JSONx sent to the IETF

Hi Everyone,

Further to our thread on JSON here:
[1] http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/wiki/Json

I've recently learned of an IBM submission to IETF here:
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-rsalz-jsonx/

Further info:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/soma/entry/jsonx_threat_or_menace23?lang=en

FYI, I don't happen to be involved in this effort in any way.
I would recommend that the group consider this submission and comment on 
it.

You will notice that it seems to take the approach of perfect encoding at 
the expense of easy readability, both of markup and of xpath references 
thereto.  For example, the following appears in the IETF draft:

{ "Ticker" : "IBM" }

   <json:object>
       <json:string name="Ticker">IBM</json:string>
   </json:object>

This would mean it would be necessary to reference this using 
"json:string[@name='Ticker']" in our usual XPaths, which take the root 
element node for granted.

In my view, the approach in the above mentioned wiki page [1] should be 
suggested as an important alternative that enables XML-based processing to 
operate more succinctly over the data.  The above example would be encoded 
as

<json>
   <Ticker>IBM</Ticker>
</json>

Which yields the much more respectable reference "Ticker" in our usual 
XPaths, which take the root element for granted.  Even when using absolute 
references, we get "/json/Ticker". 

Granted this approach is not 100% achievable on all JSON, but [1] also 
clarifies what to do with JSON names that are not XML, and the result is 
still far more intelligible and achieves coverage of the edge cases while 
not polluting the usual cases with unnecessary and confusing use of both 
structure and namespacing. 

John M. Boyer, Ph.D.
Distinguished Engineer, IBM Forms and Smarter Web Applications
IBM Canada Software Lab, Victoria
E-Mail: boyerj@ca.ibm.com 

Blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/JohnBoyer
Blog RSS feed: 
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/rss/JohnBoyer?flavor=rssdw


----- Forwarded by John Boyer/CanWest/IBM on 05/03/2011 11:44 AM -----

From:   Richard Salz/Cambridge/IBM@IBMUS
To:     XMLStds
Date:   05/03/2011 09:22 AM
Subject:        Fw: JSONx sent to the IETF


FYI.
--
STSM, WebSphere Appliance Architect
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/soma/

----- Forwarded by Richard Salz/Cambridge/IBM on 05/03/2011 12:22 PM -----

From:   Richard Salz/Cambridge/IBM
To:     xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Date:   05/03/2011 11:51 AM
Subject:        JSONx sent to the IETF


We've published JSONx, the XML/JSON mapping some IBM products use, as an 
IETF draft. Some rationale, pointers to other discussion, etc., can be 
found in the following (shameless self-promotion :) link:
        
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/soma/entry/jsonx_threat_or_menace23?lang=en

Or just cut straight to the draft:
        http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-rsalz-jsonx/

If there are things we can do to encourage its adoption and use, please 
post or comment.  Hope you find it useful.

Thanks.

        /r$

--
STSM, WebSphere Appliance Architect
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/soma/