Any good libraries for parsing JSON in Classic ASP?

Json Problem Overview

I've been able to find a zillion libraries for generating JSON in Classic ASP (VBScript) but I haven't been to find ANY for parsing.

I want something that I can pass a JSON string and get back a VBScript object of some sort (Array, Scripting.Dictionary, etc)

Json Solutions

Solution 1 - Json

Keep in mind that Classic ASP includes JScript as well as VBScript. Interestingly, you can parse JSON using JScript and use the resulting objects directly in VBScript.

Therefore, it is possible to use the canonical https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSON-js/blob/master/json2.js in server-side code with zero modifications.

Of course, if your JSON includes any arrays, these will remain JScript arrays when parsing is complete. You can access the contents of the JScript array from VBScript using dot notation.

<%@Language="VBScript" %>
<%
Option Explicit
%>

<script language="JScript" runat="server" src='path/to/json2.js'></script>

<%

Dim myJSON
myJSON = Request.Form("myJSON") // "[ 1, 2, 3 ]"
Set myJSON = JSON.parse(myJSON) // [1,2,3]
Response.Write(myJSON)          // 1,2,3
Response.Write(myJSON.[0])      // 1
Response.Write(myJSON.[1])      // 2
Response.Write(myJSON.[2])      // 3
%>

Solution 2 - Json

Not sure about it. Have you checked ASP extreme framework which has JSON support?

Solution 3 - Json

I couldn't get the extreme-evolution or Chris Nielson's suggestion to work. But, the following did work for me:

http://tforster.wik.is/ASP_Classic_Practices_For_The_21st_Century/JSON4ASP

Download the following as "json2.min.asp"

http://tforster.wik.is/@api/deki/files/2/=json2.min.asp

Add the following line to the top of your ASP file:

<script language="javascript" runat="server" src="json2.min.asp"></script>

You can then use JSON in ASP.

   Dim car: Set car = JSON.parse("{""brand"":""subaru"",""model"":""outback sport"",""year"":2003," & _
                                 """colour"":""green"",""accessories"":[" & _
                                 "{""foglamps"":true},{""abs"":true},{""heatedSeats"":true}]}")
                                 
   Response.Write("brand: " & car.brand & "<br/>")                               
   Response.Write("model: " & car.model & "<br/>")                               
   Response.Write("colour: " & car.colour & "<br/>")                               
   Response.Write("has foglamps: " & CStr(car.accessories.get(0).foglamps) & "<br/>")                               
   
   car.accessories.get(0).foglamps = false
   Response.Write("has foglamps: " & CStr(car.accessories.get(0).foglamps) & "<br/>")                               
   Response.Write("new Json: " & JSON.stringify(car) & "<br/>")
   
   Set car = Nothing

Note: To parse through an array of items, you need to do the following:

   for each iTmp in testing
       if (TypeName(iTmp))<>"JScriptTypeInfo" then 
           Response.Write("Item: " &  iTmp & "<br/>")
       end if
   next

Solution 4 - Json

I have recently implemented a VbsJson class, which has a "Decode" method to parse JSON to VBScript and a "Encode" method to generate JSON from VBScript. The code is somewhat long, so I don't paste it here.

Solution 5 - Json

I wrote this answer when I was looking for a light-weight pure VBScript only solution.

By putting together a rudimentary JSON to XML converter, we can walk the JSON string and turn it into a Microsoft.XMLDOM document.

From there, we use Microsoft's XML API including XPath queries to pluck out any values we wanted.

This handles simple JSON, but, I never intended this answer for anything more sophisticated.

For a more robust solution, the best JSON interpreter, is a proper Javascript engine. Therefore, I highly recommend the accepted answer to this question i.e. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1019223/any-good-libraries-for-parsing-json-in-classic-asp/1021848#1021848

Function JSONtoXML(jsonText)
  Dim idx, max, ch, mode, xmldom, xmlelem, xmlchild, name, value

  Set xmldom = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
  xmldom.loadXML "<xml/>"
  Set xmlelem = xmldom.documentElement

