Native JSON Implementation

JSON is a JavaScript-specific data output that’s increasing in popularity and adoption. The main reason why developers are now looking into this option (instead of XML) is based the fact that JSON could be easily interpreted by JavaScript.

Although XML provides more compatibility with other programming languages when an Ajax based application is built, JSON provides full support for JavaScript intensive applications.

Developers could implement more functions with the help of JSON. As more and more developers are adopting the manual coding of JavaScript instead of simplifying it through a framework, the use of JSON also increases.

Now developers should have more reason to adopt JSON in their application. ECMAScript which implements the standardization of JavaScript is on the process of approving the next generation of JSON functions.

These functions in JSON are set to be implemented in different browsers. But the initial offering of the new JSON will first be implemented in the 3.1 version of Firefox.

The recent improvement of JSON especially on browsers that will fully implement them is not just simple adoption of the new functions. JSON will be fully integrated with the browsers and will become JSON API.   Since the data output format will be launched as an API, developers could code in JavaScript and let the API be implemented without any problem.

Developers are assured that support for JSON should be more than just browser incompatibilities in DOM. As already indicated, ECMAScript is already standardizing the next generation JSON.

But aside from being an API which eases implementation of JSON, additional features are expected from the new JSON. These features are expected to improve the functionality of the JavaScript application.

Although there are many additions to the function, the notable improvement of JSON is based on the additional parameters and better parsing.

Instead of simply implementing one parameter at a time, more parameters could be implemented and additional parsing could be added. This addition in JSON was made possible because the full support for JSON is expected in all browsers.

The full adoption of browsers is actually the key to the success of JSON. Firefox has already agreed to be the testing ground for JSON in its latest version.

What is surprising though is that IE8 is also expected to have full adoption of JSON API. This will really give developers great relief as the application will be fully compatible to IE8 – at least in JSON.

For now, JSON API is aggressively being tested in Firefox. Like most applications, different bugs are being reported by developers and by the way the support is done with JavaScript, Ajax and JSON, it will only take a few months before a nearly stable version of JSON API will be released.

It is a great addition to JavaScript as developers could easily implement data processing in the client and browser side. Although no other browser has come out yet for additional support, the presence of Firefox and IE as part of the testing grounds for JSON API will ensure more browsers will be adopting the new JSON soon.