Copyright (c) 2010 Alistair Crooks <agc@NetBSD.org>
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.Dd June 22, 2011 .Dt LIBMJ 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm libmj .Nd minimalist JSON lightweight data interchange library .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libmj .Sh SYNOPSIS n mj.h .Ft int .Fo mj_create .Fa "mj_t *atom" "const char *text" "..." .Fc .Ft int .Fo mj_parse .Fa "mj_t *atom" "const char *text" "int *tokfrom" "int *tokto" "int *toktype" .Fc .Ft int .Fo mj_append .Fa "mj_t *atom" "const char *text" "..." .Fc .Ft int .Fo mj_append_field .Fa "mj_t *atom" "const char *fieldname" "const char *text" "..." .Fc .Ft int .Fo mj_deepcopy .Fa "mj_t *dest" "mj_t *src" .Fc .Ft void .Fo mj_delete .Fa "mj_t *atom" .Fc
p Access to objects and array entries is made using the following functions: .Ft int .Fo mj_arraycount .Fa "mj_t *atom" .Fc .Ft int .Fo mj_object_find .Fa "mj_t *atom" "const char *name" "const unsigned startpoint" .Fa "const unsigned incr" .Fc .Ft mj_t * .Fo mj_get_atom .Fa "mj_t *atom" "..." .Fc
p
JSON object output functions:
.Ft int
.Fo mj_snprint
.Fa "char *buffer" "size_t size" "mj_t *atom"
.Fc
.Ft int
.Fo mj_asprint
.Fa "char **buffer" "mj_t *atom"
.Fc
.Ft int
.Fo mj_string_size
.Fa "mj_t *atom"
.Fc
.Ft int
.Fo mj_pretty
.Fa "mj_t *atom" "void *stream" "unsigned depth" "const char *trailer"
.Fc
.Ft const char *
.Fo mj_string_rep
.Fa "mj_t *atom"
.Fc
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is a small library interface to allow JSON text to be created and parsed.
JSON is the Java Script Object Notation,
a lightweight data-interchange format, standardised in the ECMA standard.
The library name
.Nm
is derived from a further acronym of
.Dq minimalist JSON .
Hey, Mary!
p The .Nm library can be used to create a string in memory which contains a textual representation of a number of objects, arbitrarily structured. The library can also be used to reconstruct the structure. Data can thus be serialised easily and efficiently, and data structures rebuilt to produce the original structure of the data.
p JSON contains basic units called atoms, the two basic atoms being strings and numbers. Three other useful atomic values are provided, .Dq null , .Dq false , and .Dq true . Atoms can be grouped together as key/value pairs in an .Dq object , and as individual, ordered atoms, in an .Dq array .
p To create a new object, the .Fn mj_create is used. It can be deleted using the .Fn mj_delete function.
p Atoms, objects and arrays can be appended to arrays and objects using the .Fn mj_append function.
p Objects can be printed out by using the .Fn mj_snprint function. The size of a string of JSON text can be calculated using the .Fn mj_string_size function. A utility function .Fn mj_asprint is provided which will allocate space dynamically, using .Xr calloc 3 , and the JSON serialised text is copied into it. This memory can later be de-allocated using .Xr free 3 . For formatted output to a .Dv FILE * stream, the .Fn mj_pretty function is used. The calling interface gives the ability to indent the output to a given .Fa depth and for the formatted output to be followed by a .Fa trailer string, which is usually .Dv NULL for external calls, but can be any valid string. Output is sent to the .Fa stream file stream.
p The .Fa type argument given to the .Fn mj_create , .Fn mj_append , and .Fn mj_append_field functions is taken from a list of .Dq false .Dq true .Dq null .Dq number .Dq integer .Dq string .Dq array and .Dq object types. An integer differs from a number in that it cannot take on any floating point values. It is implemented internally using a signed 64-bit integer type. This restriction of values for an integer type may be removed at a later date.
p Within a JSON object, the key values can be iterated over using an integer index to access the individual JSON objects. The index can also be found using the .Fn mj_object_find function.
p The way objects arrays are implemented in .Nm is by using varying-sized arrays internally. Objects have the field name as the even entry in this internal array, with the value being the odd entry. Arrays are implemented as a simple array. Thus, to find an object in an array using .Fn mj_object_find , a value of 1 should be used as the increment value. This means that every entry in the internal array will be examined, and the first match after the starting point will be returned. For objects, an incremental value of 2 should be used, and an even start value should be specified.
p String values should be created and appended using two parameters in the stdarg fields, that of the string itself, and its length in bytes immediately after the string. A value of .Dv -1 may be used if the string length is not known. .Sh EXAMPLES The follow code fragment will make a JSON object out of the string .Dq Hello <USERNAME>\en in the buffer called .Dq buf where .Dq USERNAME is the name of the user taken from the runtime environment. The encoded text will be in an allocated buffer called .Dq s d -literal -offset indent mj_t atom; char buf[BUFSIZ]; char *s; int cc; (void) memset(\*[Am]atom, 0x0, sizeof(atom)); cc = snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "Hello %s\en", getenv("USER")); mj_create(\*[Am]atom, "string", buf, cc); cc = mj_asprint(\*[Am]s, \*[Am]atom, MJ_JSON_ENCODE); .Ed
p and the following example will take the (binary) text which has been encoded into JSON and is in the buffer .Dq buf , such as in the previous example, and re-create the original text: d -literal -offset indent int from, to, tok, cc; char *s; mj_t atom; (void) memset(\*[Am]atom, 0x0, sizeof(atom)); from = to = tok = 0; mj_parse(\*[Am]atom, buf, \*[Am]from, \*[Am]to, \*[Am]tok); cc = mj_asprint(\*[Am]s, \*[Am]atom, MJ_HUMAN); printf("%.*s", cc, s); .Ed
p The .Dv s pointer points to allocated storage with the original NUL-terminated string in it. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr calloc 3 , .Xr free 3 .Rs .%Q Ecma International .%D December 2009 .%T ECMA-262: ECMAScript Language Specification .%U http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ecma-st/ECMA-262.pdf .%O 5th Edition .Re .Sh HISTORY The .Nm library first appeared in .Nx 6.0 . .Sh AUTHORS .An Alistair Crooks Aq agc@NetBSD.org wrote this implementation and manual page.