the initial "[", so continue
892 # parsing all the elements.
893 for (;;) {
894 # in this loop we read data until we got a single JSON object
895 for (;;) {
896 if (my $obj = $json->incr_parse) {
897 # do something with $obj
898 last;
899 }
900
901 # add more data
902 sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
903 or die "read error: $!";
904 $json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
905 }
906
907 # in this loop we read data until we either found and parsed the
908 # separating "," between elements, or the final "]"
909 for (;;) {
910 # first skip whitespace
911 $json->incr_text =~ s/^\s*//;
912
913 # if we find "]", we are done
914 if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^\]//) {
915 print "finished.\n";
916 exit;
917 }
918
919 # if we find ",", we can continue with the next element
920 if ($json->incr_text =~ s/^,//) {
921 last;
922 }
923
924 # if we find anything else, we have a parse error!
925 if (length $json->incr_text) {
926 die "parse error near ", $json->incr_text;
927 }
928
929 # else add more data
930 sysread $fh, my $buf, 65536
931 or die "read error: $!";
932 $json->incr_parse ($buf); # void context, so no parsing
933 }
934
935This is a complex example, but most of the complexity comes from the fact
936that we are trying to be correct (bear with me if I am wrong, I never ran
937the above example :).
938
618 939
619 940
620=head1 MAPPING 941=head1 MAPPING
621 942
622This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and 943This section describes how JSON::XS maps Perl values to JSON values and
652 973
653A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or 974A JSON number becomes either an integer, numeric (floating point) or
654string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On 975string scalar in perl, depending on its range and any fractional parts. On
655the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all 976the Perl level, there is no difference between those as Perl handles all
656the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and 977the conversion details, but an integer may take slightly less memory and
657might represent more values exactly than (floating point) numbers. 978might represent more values exactly than floating point numbers.
658 979
659If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent 980If the number consists of digits only, JSON::XS will try to represent
660it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as 981it as an integer value. If that fails, it will try to represent it as
661a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of 982a numeric (floating point) value if that is possible without loss of
662precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value. 983precision. Otherwise it will preserve the number as a string value (in
984which case you lose roundtripping ability, as the JSON number will be
985re-encoded to a JSON string).
663 986
664Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be 987Numbers containing a fractional or exponential part will always be
665represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of 988represented as numeric (floating point) values, possibly at a loss of
666precision. 989precision (in which case you might lose perfect roundtripping ability, but
990the JSON number will still be re-encoded as a JSON number).
667 991
668This might create round-tripping problems as numbers might become strings, 992Note that precision is not accuracy - binary floating point values cannot
669but as Perl is typeless there is no other way to do it. 993represent most decimal fractions exactly, and when converting from and to
994floating point, JSON::XS only guarantees precision up to but not including
995the least significant bit.
670 996
671=item true, false 997=item true, false
672 998
673These JSON atoms become C<JSON::XS::true> and C<JSON::XS::false>, 999These JSON atoms become C<Types::Serialiser::true> and
674respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers 1000C<Types::Serialiser::false>, respectively. They are overloaded to act
675C<1> and C<0>. You can check whether a scalar is a JSON boolean by using 1001almost exactly like the numbers C<1> and C<0>. You can check whether
676the C<JSON::XS::is_bool> function. 1002a scalar is a JSON boolean by using the C<Types::Serialiser::is_bool>
1003function (after C<use Types::Serialier>, of course).
677 1004
678=item null 1005=item null
679 1006
680A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl. 1007A JSON null atom becomes C<undef> in Perl.
1008
1009=item shell-style comments (C<< # I<text> >>)
1010
1011As a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax that is enabled by the
1012C<relaxed> setting, shell-style comments are allowed. They can start
1013anywhere outside strings and go till the end of the line.
1014
1015=item tagged values (C<< (I<tag>)I<value> >>).
1016
1017Another nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax, enabled with the
1018C<allow_tags> setting, are tagged values. In this implementation, the
1019I<tag> must be a perl package/class name encoded as a JSON string, and the
1020I<value> must be a JSON array encoding optional constructor arguments.
1021
1022See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION>, below, for details.
