JSON

Updated

Four years ago while i was picking up Web Services, it was a pain in the ass for me to learn due to the tonnes of specifications that need to understand, not to mention i was still a newbie to XML.

As always, it is much easier to learn a new technology/programming language by diving straight into exercise, mostly involve codings. I can still recalled the very first exercise i undertook was using Java and the freely available Google SOAP Search API to cook up my first SOAP web services search application using command prompt. *primitive, but sufficiently served the purpose*.

Yesterday, while i was browsing thru my feeds, i was shocked to find out that Google has silently deprecated the SOAP API and replaced with a new one called Google AJAX Search API. This means three things.

1. My client app will no longer be able to utilise the Google Search. *though currently it is still usable, but how long?*
2. On the plus side, suddenly it becomes even easier to use Google Search API, without needing to know anything about web services and all other ugly stuffs behind.
3. Advertisements are forced to appear side by side with the search results?

While introducing the AJAX API is a BIG yes yes, i feel that the SOAP API should be continue to be supported by those folks.

This leads me to another related topic, another important technology that has recently surfaced and being used quite extensively in the world of Web 2.0. It is called JSON. *i pronounced it as my name*



To AJAX lovers, it is highly recommended to read the following links. It is a wonderful technology worth replacing XML.

1. http://www.json.org/
2. http://www.developer.com/lang/jscript/article.php/10939_3596836_2

Even the author of XML has given support to JSON. Here is his summary.

There used to be an argument about whether platform-neutral, language-neutral data formats were important, or whether distributed objects were the right answer. That’s over: HTML, XML, JSON.

There used to be people who argued that network interchange formats shouldn’t be text-based, but use binary where possible, for efficiency. That’s over: HTML, XML, JSON.

*I will definitely find some time to try this out*