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- # JSON5 – Modern JSON
-
- [](https://travis-ci.org/json5/json5)
-
- JSON is an excellent data format, but we think it can be better.
-
- **JSON5 is a proposed extension to JSON** that aims to make it easier for
- *humans to write and maintain* by hand. It does this by adding some minimal
- syntax features directly from ECMAScript 5.
-
- JSON5 remains a **strict subset of JavaScript**, adds **no new data types**,
- and **works with all existing JSON content**.
-
- JSON5 is *not* an official successor to JSON, and JSON5 content may *not*
- work with existing JSON parsers. For this reason, JSON5 files use a new .json5
- extension. *(TODO: new MIME type needed too.)*
-
- The code here is a **reference JavaScript implementation** for both Node.js
- and all browsers. It’s based directly off of Douglas Crockford’s own [JSON
- implementation][json_parse.js], and it’s both robust and secure.
-
-
- ## Why
-
- JSON isn’t the friendliest to *write*. Keys need to be quoted, objects and
- arrays can’t have trailing commas, and comments aren’t allowed — even though
- none of these are the case with regular JavaScript today.
-
- That was fine when JSON’s goal was to be a great data format, but JSON’s usage
- has expanded beyond *machines*. JSON is now used for writing [configs][ex1],
- [manifests][ex2], even [tests][ex3] — all by *humans*.
-
- [ex1]: http://plovr.com/docs.html
- [ex2]: https://www.npmjs.org/doc/files/package.json.html
- [ex3]: http://code.google.com/p/fuzztester/wiki/JSONFileFormat
-
- There are other formats that are human-friendlier, like YAML, but changing
- from JSON to a completely different format is undesirable in many cases.
- JSON5’s aim is to remain close to JSON and JavaScript.
-
-
- ## Features
-
- The following is the exact list of additions to JSON’s syntax introduced by
- JSON5. **All of these are optional**, and **all of these come from ES5**.
-
- ### Objects
-
- - Object keys can be unquoted if they’re valid [identifiers][mdn_variables].
- Yes, even reserved keywords (like `default`) are valid unquoted keys in ES5
- [[§11.1.5](http://es5.github.com/#x11.1.5), [§7.6](http://es5.github.com/#x7.6)].
- ([More info](https://mathiasbynens.be/notes/javascript-identifiers))
-
- *(TODO: Unicode characters and escape sequences aren’t yet supported in this
- implementation.)*
-
- - Object keys can also be single-quoted.
-
- - Objects can have trailing commas.
-
- [mdn_variables]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Guide/Core_Language_Features#Variables
-
- ### Arrays
-
- - Arrays can have trailing commas.
-
- ### Strings
-
- - Strings can be single-quoted.
-
- - Strings can be split across multiple lines; just prefix each newline with a
- backslash. [ES5 [§7.8.4](http://es5.github.com/#x7.8.4)]
-
- ### Numbers
-
- - Numbers can be hexadecimal (base 16).
-
- - Numbers can begin or end with a (leading or trailing) decimal point.
-
- - Numbers can include `Infinity`, `-Infinity`, `NaN`, and `-NaN`.
-
- - Numbers can begin with an explicit plus sign.
-
- ### Comments
-
- - Both inline (single-line) and block (multi-line) comments are allowed.
-
-
- ## Example
-
- The following is a contrived example, but it illustrates most of the features:
-
- ```js
- {
- foo: 'bar',
- while: true,
-
- this: 'is a \
- multi-line string',
-
- // this is an inline comment
- here: 'is another', // inline comment
-
- /* this is a block comment
- that continues on another line */
-
- hex: 0xDEADbeef,
- half: .5,
- delta: +10,
- to: Infinity, // and beyond!
-
- finally: 'a trailing comma',
- oh: [
- "we shouldn't forget",
- 'arrays can have',
- 'trailing commas too',
- ],
- }
- ```
-
- This implementation’s own [package.json5](package.json5) is more realistic:
-
- ```js
- // This file is written in JSON5 syntax, naturally, but npm needs a regular
- // JSON file, so compile via `npm run build`. Be sure to keep both in sync!
-
- {
- name: 'json5',
- version: '0.5.0',
- description: 'JSON for the ES5 era.',
- keywords: ['json', 'es5'],
- author: 'Aseem Kishore <aseem.kishore@gmail.com>',
- contributors: [
- // TODO: Should we remove this section in favor of GitHub's list?
