Documentation – dkjson – David Kolf's JSON Module for Lua 5.1 – 5.4

Introduction

This is the documentation for dkjson, a JSON module written in Lua.


Version 2.7

In the default configuration this module writes no global values, not even the module table. Import it using

json = require ("dkjson")

In environments where require or a similiar function are not available and you cannot receive the return value of the module, you can set the option register_global_module_table to true. The module table will then be saved in the global variable with the name given by the option global_module_name.

Exported functions and values:

json.encode (object [, state])

Create a string representing the object. Object can be a table, a string, a number, a boolean, nil, json.null or any object with a function __tojson in its metatable. A table can only use strings and numbers as keys and its values have to be valid objects as well. It raises an error for any invalid data types or reference cycles.

state is an optional table with the following fields:

When state.buffer was set, the return value will be true on success. Without state.buffer the return value will be a string.

json.decode (string [, position [, null]])

Decode string starting at position or at 1 if position was omitted.

null is an optional value to be returned for null values. The default is nil, but you could set it to json.null or any other value.

The return values are the object or nil, the position of the next character that doesn't belong to the object, and in case of errors an error message.

Two metatables are created. Every array or object that is decoded gets a metatable with the __jsontype field set to either array or object. If you want to provide your own metatables use the syntax

json.decode (string, position, null, objectmeta, arraymeta)

To prevent the assigning of metatables pass nil:

json.decode (string, position, null, nil)

<metatable>.__jsonorder

__jsonorder can overwrite the keyorder for a specific table.

<metatable>.__jsontype

__jsontype can be either "array" or "object". This value is only checked for empty tables. (The default for empty tables is "array").

<metatable>.__tojson (self, state)

You can provide your own __tojson function in a metatable. In this function you can either add directly to the buffer and return true, or you can return a string. On errors nil and a message should be returned.

json.null

You can use this value for setting explicit null values.

json.version

Set to "dkjson 2.7".

json.quotestring (string)

Quote a UTF-8 string and escape critical characters using JSON escape sequences. This function is only necessary when you build your own __tojson functions.

json.addnewline (state)

When state.indent is set, add a newline to state.buffer and spaces according to state.level.

json.encodeexception (reason, value, state, defaultmessage)

This function can be used as value to the exception option. Instead of raising an error this function encodes the error message as a string. This can help to debug malformed input data.

x = json.encode(value, { exception = json.encodeexception })

LPeg support

When the local configuration variable always_use_lpeg is set, this module tries to load LPeg to replace the decode function. The speed increase is significant. You can get the LPeg module at http://www.inf.puc-rio.br/~roberto/lpeg/.

Without changing the module configuration you can get LPeg support by calling the function use_lpeg:

json.use_lpeg ()

Require the LPeg module and return a copy of the module table where the decode function was replaced by a version that uses LPeg:

json = require "dkjson".use_lpeg()

Without the configuration to always use LPEG the original module table is unchanged and still available by calls to

json = require "dkjson"

json.using_lpeg

This variable is set to true in the copy of the module table that uses LPeg support.


Contact

You can contact the author by sending an e-mail to 'david' at the domain 'dkolf.de'.


Copyright (C) 2010-2024 David Heiko Kolf

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.