681 1023
682=back 1024=back
683 1025
684 1026
685=head2 PERL -> JSON 1027=head2 PERL -> JSON
690 1032
691=over 4 1033=over 4
692 1034
693=item hash references 1035=item hash references
694 1036
695Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent ordering 1037Perl hash references become JSON objects. As there is no inherent
696in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded in a 1038ordering in hash keys (or JSON objects), they will usually be encoded
697pseudo-random order that can change between runs of the same program but 1039in a pseudo-random order. JSON::XS can optionally sort the hash keys
698stays generally the same within a single run of a program. JSON::XS can 1040(determined by the I<canonical> flag), so the same datastructure will
699optionally sort the hash keys (determined by the I<canonical> flag), so 1041serialise to the same JSON text (given same settings and version of
700the same datastructure will serialise to the same JSON text (given same 1042JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead and is only rarely useful,
701settings and version of JSON::XS), but this incurs a runtime overhead 1043e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text against another for equality.
702and is only rarely useful, e.g. when you want to compare some JSON text
703against another for equality.
704 1044
705=item array references 1045=item array references
706 1046
707Perl array references become JSON arrays. 1047Perl array references become JSON arrays.
708 1048
709=item other references 1049=item other references
710 1050
711Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an 1051Other unblessed references are generally not allowed and will cause an
712exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and 1052exception to be thrown, except for references to the integers C<0> and
713C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON. You can 1053C<1>, which get turned into C<false> and C<true> atoms in JSON.
714also use C<JSON::XS::false> and C<JSON::XS::true> to improve readability.
715 1054
1055Since C<JSON::XS> uses the boolean model from L<Types::Serialiser>, you
1056can also C<use Types::Serialiser> and then use C<Types::Serialiser::false>
1057and C<Types::Serialiser::true> to improve readability.
1058
1059 use Types::Serialiser;
716 to_json [\0,JSON::XS::true] # yields [false,true] 1060 encode_json [\0, Types::Serialiser::true] # yields [false,true]
717 1061
718=item JSON::XS::true, JSON::XS::false 1062=item Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::false
719 1063
720These special values become JSON true and JSON false values, 1064These 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. 1065and JSON false values, respectively. You can also use C<\1> and C<\0>
1066directly if you want.
722 1067
723=item blessed objects 1068=item blessed objects
724 1069
725Blessed objects are not allowed. JSON::XS currently tries to encode their 1070Blessed objects are not directly representable in JSON, but C<JSON::XS>
726underlying representation (hash- or arrayref), but this behaviour might 1071allows various ways of handling objects. See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION>,
727change in future versions. 1072below, for details.
728 1073
729=item simple scalars 1074=item simple scalars
730 1075
731Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most 1076Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
732difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as 1077difficult objects to encode: JSON::XS will encode undefined scalars as
733JSON null value, scalars that have last been used in a string context 1078JSON C<null> values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
734before encoding as JSON strings and anything else as number value: 1079before encoding as JSON strings, and anything else as number value:
735 1080
736 # dump as number 1081 # dump as number
737 to_json [2] # yields [2] 1082 encode_json [2] # yields [2]
738 to_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17] 1083 encode_json [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
739 my $value = 5; to_json [$value] # yields [5] 1084 my $value = 5; encode_json [$value] # yields [5]
740 1085
741 # used as string, so dump as string 1086 # used as string, so dump as string
742 print $value; 1087 print $value;
743 to_json [$value] # yields ["5"] 1088 encode_json [$value] # yields ["5"]
744 1089
745 # undef becomes null 1090 # undef becomes null
746 to_json [undef] # yields [null] 1091 encode_json [undef] # yields [null]
747 1092
748You can force the type to be a JSON string by stringifying it: 1093You can force the type to be a JSON string by stringifying it:
749 1094
750 my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number 1095 my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
751 "$x"; # stringified 1096 "$x"; # stringified
757 my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string 1102 my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
758 $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number 1103 $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
759 $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours. 1104 $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
760 1105
761You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me 1106You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
762if you need this capability. 1107if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
1108:).
1109
1110Note that numerical precision has the same meaning as under Perl (so
1111binary to decimal conversion follows the same rules as in Perl, which
1112can differ to other languages). Also, your perl interpreter might expose
1113extensions to the floating point numbers of your platform, such as
1114infinities or NaN's - these cannot be represented in JSON, and it is an
1115error to pass those in.