  max = Len(jsonText)
  mode = 0
  name = ""
  value = ""
  While idx < max
    idx = idx + 1
    ch = Mid(jsonText, idx, 1)
    Select Case mode
    Case 0 ' Wait for Tag Root
      Select Case ch
      Case "{"
        mode = 1
      End Select
    Case 1 ' Wait for Attribute/Tag Name
      Select Case ch
      Case """"
        name = ""
        mode = 2
      Case "{"
        Set xmlchild = xmldom.createElement("tag")
        xmlelem.appendChild xmlchild
        xmlelem.appendchild xmldom.createTextNode(vbCrLf)
        xmlelem.insertBefore xmldom.createTextNode(vbCrLf), xmlchild
        Set xmlelem = xmlchild
      Case "["
        Set xmlchild = xmldom.createElement("tag")
        xmlelem.appendChild xmlchild
        xmlelem.appendchild xmldom.createTextNode(vbCrLf)
        xmlelem.insertBefore xmldom.createTextNode(vbCrLf), xmlchild
        Set xmlelem = xmlchild
      Case "}"
        Set xmlelem = xmlelem.parentNode
      Case "]"
        Set xmlelem = xmlelem.parentNode
      End Select
    Case 2 ' Get Attribute/Tag Name
      Select Case ch
      Case """"
        mode = 3
      Case Else
        name = name + ch
      End Select
    Case 3 ' Wait for colon
      Select Case ch
      Case ":"
        mode = 4
      End Select
    Case 4 ' Wait for Attribute value or Tag contents
      Select Case ch
      Case "["
        Set xmlchild = xmldom.createElement(name)
        xmlelem.appendChild xmlchild
        xmlelem.appendchild xmldom.createTextNode(vbCrLf)
        xmlelem.insertBefore xmldom.createTextNode(vbCrLf), xmlchild
        Set xmlelem = xmlchild
        name = ""
        mode = 1
      Case "{"
        Set xmlchild = xmldom.createElement(name)
        xmlelem.appendChild xmlchild
        xmlelem.appendchild xmldom.createTextNode(vbCrLf)
        xmlelem.insertBefore xmldom.createTextNode(vbCrLf), xmlchild
        Set xmlelem = xmlchild
        name = ""
        mode = 1
      Case """"
        value = ""
        mode = 5
      Case " "
      Case Chr(9)
      Case Chr(10)
      Case Chr(13)
      Case Else
        value = ch
        mode = 7
      End Select
    Case 5
      Select Case ch
      Case """"
        xmlelem.setAttribute name, value
        mode = 1
      Case "\"
        mode = 6
      Case Else
        value = value + ch
      End Select
    Case 6
      value = value + ch
      mode = 5
    Case 7
      If Instr("}], " & Chr(9) & vbCr & vbLf, ch) = 0 Then
        value = value + ch
      Else
        xmlelem.setAttribute name, value
        mode = 1
        Select Case ch
        Case "}"
          Set xmlelem = xmlelem.parentNode
        Case "]"
          Set xmlelem = xmlelem.parentNode
        End Select
      End If
    End Select
  Wend

  Set JSONtoXML = xmlDom
End Function

The above script, transforms the following JSON:

{
  "owningSystemUrl": "http://www.arcgis.com",
  "authInfo": {
    "tokenServicesUrl": "https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/generateToken",
    "isTokenBasedSecurity": true
  }
}

into:

<xml owningSystemUrl="http://www.arcgis.com">
    <authInfo
        tokenServicesUrl="https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/generateToken"
        isTokenBasedSecurity="true" >
    </authInfo>
</xml>

We can now use XPath to extract the tokenServicesUrl, for example:

dom.SelectSingleNode("xml/authInfo").getAttribute("tokenServicesUrl")
' Returns: "https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/generateToken"

Solution 6 - Json

http://github.com/nagaozen/asp-xtreme-evolution/

Solution 7 - Json

AXE is a great library but is rather heavy if you just need JSON processing functionality.

I did, however, grab the base.asp file and the json.asp class file from the AXE project and successfully used them to implement JSON parsing in my project.

For JSON generation, I found aspjson was simpler to integrate. It also has more powerful json-related features. The axe documentation a little lacking and was more work to integrate into the project, however it does do a fine job of serializing its JSON VB object back to a string.

Solution 8 - Json

the solutions here are very good but sometimes overkill. If the JSON is simple and always the same structure you can parse it yourself, it's fast and simple.

 'read data from client
 records = Request.Form("records")
 'convert the JSON string to an array
 Set oRegExpre = new RegExp
 oRegExpre.Global = true
 oRegExpre.Pattern = "[\[\]\{\}""]+"
 records = replace(records, "},{","||")
 records = oRegExpre.Replace(records, "" )
 aRecords = split(records,"||")
 'iterate the array and do some cleanup
 for each rec in aRecords
   aRecord = split(rec,",")
   id          = split(aRecord(1),":")(1)
   field       = split(aRecord(0),":")(0)
   updateValue = split(aRecord(0),":")(1)
   updateValue = replace(updateValue,chr(10),"\n")
   updateValue = replace(updateValue,chr(13),"\r")
   updateValue = replace(updateValue,"'","''")
  'etc
next

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Mark Biek	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Json	Chris Nielsen	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Json	Shoban	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Json	seanyboy	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Json	Demon	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Json	Stephen Quan	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Json	Hasan Köroğlu	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Json	Joe Niland	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Json	peter	View Answer on Stackoverflow

Any good libraries for parsing JSON in Classic ASP?

Json Problem Overview

Json Solutions

Solution 1 - Json

Solution 2 - Json

Solution 3 - Json

Solution 4 - Json

Solution 5 - Json

Solution 6 - Json

Solution 7 - Json

Solution 8 - Json

Qt static linking and deployment

JavaScript - Test for an integer

Attributions

Json Problem Overview

Can anyone recommend a library for parsing JSON in Classic ASP?

Json Solutions

Solution 1 - Json

Solution 2 - Json

Solution 3 - Json

Solution 4 - Json

Solution 5 - Json

Solution 6 - Json

Solution 7 - Json

Solution 8 - Json

Qt static linking and deployment

JavaScript - Test for an integer

Attributions