JSON

JSON (pronounced jay-sohn or jason) stands for JavaScript Object Notation. If you've seen it in the field before, you may know that it's often used as a convenient transfer format with APIs. We'll discuss APIs a little more in a bit, but for now, let's understand what JSON is and why it's useful.

Let's take a look at what it looks like. We'll be using the Star Wars API (SWAPI) (https://swapi.dev) as a convenient read-only API. Take a peek at this example result: https://swapi.dev/api/people/1/?format=json:

Figure 4.5 – SWAPI people instance

One of the great things about JSON is that it's fairly legible, as it doesn't have lots of nodes and formatting like XML. However, in its raw format, as in the preceding screenshot, it's still a jumble. Browsers have great tools to parse JSON into a legible tree. Take a minute to find and install one for your browser and then visit the previous API call. Now, your response should be formatted...