- // https://github.com/aseemk/json5/contributors
- 'Max Nanasy <max.nanasy@gmail.com>',
- 'Andrew Eisenberg <andrew@eisenberg.as>',
- 'Jordan Tucker <jordanbtucker@gmail.com>',
- ],
- main: 'lib/json5.js',
- bin: 'lib/cli.js',
- files: ["lib/"],
- dependencies: {},
- devDependencies: {
- gulp: "^3.9.1",
- 'gulp-jshint': "^2.0.0",
- jshint: "^2.9.1",
- 'jshint-stylish': "^2.1.0",
- mocha: "^2.4.5"
- },
- scripts: {
- build: 'node ./lib/cli.js -c package.json5',
- test: 'mocha --ui exports --reporter spec',
- // TODO: Would it be better to define these in a mocha.opts file?
- },
- homepage: 'http://json5.org/',
- license: 'MIT',
- repository: {
- type: 'git',
- url: 'https://github.com/aseemk/json5.git',
- },
- }
- ```
-
-
- ## Community
-
- Join the [Google Group](http://groups.google.com/group/json5) if you’re
- interested in JSON5 news, updates, and general discussion.
- Don’t worry, it’s very low-traffic.
-
- The [GitHub wiki](https://github.com/aseemk/json5/wiki) is a good place to track
- JSON5 support and usage. Contribute freely there!
-
- [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/aseemk/json5/issues) is the place to
- formally propose feature requests and report bugs. Questions and general
- feedback are better directed at the Google Group.
-
-
- ## Usage
-
- This JavaScript implementation of JSON5 simply provides a `JSON5` object just
- like the native ES5 `JSON` object.
-
- To use from Node:
-
- ```sh
- npm install json5
- ```
-
- ```js
- var JSON5 = require('json5');
- ```
-
- To use in the browser (adds the `JSON5` object to the global namespace):
-
- ```html
- <script src="json5.js"></script>
- ```
-
- Then in both cases, you can simply replace native `JSON` calls with `JSON5`:
-
- ```js
- var obj = JSON5.parse('{unquoted:"key",trailing:"comma",}');
- var str = JSON5.stringify(obj);
- ```
-
- `JSON5.parse` supports all of the JSON5 features listed above (*TODO: except
- Unicode*), as well as the native [`reviver` argument][json-parse].
-
- [json-parse]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/parse
-
- `JSON5.stringify` mainly avoids quoting keys where possible, but we hope to
- keep expanding it in the future (e.g. to also output trailing commas).
- It supports the native [`replacer` and `space` arguments][json-stringify],
- as well. *(TODO: Any implemented `toJSON` methods aren’t used today.)*
-
- [json-stringify]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify
-
-
- ### Extras
-
- If you’re running this on Node, you can also register a JSON5 `require()` hook
- to let you `require()` `.json5` files just like you can `.json` files:
-
- ```js
- require('json5/lib/require');
- require('./path/to/foo'); // tries foo.json5 after foo.js, foo.json, etc.
- require('./path/to/bar.json5');
- ```
-
- This module also provides a `json5` executable (requires Node) for converting
- JSON5 files to JSON:
-
- ```sh
- json5 -c path/to/foo.json5 # generates path/to/foo.json
- ```
-
-
- ## Development
-
- ```sh
- git clone git://github.com/aseemk/json5.git
- cd json5
- npm install
- npm test
- ```
-
- As the `package.json5` file states, be sure to run `npm run build` on changes
- to `package.json5`, since npm requires `package.json`.
-
- Feel free to [file issues](https://github.com/aseemk/json5/issues) and submit
- [pull requests](https://github.com/aseemk/json5/pulls) — contributions are
- welcome. If you do submit a pull request, please be sure to add or update the
- tests, and ensure that `npm test` continues to pass.
-
-
- ## License
-
- MIT. See [LICENSE.md](./LICENSE.md) for details.
-
-
- ## Credits
-
- [Michael Bolin](http://bolinfest.com/) independently arrived at and published
- some of these same ideas with awesome explanations and detail.
- Recommended reading:
- [Suggested Improvements to JSON](http://bolinfest.com/essays/json.html)
-
- [Douglas Crockford](http://www.crockford.com/) of course designed and built
- JSON, but his state machine diagrams on the [JSON website](http://json.org/),
- as cheesy as it may sound, gave me motivation and confidence that building a
- new parser to implement these ideas this was within my reach!
- This code is also modeled directly off of Doug’s open-source [json_parse.js][]
- parser. I’m super grateful for that clean and well-documented code.
-
- [json_parse.js]: https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/blob/master/json_parse.js
-
- [Max Nanasy](https://github.com/MaxNanasy) has been an early and prolific
- supporter, contributing multiple patches and ideas. Thanks Max!
-
- [Andrew Eisenberg](https://github.com/aeisenberg) has contributed the
- `stringify` method.
-
- [Jordan Tucker](https://github.com/jordanbtucker) has aligned JSON5 more closely
- with ES5 and is actively maintaining this project.
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