JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a human-readable, open standard file format used to transmit data objects consisting of name-value pairs and arrays. It is commonly used for electronic data interchange, particularly in web applications communicating with servers. While derived from JavaScript, JSON is language-independent, with most modern programming languages offering code to generate and parse JSON data. JSON files use the ".json" extension.
Originally specified in the early 2000s and first standardized in 2006, JSON has become a popular alternative to XML due to its simplicity. It's favored for its ease of use and efficiency in API communication, often used with REST and GraphQL architectures. JSON's structure involves key-value pairs, where keys are strings, and values can be strings, numbers, arrays, or even nested JSON objects. Security is also a consideration, with JSON Web Signatures (JWS) and JSON Web Tokens (JWT) offering secure data transfer methods, particularly useful for user authentication and authorization. Recent developments include JSON5, an extension adding features like comments and unquoted keys to the format. JSON security measures also perform deep inspection of incoming packets for web applications.
