require 'json/common' # = json - JSON for Ruby # # == Description # # This is a implementation of the JSON specification according to RFC 4627 # (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt). Starting from version 1.0.0 on there # will be two variants available: # # * A pure ruby variant, that relies on the iconv and the stringscan # extensions, which are both part of the ruby standard library. # * The quite a bit faster C extension variant, which is in parts implemented # in C and comes with its own unicode conversion functions and a parser # generated by the ragel state machine compiler # (http://www.cs.queensu.ca/~thurston/ragel). # # Both variants of the JSON generator escape all non-ASCII an control # characters with \uXXXX escape sequences, and support UTF-16 surrogate pairs # in order to be able to generate the whole range of unicode code points. This # means that generated JSON text is encoded as UTF-8 (because ASCII is a subset # of UTF-8) and at the same time avoids decoding problems for receiving # endpoints, that don't expect UTF-8 encoded texts. On the negative side this # may lead to a bit longer strings than necessarry. # # All strings, that are to be encoded as JSON strings, should be UTF-8 byte # sequences on the Ruby side. To encode raw binary strings, that aren't UTF-8 # encoded, please use the to_json_raw_object method of String (which produces # an object, that contains a byte array) and decode the result on the receiving # endpoint. # # == Author # # Florian Frank # # == License # # This software is distributed under the same license as Ruby itself, see # http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/LICENSE.txt. # # == Download # # The latest version of this library can be downloaded at # # * http://rubyforge.org/frs?group_id=953 # # Online Documentation should be located at # # * http://json.rubyforge.org # # == Usage # # To use JSON you can # require 'json' # to load the installed variant (either the extension 'json' or the pure # variant 'json_pure'). If you have installed the extension variant, you can # pick either the extension variant or the pure variant by typing # require 'json/ext' # or # require 'json/pure' # # You can choose to load a set of common additions to ruby core's objects if # you # require 'json/add/core' # # After requiring this you can, e. g., serialise/deserialise Ruby ranges: # # JSON JSON(1..10) # => 1..10 # # To find out how to add JSON support to other or your own classes, read the # Examples section below. # # To get the best compatibility to rails' JSON implementation, you can # require 'json/add/rails' # # Both of the additions attempt to require 'json' (like above) first, if it has # not been required yet. # # == Speed Comparisons # # I have created some benchmark results (see the benchmarks/data-p4-3Ghz # subdir of the package) for the JSON-parser to estimate the speed up in the C # extension: # # Comparing times (call_time_mean): # 1 ParserBenchmarkExt#parser 900 repeats: # 553.922304770 ( real) -> 21.500x # 0.001805307 # 2 ParserBenchmarkYAML#parser 1000 repeats: # 224.513358139 ( real) -> 8.714x # 0.004454078 # 3 ParserBenchmarkPure#parser 1000 repeats: # 26.755020642 ( real) -> 1.038x # 0.037376163 # 4 ParserBenchmarkRails#parser 1000 repeats: # 25.763381731 ( real) -> 1.000x # 0.038814780 # calls/sec ( time) -> speed covers # secs/call # # In the table above 1 is JSON::Ext::Parser, 2 is YAML.load with YAML # compatbile JSON document, 3 is is JSON::Pure::Parser, and 4 is # ActiveSupport::JSON.decode. The ActiveSupport JSON-decoder converts the # input first to YAML and then uses the YAML-parser, the conversion seems to # slow it down so much that it is only as fast as the JSON::Pure::Parser! # # If you look at the benchmark data you can see that this is mostly caused by # the frequent high outliers - the median of the Rails-parser runs is still # overall smaller than the median of the JSON::Pure::Parser runs: # # Comparing times (call_time_median): # 1 ParserBenchmarkExt#parser 900 repeats: # 800.592479481 ( real) -> 26.936x # 0.001249075 # 2 ParserBenchmarkYAML#parser 1000 repeats: # 271.002390644 ( real) -> 9.118x # 0.003690004 # 3 ParserBenchmarkRails#parser 1000 repeats: # 30.227910865 ( real) -> 1.017x # 0.033082008 # 4 ParserBenchmarkPure#parser 1000 repeats: # 29.722384421 ( real) -> 1.000x # 0.033644676 # calls/sec ( time) -> speed covers # secs/call # # I have benchmarked the JSON-Generator as well. This generated a few more # values, because there are different modes that also influence the achieved # speed: # # Comparing times (call_time_mean): # 1 GeneratorBenchmarkExt#generator_fast 1000 repeats: # 547.354332608 ( real) -> 15.090x # 0.001826970 # 2 GeneratorBenchmarkExt#generator_safe 1000 repeats: # 443.968212317 ( real) -> 12.240x # 0.002252414 # 3 GeneratorBenchmarkExt#generator_pretty 900 repeats: # 375.104545883 ( real) -> 10.341x # 0.002665923 # 4 GeneratorBenchmarkPure#generator_fast 1000 repeats: # 49.978706968 ( real) -> 1.378x # 0.020008521 # 5 GeneratorBenchmarkRails#generator 1000 repeats: # 38.531868759 ( real) -> 1.062x # 0.025952543 # 6 GeneratorBenchmarkPure#generator_safe 1000 repeats: # 36.927649925 ( real) -> 1.018x 7 (>=3859) # 0.027079979 # 7 GeneratorBenchmarkPure#generator_pretty 1000 repeats: # 36.272134441 ( real) -> 1.000x 6 (>=3859) # 0.027569373 # calls/sec ( time) -> speed covers # secs/call # # In the table above 1-3 are JSON::Ext::Generator methods. 