763 1116
764=back 1117=back
765 1118
1119=head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
766 1120
767=head1 COMPARISON 1121As JSON cannot directly represent Perl objects, you have to choose between
1122a pure JSON representation (without the ability to deserialise the object
1123automatically again), and a nonstandard extension to the JSON syntax,
1124tagged values.
768 1125
769As already mentioned, this module was created because none of the existing 1126=head3 SERIALISATION
770JSON modules could be made to work correctly. First I will describe the 1127
771problems (or pleasures) I encountered with various existing JSON modules, 1128What happens when C<JSON::XS> encounters a Perl object depends on the
772followed by some benchmark values. JSON::XS was designed not to suffer 1129C<allow_blessed>, C<convert_blessed> and C<allow_tags> settings, which are
773from any of these problems or limitations. 1130used in this order:
774 1131
775=over 4 1132=over 4
776 1133
777=item JSON 1.07 1134=item 1. C<allow_tags> is enabled and object has a C<FREEZE> method.
778 1135
779Slow (but very portable, as it is written in pure Perl). 1136In this case, C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> object
1137serialisation protocol to create a tagged JSON value, using a nonstandard
1138extension to the JSON syntax.
780 1139
781Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling (how JSON handles Unicode values is 1140This 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 1141argument being the object to serialise, and the second argument being the
783en-/decoding oneself, but Unicode escapes are not working properly). 1142constant string C<JSON> to distinguish it from other serialisers.
784 1143
785No round-tripping (strings get clobbered if they look like numbers, e.g. 1144The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
786the string C<2.0> will encode to C<2.0> instead of C<"2.0">, and that will 1145more). These values and the paclkage/classname of the object will then be
787decode into the number 2. 1146encoded as a tagged JSON value in the following format:
788 1147
789=item JSON::PC 0.01 1148 ("classname")[FREEZE return values...]
790 1149
791Very fast. 1150For example, the hypothetical C<My::Object> C<FREEZE> method might use the
1151objects C<type> and C<id> members to encode the object:
792 1152
793Undocumented/buggy Unicode handling. 1153 sub My::Object::FREEZE {
1154 my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
794 1155
795No round-tripping. 1156 ($self->{type}, $self->{id})
1157 }
796 1158
797Has problems handling many Perl values (e.g. regex results and other magic 1159=item 2. C<convert_blessed> is enabled and object has a C<TO_JSON> method.
798values will make it croak).
799 1160
800Does not even generate valid JSON (C<{1,2}> gets converted to C<{1:2}> 1161In this case, the C<TO_JSON> method of the object is invoked in scalar
801which is not a valid JSON text. 1162context. It must return a single scalar that can be directly encoded into
1163JSON. This scalar replaces the object in the JSON text.
802 1164
803Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not 1165For example, the following C<TO_JSON> method will convert all L<URI>
804getting fixed). 1166objects to JSON strings when serialised. The fatc that these values
1167originally were L<URI> objects is lost.
805 1168
806=item JSON::Syck 0.21 1169 sub URI::TO_JSON {
1170 my ($uri) = @_;
1171 $uri->as_string
1172 }
807 1173
808Very buggy (often crashes). 1174=item 3. C<allow_blessed> is enabled.
809 1175
810Very inflexible (no human-readable format supported, format pretty much 1176The object will be serialised as a JSON null value.
811undocumented. I need at least a format for easy reading by humans and a
812single-line compact format for use in a protocol, and preferably a way to
813generate ASCII-only JSON texts).
814 1177
815Completely broken (and confusingly documented) Unicode handling (Unicode 1178=item 4. none of the above
816escapes are not working properly, you need to set ImplicitUnicode to
817I<different> values on en- and decoding to get symmetric behaviour).
818 1179
819No round-tripping (simple cases work, but this depends on whether the scalar 1180If none of the settings are enabled or the respective methods are missing,
820value was used in a numeric context or not). 1181C<JSON::XS> throws an exception.
821
822Dumping hashes may skip hash values depending on iterator state.
823
824Unmaintained (maintainer unresponsive for many months, bugs are not
825getting fixed).
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 transferring 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 round-tripping.
