little-json

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The JSON library for Scala.

This project is archived and read-only. See Grapple for active fork.

Getting Started

little-json is a Scala library for reading and writing JSON content. It provides utilities for mapping instances of your classes to JSON values.

To get started, add little-json to your project:

libraryDependencies += "com.github.losizm" %% "little-json" % "9.0.0"

NOTE: Starting with version 7, little-json is written for Scala 3. See previous releases for compatibility with Scala 2.12 and Scala 2.13.

A Taste of little-json

Here's a taste of what little-json offers.

Usual Suspects

To model standard JSON values, the library includes a list of classes with familiar names: JsonObject, JsonArray, JsonString, JsonNumber, JsonBoolean, and JsonNull. However, when making use of contextual abstraction, you're not required to deal with these classes directly a whole lot, if at all.

Reading and Writing

Reading and writing are powered by JsonInput and JsonOutput. They convert values to and from JSON, with library-provided implementations for working with standard types like String, Int, and Boolean. You must provide custom implementations for converting to and from instances of your classes.

import little.json.*
import little.json.Implicits.{ *, given }
import scala.language.implicitConversions

case class User(id: Int, name: String)

// Define how to convert JsonValue to User
given jsonToUser: JsonInput[User] with
  def apply(json: JsonValue) = User(json("id"), json("name"))

val json = Json.parse("""{ "id": 1000, "name": "jza" }""")

// Read JsonValue as User
val user = json.as[User]
assert { user.id == 1000 }
assert { user.name == "jza" }

// Define how to convert User to JsonValue
given userToJson: JsonOutput[User] with
  def apply(u: User) = Json.obj("id" -> u.id, "name" -> u.name)

// Write User to JsonValue
val dupe = Json.toJson(user)
assert { dupe("id").as[Int] == 1000 }
assert { dupe("name").as[String] == "jza" }

Special implementations are available for working with collections. So, for example, if you define JsonInput[User], you automatically get JsonInput[Seq[User]]. The same applies to JsonOutput[User]: you get JsonOutput[Seq[User]] for free.

val json = Json.parse("""[
  { "id": 0,    "name": "root" },
  { "id": 1000, "name": "jza"  }
]""")

// Read JsonArray as Seq[User]
val users = json.as[Seq[User]]
assert { users(0) == User(0, "root") }
assert { users(1) == User(1000, "jza")  }

// Or as other Iterable types
val userList = json.as[List[User]]
val userIter = json.as[Iterator[User]]
val userSet  = json.as[Set[User]]

// Or as an Array
val userArray = json.as[Array[User]]

// Write Seq[User] to JsonArray
val jsonUsers = Json.toJson(users)
assert { jsonUsers(0) == Json.obj("id" -> 0, "name" -> "root") }
assert { jsonUsers(1) == Json.obj("id" -> 1000, "name" -> "jza") }

Extracting Values

You can traverse JsonObject and JsonArray to extract nested values. An extension method with a symbolic name makes this clean and easy.

import little.json.*
import little.json.Implicits.{ *, given }
import scala.language.implicitConversions

case class User(id: Int, name: String)

// Define how to convert JsonValue to User
given jsonToUser: JsonInput[User] with
  def apply(json: JsonValue) = User(json("id"), json("name"))

val json = Json.parse("""{
  "node": {
    "name": "localhost",
    "users": [
      { "id": 0,    "name": "root" },
      { "id": 1000, "name": "jza"  }
    ]
  }
}""")

// Get users array from node object
val users = (json \ "node" \ "users").as[Seq[User]]

// Get first user (at index 0) in users array
val user = (json \ "node" \ "users" \ 0).as[User]

// Get name of second user (at index 1) in users array
val name = (json \ "node" \ "users" \ 1 \ "name").as[String]

And, just as easy, you can do a recursive lookup to collect field values by name.

// Get all "name" values
val names = (json \\ "name").map(_.as[String])
assert { names == Seq("localhost", "root", "jza") }

Generating and Parsing

JsonGenerator and JsonParser are used for generating and parsing potentially large JSON structures.

