| * Introduction: | |
| ============= | |
| JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. | |
| It can represent integer, real number, string, an ordered sequence of | |
| value, and a collection of name/value pairs. | |
| JsonCpp is a simple API to manipulate JSON value, handle serialization | |
| and unserialization to string. | |
| It can also preserve existing comment in unserialization/serialization steps, | |
| making it a convenient format to store user input files. | |
| Unserialization parsing is user friendly and provides precise error reports. | |
| * Building/Testing: | |
| ================= | |
| JsonCpp uses Scons (http://www.scons.org) as a build system. Scons requires | |
| python to be installed (http://www.python.org). | |
| You download scons-local distribution from the following url: | |
| http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=30337&package_id=67375 | |
| Unzip it in the directory where you found this README file. scons.py Should be | |
| at the same level as README. | |
| python scons.py platform=PLTFRM [TARGET] | |
| where PLTFRM may be one of: | |
| suncc Sun C++ (Solaris) | |
| vacpp Visual Age C++ (AIX) | |
| mingw | |
| msvc6 Microsoft Visual Studio 6 service pack 5-6 | |
| msvc70 Microsoft Visual Studio 2002 | |
| msvc71 Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 | |
| msvc80 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 | |
| linux-gcc Gnu C++ (linux, also reported to work for Mac OS X) | |
| adding platform is fairly simple. You need to change the Sconstruct file | |
| to do so. | |
| and TARGET may be: | |
| check: build library and run unit tests. | |
| * Running the test manually: | |
| ========================== | |
| cd test | |
| # This will run the Reader/Writer tests | |
| python runjsontests.py "path to jsontest.exe" | |
| # This will run the Reader/Writer tests, using JSONChecker test suite | |
| # (http://www.json.org/JSON_checker/). | |
| # Notes: not all tests pass: JsonCpp is too lenient (for example, | |
| # it allows an integer to start with '0'). The goal is to improve | |
| # strict mode parsing to get all tests to pass. | |
| python runjsontests.py --with-json-checker "path to jsontest.exe" | |
| # This will run the unit tests (mostly Value) | |
| python rununittests.py "path to test_lib_json.exe" | |
| You can run the tests using valgrind: | |
| python rununittests.py --valgrind "path to test_lib_json.exe" | |
| * Building the documentation: | |
| =========================== | |
| Run the python script doxybuild.py from the top directory: | |
| python doxybuild.py --open --with-dot | |
| See doxybuild.py --help for options. | |
| * Adding a reader/writer test: | |
| ============================ | |
| To add a test, you need to create two files in test/data: | |
| - a TESTNAME.json file, that contains the input document in JSON format. | |
| - a TESTNAME.expected file, that contains a flatened representation of | |
| the input document. | |
| TESTNAME.expected file format: | |
| - each line represents a JSON element of the element tree represented | |
| by the input document. | |
| - each line has two parts: the path to access the element separated from | |
| the element value by '='. Array and object values are always empty | |
| (e.g. represented by either [] or {}). | |
| - element path: '.' represented the root element, and is used to separate | |
| object members. [N] is used to specify the value of an array element | |
| at index N. | |
| See test_complex_01.json and test_complex_01.expected to better understand | |
| element path. | |
| * Understanding reader/writer test output: | |
| ======================================== | |
| When a test is run, output files are generated aside the input test files. | |
| Below is a short description of the content of each file: | |
| - test_complex_01.json: input JSON document | |
| - test_complex_01.expected: flattened JSON element tree used to check if | |
| parsing was corrected. | |
| - test_complex_01.actual: flattened JSON element tree produced by | |
| jsontest.exe from reading test_complex_01.json | |
| - test_complex_01.rewrite: JSON document written by jsontest.exe using the | |
| Json::Value parsed from test_complex_01.json and serialized using | |
| Json::StyledWritter. | |
| - test_complex_01.actual-rewrite: flattened JSON element tree produced by | |
| jsontest.exe from reading test_complex_01.rewrite. | |
| test_complex_01.process-output: jsontest.exe output, typically useful to | |
| understand parsing error. |