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 1182
851=back 1183=back
852 1184
1185=head3 DESERIALISATION
1186
1187For deserialisation there are only two cases to consider: either
1188nonstandard tagging was used, in which case C<allow_tags> decides,
1189or objects cannot be automatically be deserialised, in which
1190case you can use postprocessing or the C<filter_json_object> or
1191C<filter_json_single_key_object> callbacks to get some real objects our of
1192your JSON.
1193
1194This section only considers the tagged value case: I a tagged JSON object
1195is encountered during decoding and C<allow_tags> is disabled, a parse
1196error will result (as if tagged values were not part of the grammar).
1197
1198If C<allow_tags> is enabled, C<JSON::XS> will look up the C<THAW> method
1199of the package/classname used during serialisation (it will not attempt
1200to load the package as a Perl module). If there is no such method, the
1201decoding will fail with an error.
1202
1203Otherwise, the C<THAW> method is invoked with the classname as first
1204argument, the constant string C<JSON> as second argument, and all the
1205values from the JSON array (the values originally returned by the
1206C<FREEZE> method) as remaining arguments.
1207
1208The method must then return the object. While technically you can return
1209any Perl scalar, you might have to enable the C<enable_nonref> setting to
1210make that work in all cases, so better return an actual blessed reference.
1211
1212As an example, let's implement a C<THAW> function that regenerates the
1213C<My::Object> from the C<FREEZE> example earlier:
1214
1215 sub My::Object::THAW {
1216 my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id) = @_;
1217
1218 $class->new (type => $type, id => $id)
1219 }
1220
1221
1222=head1 ENCODING/CODESET FLAG NOTES
1223
1224The interested reader might have seen a number of flags that signify
1225encodings or codesets - C<utf8>, C<latin1> and C<ascii>. There seems to be
1226some confusion on what these do, so here is a short comparison:
1227
1228C<utf8> controls whether the JSON text created by C<encode> (and expected
1229by C<decode>) is UTF-8 encoded or not, while C<latin1> and C<ascii> only
1230control whether C<encode> escapes character values outside their respective
1231codeset range. Neither of these flags conflict with each other, although
1232some combinations make less sense than others.
1233
1234Care has been taken to make all flags symmetrical with respect to
1235C<encode> and C<decode>, that is, texts encoded with any combination of
1236these flag values will be correctly decoded when the same flags are used
1237- in general, if you use different flag settings while encoding vs. when
1238decoding you likely have a bug somewhere.
1239
1240Below comes a verbose discussion of these flags. Note that a "codeset" is
1241simply an abstract set of character-codepoint pairs, while an encoding
1242takes those codepoint numbers and I<encodes> them, in our case into
1243octets. Unicode is (among other things) a codeset, UTF-8 is an encoding,
1244and ISO-8859-1 (= latin 1) and ASCII are both codesets I<and> encodings at
1245the same time, which can be confusing.
1246
1247=over 4
1248
1249=item C<utf8> flag disabled
1250
1251When C<utf8> is disabled (the default), then C<encode>/C<decode> generate
1252and expect Unicode strings, that is, characters with high ordinal Unicode
1253values (> 255) will be encoded as such characters, and likewise such
1254characters are decoded as-is, no changes to them will be done, except
1255"(re-)interpreting" them as Unicode codepoints or Unicode characters,
1256respectively (to Perl, these are the same thing in strings unless you do
1257funny/weird/dumb stuff).
1258
1259This is useful when you want to do the encoding yourself (e.g. when you
1260want to have UTF-16 encoded JSON texts) or when some other layer does
1261the encoding for you (for example, when printing to a terminal using a
1262filehandle that transparently encodes to UTF-8 you certainly do NOT want
1263to UTF-8 encode your data first and have Perl encode it another time).
1264
1265=item C<utf8> flag enabled
1266
1267If the C<utf8>-flag is enabled, C<encode>/C<decode> will encode all
1268characters using the corresponding UTF-8 multi-byte sequence, and will
1269expect your input strings to be encoded as UTF-8, that is, no "character"
1270of the input string must have any value > 255, as UTF-8 does not allow
1271that.
1272
1273The C<utf8> flag therefore switches between two modes: disabled means you
1274will get a Unicode string in Perl, enabled means you get an UTF-8 encoded
1275octet/binary string in Perl.