The generator incrementally writes JSON values to a stream instead of managing the entire structure in memory.

import java.io.StringWriter
import little.json.*
import little.json.Implicits.{ *, given }
import scala.language.implicitConversions

val buf = StringWriter()
val out = JsonGenerator(buf)

try
  out.writeStartObject()          // start root object
  out.write("id", 1000)
  out.write("name", "jza")
  out.writeStartArray("groups")   // start nested array
  out.write("jza")
  out.write("adm")
  out.write("sudo")
  out.writeEnd()                  // end nested array
  out.writeStartObject("info")    // start nested object
  out.write("home", "/home/jza")
  out.write("storage", "8 GiB")
  out.writeEnd()                  // end nested object
  out.writeEnd()                  // end root object
  out.flush()

  val json = Json.parse(buf.toString)
  assert { json("id") == JsonNumber(1000) }
  assert { json("name") == JsonString("jza") }
  assert { json("groups") == Json.arr("jza", "adm", "sudo") }
  assert { json("info") == Json.obj("home" -> "/home/jza", "storage" -> "8 GiB") }
finally
  out.close()

And, the parser iterates events as it chews through data in the underlying stream.

import little.json.*
import little.json.Implicits.{ *, given }
import scala.language.implicitConversions

import JsonParser.Event

val parser = JsonParser("""{ "id": 1000, "name": "jza", "groups": ["jza", "adm"] }""")

try
  // Get first event (start root object)
  assert { parser.next() == Event.StartObject }

  // Get field name and value
  assert { parser.next() == Event.FieldName("id") }
  assert { parser.next() == Event.Value(1000) }

  // Get field name and value
  assert { parser.next() == Event.FieldName("name") }
  assert { parser.next() == Event.Value("jza") }

  // Get field name and value
  assert { parser.next() == Event.FieldName("groups") }
  assert { parser.next() == Event.StartArray } // start nested array
  assert { parser.next() == Event.Value("jza") }
  assert { parser.next() == Event.Value("adm") }
  assert { parser.next() == Event.EndArray }   // end nested array

  // Get final event (end root object)
  assert { parser.next() == Event.EndObject }

  // No more events
  assert { !parser.hasNext }
finally
  parser.close()

See also JsonReader and JsonWriter.

JSON-RPC 2.0 Specification

The library provides an API for JSON-RPC 2.0 Specification, which is a protocol for JSON-based remote procedure calls.

JsonRpcRequest and JsonRpcResponse model the RPC message types, and you can incrementally build them with message builders.

import java.io.StringWriter
import little.json.*
import little.json.Implicits.given
import little.json.rpc.*
import little.json.rpc.Implicits.given
import scala.language.implicitConversions

case class Params(values: Int*):
  def sum = values.sum

// Define converters for params to and from JSON
given JsonInput[Params]  = json   => Params(json.as[Seq[Int]]*)
given JsonOutput[Params] = params => Json.toJson(params.values)

// Create request with builder
val request = JsonRpcRequest.builder()
  .version("2.0")
  .id("590d24ae-500a-486c-8d73-8035e78529bd")
  .method("sum")
  .params(Params(1, 2, 3))
  .build()

// Create response with builder
val response = JsonRpcResponse.builder()
  .version(request.version)
  .id(request.id)
  .resultOrError {
    request.method match
      // Set result
      case "sum" => request.params.get.as[Params].sum

      // Or set error if unknown method
      case name  =>  MethodNotFound(name)
  }.build()

And, you can parse them using library-provided magic.

val request = Json.parse("""{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id":      "590d24ae-500a-486c-8d73-8035e78529bd",
  "method":  "sum",
  "params":  [1, 2, 3]
}""").as[JsonRpcRequest]

assert { request.version == "2.0" }
assert { request.id.stringValue == "590d24ae-500a-486c-8d73-8035e78529bd" }
assert { request.method == "sum" }
assert { request.params.exists(_.as[Params] == Params(1, 2, 3)) }

val response = Json.parse("""{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id":      "590d24ae-500a-486c-8d73-8035e78529bd",
  "result":  6
}""").as[JsonRpcResponse]

assert { response.version == "2.0" }
assert { response.id.stringValue == "590d24ae-500a-486c-8d73-8035e78529bd" }
assert { response.result.as[Int] == 6 }

API Documentation

See scaladoc for additional details.

License

little-json is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2. See LICENSE for more information.