4, 6, and 7 are # JSON::Pure::Generator methods and 5 is the Rails JSON generator. It is now a # bit faster than the generator_safe and generator_pretty methods of the pure # variant but slower than the others. # # To achieve the fastest JSON text output, you can use the fast_generate # method. Beware, that this will disable the checking for circular Ruby data # structures, which may cause JSON to go into an infinite loop. # # Here are the median comparisons for completeness' sake: # # Comparing times (call_time_median): # 1 GeneratorBenchmarkExt#generator_fast 1000 repeats: # 708.258020939 ( real) -> 16.547x # 0.001411915 # 2 GeneratorBenchmarkExt#generator_safe 1000 repeats: # 569.105020353 ( real) -> 13.296x # 0.001757145 # 3 GeneratorBenchmarkExt#generator_pretty 900 repeats: # 482.825371244 ( real) -> 11.280x # 0.002071142 # 4 GeneratorBenchmarkPure#generator_fast 1000 repeats: # 62.717626652 ( real) -> 1.465x # 0.015944481 # 5 GeneratorBenchmarkRails#generator 1000 repeats: # 43.965681162 ( real) -> 1.027x # 0.022745013 # 6 GeneratorBenchmarkPure#generator_safe 1000 repeats: # 43.929073409 ( real) -> 1.026x 7 (>=3859) # 0.022763968 # 7 GeneratorBenchmarkPure#generator_pretty 1000 repeats: # 42.802514491 ( real) -> 1.000x 6 (>=3859) # 0.023363113 # calls/sec ( time) -> speed covers # secs/call # # == Examples # # To create a JSON text from a ruby data structure, you can call JSON.generate # like that: # # json = JSON.generate [1, 2, {"a"=>3.141}, false, true, nil, 4..10] # # => "[1,2,{\"a\":3.141},false,true,null,\"4..10\"]" # # To create a valid JSON text you have to make sure, that the output is # embedded in either a JSON array [] or a JSON object {}. The easiest way to do # this, is by putting your values in a Ruby Array or Hash instance. # # To get back a ruby data structure from a JSON text, you have to call # JSON.parse on it: # # JSON.parse json # # => [1, 2, {"a"=>3.141}, false, true, nil, "4..10"] # # Note, that the range from the original data structure is a simple # string now. The reason for this is, that JSON doesn't support ranges # or arbitrary classes. In this case the json library falls back to call # Object#to_json, which is the same as #to_s.to_json. # # It's possible to add JSON support serialization to arbitrary classes by # simply implementing a more specialized version of the #to_json method, that # should return a JSON object (a hash converted to JSON with #to_json) like # this (don't forget the *a for all the arguments): # # class Range # def to_json(*a) # { # 'json_class' => self.class.name, # = 'Range' # 'data' => [ first, last, exclude_end? ] # }.to_json(*a) # end # end # # The hash key 'json_class' is the class, that will be asked to deserialise the # JSON representation later. In this case it's 'Range', but any namespace of # the form 'A::B' or '::A::B' will do. All other keys are arbitrary and can be # used to store the necessary data to configure the object to be deserialised. # # If a the key 'json_class' is found in a JSON object, the JSON parser checks # if the given class responds to the json_create class method. If so, it is # called with the JSON object converted to a Ruby hash. So a range can # be deserialised by implementing Range.json_create like this: # # class Range # def self.json_create(o) # new(*o['data']) # end # end # # Now it possible to serialise/deserialise ranges as well: # # json = JSON.generate [1, 2, {"a"=>3.141}, false, true, nil, 4..10] # # => "[1,2,{\"a\":3.141},false,true,null,{\"json_class\":\"Range\",\"data\":[4,10,false]}]" # JSON.parse json # # => [1, 2, {"a"=>3.141}, false, true, nil, 4..10] # # JSON.generate always creates the shortest possible string representation of a # ruby data structure in one line. This good for data storage or network # protocols, but not so good for humans to read. Fortunately there's also # JSON.pretty_generate (or JSON.pretty_generate) that creates a more # readable output: # # puts JSON.pretty_generate([1, 2, {"a"=>3.141}, false, true, nil, 4..10]) # [ # 1, # 2, # { # "a": 3.141 # }, # false, # true, # null, # { # "json_class": "Range", # "data": [ # 4, # 10, # false # ] # } # ] # # There are also the methods Kernel#j for generate, and Kernel#jj for # pretty_generate output to the console, that work analogous to Core Ruby's p # and the pp library's pp methods. # # The script tools/server.rb contains a small example if you want to test, how # receiving a JSON object from a webrick server in your browser with the # javasript prototype library (http://www.prototypejs.org) works. # module JSON require 'json/version' if VARIANT_BINARY require 'json/ext' else begin require 'json/ext' rescue LoadError require 'json/pure' end end end