1276
1277=item C<latin1> or C<ascii> flags enabled
1278
1279With C<latin1> (or C<ascii>) enabled, C<encode> will escape characters
1280with ordinal values > 255 (> 127 with C<ascii>) and encode the remaining
1281characters as specified by the C<utf8> flag.
1282
1283If C<utf8> is disabled, then the result is also correctly encoded in those
1284character sets (as both are proper subsets of Unicode, meaning that a
1285Unicode string with all character values < 256 is the same thing as a
1286ISO-8859-1 string, and a Unicode string with all character values < 128 is
1287the same thing as an ASCII string in Perl).
1288
1289If C<utf8> is enabled, you still get a correct UTF-8-encoded string,
1290regardless of these flags, just some more characters will be escaped using
1291C<\uXXXX> then before.
1292
1293Note that ISO-8859-1-I<encoded> strings are not compatible with UTF-8
1294encoding, while ASCII-encoded strings are. That is because the ISO-8859-1
1295encoding is NOT a subset of UTF-8 (despite the ISO-8859-1 I<codeset> being
1296a subset of Unicode), while ASCII is.
1297
1298Surprisingly, C<decode> will ignore these flags and so treat all input
1299values as governed by the C<utf8> flag. If it is disabled, this allows you
1300to decode ISO-8859-1- and ASCII-encoded strings, as both strict subsets of
1301Unicode. If it is enabled, you can correctly decode UTF-8 encoded strings.
1302
1303So neither C<latin1> nor C<ascii> are incompatible with the C<utf8> flag -
1304they only govern when the JSON output engine escapes a character or not.
1305
1306The main use for C<latin1> is to relatively efficiently store binary data
1307as JSON, at the expense of breaking compatibility with most JSON decoders.
1308
1309The main use for C<ascii> is to force the output to not contain characters
1310with values > 127, which means you can interpret the resulting string
1311as UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ASCII, KOI8-R or most about any character set and
13128-bit-encoding, and still get the same data structure back. This is useful
1313when your channel for JSON transfer is not 8-bit clean or the encoding
1314might be mangled in between (e.g. in mail), and works because ASCII is a
1315proper subset of most 8-bit and multibyte encodings in use in the world.
1316
1317=back
1318
1319
1320=head2 JSON and ECMAscript
1321
1322JSON syntax is based on how literals are represented in javascript (the
1323not-standardised predecessor of ECMAscript) which is presumably why it is
1324called "JavaScript Object Notation".
1325
1326However, JSON is not a subset (and also not a superset of course) of
1327ECMAscript (the standard) or javascript (whatever browsers actually
1328implement).
1329
1330If you want to use javascript's C<eval> function to "parse" JSON, you
1331might run into parse errors for valid JSON texts, or the resulting data
1332structure might not be queryable:
1333
1334One of the problems is that U+2028 and U+2029 are valid characters inside
1335JSON strings, but are not allowed in ECMAscript string literals, so the
1336following Perl fragment will not output something that can be guaranteed
1337to be parsable by javascript's C<eval>:
1338
1339 use JSON::XS;
1340
1341 print encode_json [chr 0x2028];
1342
1343The right fix for this is to use a proper JSON parser in your javascript
1344programs, and not rely on C<eval> (see for example Douglas Crockford's
1345F<json2.js> parser).
1346
1347If this is not an option, you can, as a stop-gap measure, simply encode to
1348ASCII-only JSON:
1349
1350 use JSON::XS;
1351
1352 print JSON::XS->new->ascii->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
1353
1354Note that this will enlarge the resulting JSON text quite a bit if you
1355have many non-ASCII characters. You might be tempted to run some regexes
1356to only escape U+2028 and U+2029, e.g.:
1357
1358 # DO NOT USE THIS!
1359 my $json = JSON::XS->new->utf8->encode ([chr 0x2028]);
1360 $json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa8/\\u2028/g; # escape U+2028
1361 $json =~ s/\xe2\x80\xa9/\\u2029/g; # escape U+2029
1362 print $json;
1363
1364Note that I<this is a bad idea>: the above only works for U+2028 and
1365U+2029 and thus only for fully ECMAscript-compliant parsers. Many existing
1366javascript implementations, however, have issues with other characters as
1367well - using C<eval> naively simply I<will> cause problems.
