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JSON Methodology

<p>
	The JSON data type produced depends on the Java object type being serialized.
</p>
<ul class='spaced-list'>
	<li>
		Primitives and primitive objects are converted to JSON primitives.
	<li>
		Beans and Maps are converted to JSON objects.
	<li>
		Collections and arrays are converted to JSON arrays.
	<li>
		Anything else is converted to JSON strings.
</ul>

<h5 class='figure'>Data type conversions:</h5>
<table class='styled w800'>
	<tr>
		<th>POJO type</th>
		<th>JSON type</th>
		<th>Example</th>
		<th>Serialized form</th>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>String</td>
		<td>String</td>
		<td><c>serialize(<js>"foobar"</js>);</c></td>
		<td><c><js>'foobar'</js></c>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Number</td>
		<td>Number</td>
		<td><c>serialize(123);</c></td>
		<td><c>123</c>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Boolean</td>
		<td>Boolean</td>
		<td><c>serialize(<jk>true</jk>);</c></td>
		<td><c><jk>true</jk></c>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Null</td>
		<td>Null</td>
		<td><c>serialize(<jk>null</jk>);</c></td>
		<td><c><jk>null</jk></c>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Beans with properties of any type on this list</td>
		<td>Object</td>
		<td><c>serialize(<jk>new</jk> MyBean());</c></td>
		<td><c>{p1:<js>'val1'</js>,p2:<jk>true</jk>}</c>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Maps with values of any type on this list</td>
		<td>Object</td>
		<td><c>serialize(<jk>new</jk> TreeMap());</c></td>
		<td><c>{key1:<js>'val1'</js>,key2:<jk>true</jk>}</c>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Collections and arrays of any type on this list</td>
		<td>Array</td>
		<td><c>serialize(<jk>new</jk> Object[]{1,<js>"foo"</js>,<jk>true</jk>});</c></td>
		<td><c>[1,<js>'foo'</js>,<jk>true</jk>]</c>
	</tr>
</table>
<p>
	In addition, swaps can be used to convert non-serializable POJOs into serializable forms, such as converting 
	<c>Calendar</c> object to ISO8601 strings, or <c><jk>byte</jk>[]</c> arrays to Base-64 
	encoded strings.
</p>