JSON and A Comparison of Scripts

JSON: JavaScript Object Notation Based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language provides a standardized data exchange format that is better-suited for Ajax-style web applications. formal languages specifically designed to support the communication of data and metadata.

JSON: JavaScript Object Notation Language independant, but similar to C- family (C, Java, Perl, Python) Data formatted according to the JSON standard is lightweight and can be parsed by JavaScript implementations with incredible ease

JSON: JavaScript Object Notation Built on two structures: Name/value pair Ordered list of values

JSON literals

JSON: the difference JSON: much stricter rules. name of an object member must be a valid JSON string. string must be enclosed in quotation marks. array and object elements are limited to a set. No date/time literal (not in JavaScript either) No comments

Using JSON Use a script tag Dynamically load a script tag function dhtmlLoadScript(url) { var e = document.createElement("script"); e.src = url; e.type="text/javascript"; document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(e); } dhtmlLoadScript("

Using JSON Use AJAX to pull some text from the server and then eval it. ajaxCaller.getPlainText("mydata.js", function(jsText) { eval(jsText); });

Server vs Client Side Scripting

Client-side Scripting Easy way to provide additional functionality and flexibility Downloaded, interpreted and executed by the browser Dependant on the client's capabilities (memory, CPU speed, video card) Lightweight, less full-featured language Examples: JavaScript, JScript, VBScript

Server-side Scripting Also enhances functionality, but usually less visible Used for content management (database) Runs on the server and depends on memory and CPU speed of the server Must be supported by the server Examples: PHP, ASP, Perl