1368
1369Another problem is that some javascript implementations reserve
1370some property names for their own purposes (which probably makes
1371them non-ECMAscript-compliant). For example, Iceweasel reserves the
1372C<__proto__> property name for its own purposes.
1373
1374If that is a problem, you could parse try to filter the resulting JSON
1375output for these property strings, e.g.:
1376
1377 $json =~ s/"__proto__"\s*:/"__proto__renamed":/g;
1378
1379This works because C<__proto__> is not valid outside of strings, so every
1380occurrence of C<"__proto__"\s*:> must be a string used as property name.
1381
1382If you know of other incompatibilities, please let me know.
1383
853 1384
854=head2 JSON and YAML 1385=head2 JSON and YAML
855 1386
856You often hear that JSON is a subset (or a close subset) of YAML. This is, 1387You 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 1388hysteria(*) 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. 1389so let me state it clearly: I<in general, there is no way to configure
1390JSON::XS to output a data structure as valid YAML> that works in all
1391cases.
859 1392
860If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this 1393If you really must use JSON::XS to generate YAML, you should use this
861algorithm (subject to change in future versions): 1394algorithm (subject to change in future versions):
862 1395
863 my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1); 1396 my $to_yaml = JSON::XS->new->utf8->space_after (1);
864 my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n"; 1397 my $yaml = $to_yaml->encode ($ref) . "\n";
865 1398
866This will usually generate JSON texts that also parse as valid 1399This will I<usually> generate JSON texts that also parse as valid
867YAML. Please note that YAML has hardcoded limits on (simple) object key 1400YAML. 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 1401lengths that JSON doesn't have and also has different and incompatible
1402unicode character escape syntax, so you should make sure that your hash
869keys are noticeably shorter than the 1024 characters YAML allows. 1403keys are noticeably shorter than the 1024 "stream characters" YAML allows
1404and that you do not have characters with codepoint values outside the
1405Unicode BMP (basic multilingual page). YAML also does not allow C<\/>
1406sequences in strings (which JSON::XS does not I<currently> generate, but
1407other JSON generators might).
870 1408
871There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of. In general 1409There might be other incompatibilities that I am not aware of (or the YAML
1410specification 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, 1411general 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 1412versa, or try to parse JSON with a YAML parser or vice versa: chances are
874that you will run into severe interoperability problems. 1413high that you will run into severe interoperability problems when you
1414least expect it.
1415
1416=over 4
1417
1418=item (*)
1419
1420I have been pressured multiple times by Brian Ingerson (one of the
1421authors of the YAML specification) to remove this paragraph, despite him
1422acknowledging that the actual incompatibilities exist. As I was personally
1423bitten by this "JSON is YAML" lie, I refused and said I will continue to
1424educate people about these issues, so others do not run into the same
1425problem again and again. After this, Brian called me a (quote)I<complete
1426and worthless idiot>(unquote).
1427
1428In my opinion, instead of pressuring and insulting people who actually
1429clarify issues with YAML and the wrong statements of some of its
1430proponents, I would kindly suggest reading the JSON spec (which is not
1431that difficult or long) and finally make YAML compatible to it, and
1432educating users about the changes, instead of spreading lies about the
1433real compatibility for many I<years> and trying to silence people who
1434point out that it isn't true.
1435
1436Addendum/2009: the YAML 1.2 spec is still incompatible with JSON, even
1437though the incompatibilities have been documented (and are known to Brian)
1438for many years and the spec makes explicit claims that YAML is a superset
1439of JSON. It would be so easy to fix, but apparently, bullying people and
1440corrupting userdata is so much easier.
1441
1442=back
875 1443
876 1444
877=head2 SPEED 1445=head2 SPEED
878 1446
879It seems that JSON::XS is surprisingly fast, as shown in the following 1447It 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 1448tables. 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 1449in the JSON::XS distribution, to make it easy to compare on your own
882system. 1450system.
883 1451
884First comes a comparison between various modules using a very short 1452First comes a comparison between various modules using
885single-line JSON string: 1453a very short single-line JSON string (also available at
1454L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/short.json>).
