JSON

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It is widely used in many programming languages for transferring and storing data. Often, this is done by transferring data from a web server to a client. JSON is transferred in web applications and is even used to store data in a file for later processing. We will look at various examples of where this is done in this chapter. JSON is minimal; it is not as verbose as XML. It is self-describing; this increases its readability and the ease of writing it. JSON is a text format that is language-independent:

Figure 11.1: Describing JSON

JSON is widely used as a data format for exchanging data between web applications and for various server-to-server communications. A common API that is used in applications is the REST API. JSON is frequently used in applications that utilize the REST API. One of the reasons that JSON is used in the REST API instead of XML is because it is less verbose than XML, more lightweight,...