YAJL

0.2.24

The YAJL framework is an Objective-C wrapper around the http://lloyd.github.com/yajl/ SAX-style JSON parser.

Links

Source: http://github.com/gabriel/yajl-objc

View docs online: http://gabriel.github.com/yajl-objc/

YAJL C docs: http://lloyd.github.com/yajl/

Usage

To use the framework (for Mac OS X or iOS):

 // For Mac OS X
 #import <YAJL/YAJL.h>
 // For iOS
 #import <YAJLiOS/YAJL.h>

Examples

To parse JSON from NSData

 NSData *JSONData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:@"example.json"];
 NSArray *arrayFromData = [JSONData yajl_JSON];

To parse JSON from NSString

 NSString *JSONString = @"[1, 2, 3]";
 NSArray *arrayFromString = [JSONString yajl_JSON];

To parse JSON from NSString with error and comments

 // With options and out error
 NSString *JSONString = @"[1, 2, 3] // Allow comments";
 NSError *error = nil;
 NSArray *arrayFromString = [JSONString yajl_JSONWithOptions:YAJLParserOptionsAllowComments error:&error];

To generate JSON from an object, NSArray, NSDictionary, etc.

 NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:@"value" forKey:@"key"];
 NSString *JSONString = [dict yajl_JSONString];
 // ==> {"key":"value"}

To generate JSON from an object, beautified with custom indent

 // Beautified with custon indent string
 NSArray *array = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"value1", @"value2", nil];
 NSString *JSONString = [dict yajl_JSONStringWithOptions:YAJLGenOptionsBeautify indentString:@"    "];

To use the streaming (or SAX style) parser, use YAJLParser

 NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:@"example.json"];
 
 YAJLParser *parser = [[YAJLParser alloc] initWithParserOptions:YAJLParserOptionsAllowComments];
 parser.delegate = self;
 [parser parse:data];
 if (parser.parserError)
   NSLog(@"Error:\n%@", parser.parserError);
 
 parser.delegate = nil;
 [parser release];
 
 // Include delegate methods from YAJLParserDelegate 
 - (void)parserDidStartDictionary:(YAJLParser *)parser { }
 - (void)parserDidEndDictionary:(YAJLParser *)parser { }
 
 - (void)parserDidStartArray:(YAJLParser *)parser { }
 - (void)parserDidEndArray:(YAJLParser *)parser { }
 
 - (void)parser:(YAJLParser *)parser didMapKey:(NSString *)key { }
 - (void)parser:(YAJLParser *)parser didAdd:(id)value { }

Parser Options

There are options when parsing that can be specified with initWithParserOptions: (YAJLParser).

• YAJLParserOptionsAllowComments: Allows comments in JSON
• YAJLParserOptionsCheckUTF8: Will verify UTF-8
• YAJLParserOptionsStrictPrecision: Will force strict precision and return integer overflow error, if number is greater than long long.

Parsing as data becomes available

 YAJLParser *parser = [[[YAJLParser alloc] init] autorelease];
 parser.delegate = self;

 // A chunk of data comes...
 YAJLParserStatus status = [parser parse:chunk1];
 // 'status' should be YAJLParserStatusInsufficientData, if its not finished
 if (parser.parserError)
   NSLog(@"Error:\n%@", parser.parserError);

 // Another chunk of data comes...
 YAJLParserStatus status = [parser parse:chunk2];
 // 'status' should be YAJLParserStatusOK if its finished
 if (parser.parserError)
   NSLog(@"Error:\n%@", parser.parserError);

Document style parsing

To use the document style, use YAJLDocument. Usage should be very similar to NSXMLDocument.

 NSData *data = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:@"example.json"];
 NSError *error = nil;
 YAJLDocument *document = [[YAJLDocument alloc] initWithData:data parserOptions:YAJLParserOptionsNone error:&error];
 // Access root element at document.root
 NSLog(@"Root: %@", document.root);
 [document release];

Document style parsing as data becomes available

 YAJLDocument *document = [[YAJLDocument alloc] init];
 document.delegate = self;

 NSError *error = nil;
 [document parse:chunk1 error:error];
 [document parse:chunk2 error:error];

 // You can access root element at document.root
 NSLog(@"Root: %@", document.root);
 [document release];

 // Or via the YAJLDocumentDelegate delegate methods

 - (void)document:(YAJLDocument *)document didAddDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dict { }
 - (void)document:(YAJLDocument *)document didAddArray:(NSArray *)array { }
 - (void)document:(YAJLDocument *)document didAddObject:(id)object toArray:(NSArray *)array { }
 - (void)document:(YAJLDocument *)document didSetObject:(id)object forKey:(id)key inDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dict { }

Load JSON from Bundle

 id JSONValue = [[NSBundle mainBundle] yajl_JSONFromResource:@"kegs.json"];

Customized Encoding

To implement JSON encodable value for custom objects or override for existing objects, implement - (id)JSON;

For example:

 @interface CustomObject : NSObject
 @end

 @implementation CustomObject

 - (id)JSON {
   return [NSArray arrayWithObject:[NSNumber numberWithInteger:1]];
 } 

 @end