886 1455
887 {"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1", "we were just talking"], \ 1456 {"method": "handleMessage", "params": ["user1",
888 "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7, true, false]} 1457 "we were just talking"], "id": null, "array":[1,11,234,-5,1e5,1e7,
1458 1, 0]}
889 1459
890It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses 1460It shows the number of encodes/decodes per second (JSON::XS uses
891the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface 1461the functional interface, while JSON::XS/2 uses the OO interface
892with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables 1462with pretty-printing and hashkey sorting enabled, JSON::XS/3 enables
893shrink). Higher is better: 1463shrink. JSON::DWIW/DS uses the deserialise function, while JSON::DWIW::FJ
1464uses the from_json method). Higher is better:
894 1465
895 Storable | 15779.925 | 14169.946 |
896 -----------+------------+------------+
897 module | encode | decode | 1466 module | encode | decode |
898 -----------|------------|------------| 1467 --------------|------------|------------|
899 JSON | 4990.842 | 4088.813 | 1468 JSON::DWIW/DS | 86302.551 | 102300.098 |
900 JSON::DWIW | 51653.990 | 71575.154 | 1469 JSON::DWIW/FJ | 86302.551 | 75983.768 |
901 JSON::PC | 65948.176 | 74631.744 | 1470 JSON::PP | 15827.562 | 6638.658 |
902 JSON::PP | 8931.652 | 3817.168 | 1471 JSON::Syck | 63358.066 | 47662.545 |
903 JSON::Syck | 24877.248 | 27776.848 | 1472 JSON::XS | 511500.488 | 511500.488 |
904 JSON::XS | 388361.481 | 227951.304 | 1473 JSON::XS/2 | 291271.111 | 388361.481 |
905 JSON::XS/2 | 227951.304 | 218453.333 | 1474 JSON::XS/3 | 361577.931 | 361577.931 |
906 JSON::XS/3 | 338250.323 | 218453.333 | 1475 Storable | 66788.280 | 265462.278 |
907 Storable | 16500.016 | 135300.129 |
908 -----------+------------+------------+ 1476 --------------+------------+------------+
909 1477
910That is, JSON::XS is about five times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding, 1478That is, JSON::XS is almost six times faster than JSON::DWIW on encoding,
911about three times faster on decoding, and over forty times faster 1479about five times faster on decoding, and over thirty to seventy times
912than JSON, even with pretty-printing and key sorting. It also compares 1480faster than JSON's pure perl implementation. It also compares favourably
913favourably to Storable for small amounts of data. 1481to Storable for small amounts of data.
914 1482
915Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals 1483Using a longer test string (roughly 18KB, generated from Yahoo! Locals
916search API (http://nanoref.com/yahooapis/mgPdGg): 1484search API (L<http://dist.schmorp.de/misc/json/long.json>).
917 1485
918 module | encode | decode | 1486 module | encode | decode |
919 -----------|------------|------------| 1487 --------------|------------|------------|
920 JSON | 55.260 | 34.971 | 1488 JSON::DWIW/DS | 1647.927 | 2673.916 |
921 JSON::DWIW | 825.228 | 1082.513 | 1489 JSON::DWIW/FJ | 1630.249 | 2596.128 |
922 JSON::PC | 3571.444 | 2394.829 |
923 JSON::PP | 210.987 | 32.574 | 1490 JSON::PP | 400.640 | 62.311 |
924 JSON::Syck | 552.551 | 787.544 | 1491 JSON::Syck | 1481.040 | 1524.869 |
925 JSON::XS | 5780.463 | 4854.519 | 1492 JSON::XS | 20661.596 | 9541.183 |
926 JSON::XS/2 | 3869.998 | 4798.975 | 1493 JSON::XS/2 | 10683.403 | 9416.938 |
927 JSON::XS/3 | 5862.880 | 4798.975 | 1494 JSON::XS/3 | 20661.596 | 9400.054 |
928 Storable | 4445.002 | 5235.027 | 1495 Storable | 19765.806 | 10000.725 |
929 -----------+------------+------------+ 1496 --------------+------------+------------+
930 1497
931Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly 1498Again, JSON::XS leads by far (except for Storable which non-surprisingly
932decodes faster). 1499decodes a bit faster).
