Standardized way to serialize JSON to query string?

I'm trying to build a restful API and I'm struggling on how to serialize JSON data to a HTTP query string.

There are a number of mandatory and optional arguments that need to be passed in the request, e.g (represented as a JSON object below):

{
   "-columns" : [
      "name",
      "column"
   ],
   "-where" : {
      "-or" : {
         "customer_id" : 1,
         "services" : "schedule"
      }
   },
   "-limit" : 5,
   "return" : "table"
}

I need to support a various number of different clients so I'm looking for a standardized way to convert this json object to a query string. Is there one, and how does it look?

Another alternative is to allow users to just pass along the json object in a message body, but I read that I should avoid it (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/978061/http-get-with-request-body/978173).

Any thoughts?

Edit for clarification:

Listing how some different languages encodes the given json object above:

• jQuery using $.param: -columns[]=name&-columns[]=column&-where[-or][customer_id]=1&-where[-or][services]=schedule&-limit=5&return=column
• PHP using http_build_query: -columns[0]=name&-columns[1]=column&-where[-or][customer_id]=1&-where[-or][services]=schedule&-limit=5&return=column
• Perl using URI::query_form: -columns=name&-columns=column&-where=HASH(0x59d6eb8)&-limit=5&return=column
• Perl using complex_to_query: -columns:0=name&-columns:1=column&-limit=5&-where.-or.customer_id=1&-where.-or.services=schedule&return=column

jQuery and PHP is very similar. Perl using complex_to_query is also pretty similar to them. But none look exactly the same.

URL-encode (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding) your JSON text and put it into a single query string parameter. for example, if you want to pass {"val": 1}:

mysite.com/path?json=%7B%22val%22%3A%201%7D

Note that if your JSON gets too long then you will run into a URL length limitation problem. In which case I would use POST with a body (yes, I know, sending a POST when you want to fetch something is not "pure" and does not fit well into the REST paradigm, but neither is your domain specific JSON-based query language).

There is no single standard for JSON to query string serialization, so I made a comparison of some JSON serializers and the results are as follows:

JSON:    {"_id":"5973782bdb9a930533b05cb2","isActive":true,"balance":"$1,446.35","age":32,"name":"Logan Keller","email":"[email protected]","phone":"+1 (952) 533-2258","friends":[{"id":0,"name":"Colon Salazar"},{"id":1,"name":"French Mcneil"},{"id":2,"name":"Carol Martin"}],"favoriteFruit":"banana"}
Rison:   (_id:'5973782bdb9a930533b05cb2',age:32,balance:'$1,446.35',email:'[email protected]',favoriteFruit:banana,friends:!((id:0,name:'Colon Salazar'),(id:1,name:'French Mcneil'),(id:2,name:'Carol Martin')),isActive:!t,name:'Logan Keller',phone:'+1 (952) 533-2258')
O-Rison: _id:'5973782bdb9a930533b05cb2',age:32,balance:'$1,446.35',email:'[email protected]',favoriteFruit:banana,friends:!((id:0,name:'Colon Salazar'),(id:1,name:'French Mcneil'),(id:2,name:'Carol Martin')),isActive:!t,name:'Logan Keller',phone:'+1 (952) 533-2258'
JSURL:   ~(_id~'5973782bdb9a930533b05cb2~isActive~true~balance~'!1*2c446.35~age~32~name~'Logan*20Keller~email~'logankeller*40artiq.com~phone~'*2b1*20*28952*29*20533-2258~friends~(~(id~0~name~'Colon*20Salazar)~(id~1~name~'French*20Mcneil)~(id~2~name~'Carol*20Martin))~favoriteFruit~'banana)
QS:      _id=5973782bdb9a930533b05cb2&isActive=true&balance=$1,446.35&age=32&name=Logan Keller&[email protected]&phone=+1 (952) 533-2258&friends[0][id]=0&friends[0][name]=Colon Salazar&friends[1][id]=1&friends[1][name]=French Mcneil&friends[2][id]=2&friends[2][name]=Carol Martin&favoriteFruit=banana
URLON:   $_id=5973782bdb9a930533b05cb2&isActive:true&balance=$1,446.35&age:32&name=Logan%20Keller&[email protected]&phone=+1%20(952)%20533-2258&friends@$id:0&name=Colon%20Salazar;&$id:1&name=French%20Mcneil;&$id:2&name=Carol%20Martin;;&favoriteFruit=banana
QS-JSON: isActive=true&balance=%241%2C446.35&age=32&name=Logan+Keller&email=logankeller%40artiq.com&phone=%2B1+(952)+533-2258&friends(0).id=0&friends(0).name=Colon+Salazar&friends(1).id=1&friends(1).name=French+Mcneil&friends(2).id=2&friends(2).name=Carol+Martin&favoriteFruit=banana

The shortest among them is URL Object Notation.

How about you try this sending them as follows:

http://example.com/api/wtf?
[-columns][]=name&
[-columns][]=column&
[-where][-or][customer_id]=1&
[-where][-or][services]=schedule&
[-limit]=5&
[return]=table&

I tried with a REST Client

And on the server side (Ruby with Sinatra) I checked the params, it gives me exactly what you want. :-)

Another option might be node-querystring. It also uses a similar scheme to the ones you've so far listed.

It's available in both npm and bower, which is why I have been using it.