933 1500
934On large strings containing lots of high Unicode characters, some modules 1501On 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 1502(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 1503will be broken due to missing (or wrong) Unicode handling. Others refuse
937to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair 1504to decode or encode properly, so it was impossible to prepare a fair
958 1525
959Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and 1526Third, JSON::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and
960arrays. The C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64 1527arrays. 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 1528machine 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 1529only 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 1530to free the temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be
964conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process 1531conservative, the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process
965has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the 1532has a smaller stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the
966C<max_depth> method. 1533C<max_depth> method.
967 1534
968And last but least, something else could bomb you that I forgot to think 1535Something 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, 1536case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
970though... 1537
1538Also keep in mind that JSON::XS might leak contents of your Perl data
1539structures in its error messages, so when you serialise sensitive
1540information you might want to make sure that exceptions thrown by JSON::XS
1541will not end up in front of untrusted eyes.
971 1542
972If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption 1543If you are using JSON::XS to return packets to consumption
973by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at 1544by JavaScript scripts in a browser you should have a look at
974L<http://jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security> to see whether 1545L<http://blog.archive.jpsykes.com/47/practical-csrf-and-json-security/> to
975you are vulnerable to some common attack vectors (which really are browser 1546see 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 1547are browser design bugs, but it is still you who will have to deal with
977browser developers care only for features, not about doing security 1548it, as major browser developers care only for features, not about getting
978right). 1549security right).
1550
1551
1552=head1 INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER MODULES
1553
1554C<JSON::XS> uses the L<Types::Serialiser> module to provide boolean
1555constants. That means that the JSON true and false values will be
1556comaptible to true and false values of iother modules that do the same,
1557such as L<JSON::PP> and L<CBOR::XS>.
979 1558
980 1559
981=head1 THREADS 1560=head1 THREADS
982 1561
983This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no 1562This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
984plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the 1563plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
985horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated 1564horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
986process simulations - use fork, its I<much> faster, cheaper, better). 1565process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
987 1566
988(It might actually work, but you have been warned). 1567(It might actually work, but you have been warned).
989 1568
990 1569
1570=head1 THE PERILS OF SETLOCALE
1571
1572Sometimes people avoid the Perl locale support and directly call the
1573system's setlocale function with C<LC_ALL>.
1574
1575This breaks both perl and modules such as JSON::XS, as stringification of
1576numbers no longer works correctly (e.g. C<$x = 0.1; print "$x"+1> might
1577print C<1>, and JSON::XS might output illegal JSON as JSON::XS relies on
1578perl to stringify numbers).
1579
1580The solution is simple: don't call C<setlocale>, or use it for only those
1581categories you need, such as C<LC_MESSAGES> or C<LC_CTYPE>.
1582
1583If you need C<LC_NUMERIC>, you should enable it only around the code that
1584actually needs it (avoiding stringification of numbers), and restore it
1585afterwards.
1586
1587
991=head1 BUGS 1588=head1 BUGS
992 1589
993While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does 1590While 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 1591not 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 1592keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
996will be fixed swiftly, though.
997 1593
998Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting 1594Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
999service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason. 1595service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
1000 1596
1001=cut 1597=cut
1002 1598
1003our $true = do { bless \(my $dummy = 1), "JSON::XS::Boolean" }; 1599BEGIN {
1004our $false = do { bless \(my $dummy = 0), "JSON::XS::Boolean" }; 1600 *true = \$Types::Serialiser::true;
1601 *true = \&Types::Serialiser::true;
1602 *false = \$Types::Serialiser::false;
1603 *false = \&Types::Serialiser::false;
1604 *is_bool = \&Types::Serialiser::is_bool;
1005 1605
1006sub true() { $true } 1606 *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} 1607}
1013 1608
1014XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION; 1609XSLoader::load "JSON::XS", $VERSION;
1015 1610
1016package JSON::XS::Boolean; 1611=head1 SEE ALSO
1017 1612
1018use overload 1613The 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 1614
1026=head1 AUTHOR 1615=head1 AUTHOR
1027 1616
1028 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de> 1617 Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1029 http://home.schmorp.de/ 1618 http://home.schmorp.de/
1030 1619
1031=cut 1620=cut
1032 1621
16221
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