1* Introduction:
2  =============
3
4JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format.
5It can represent integer, real number, string, an ordered sequence of
6value, and a collection of name/value pairs.
7
8JsonCpp (http://jsoncpp.sourceforge.net/) is a simple API to manipulate
9JSON value, handle serialization and unserialization to string.
10
11It can also preserve existing comment in unserialization/serialization steps,
12making it a convenient format to store user input files.
13
14Unserialization parsing is user friendly and provides precise error reports.
15
16
17* Building/Testing:
18  =================
19
20JsonCpp uses Scons (http://www.scons.org) as a build system. Scons requires
21python to be installed (http://www.python.org).
22
23You download scons-local distribution from the following url:
24http://sourceforge.net/projects/scons/files/scons-local/1.2.0/
25
26Unzip it in the directory where you found this README file. scons.py Should be
27at the same level as README.
28
29python scons.py platform=PLTFRM [TARGET]
30where PLTFRM may be one of:
31	suncc Sun C++ (Solaris)
32	vacpp Visual Age C++ (AIX)
33	mingw
34	msvc6 Microsoft Visual Studio 6 service pack 5-6
35	msvc70 Microsoft Visual Studio 2002
36	msvc71 Microsoft Visual Studio 2003
37	msvc80 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
38	msvc90 Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
39	linux-gcc Gnu C++ (linux, also reported to work for Mac OS X)
40
41Notes: if you are building with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, you need to
42setup the environment by running vcvars32.bat (e.g. MSVC 2008 command prompt)
43before running scons.
44
45Adding platform is fairly simple. You need to change the Sconstruct file
46to do so.
47
48and TARGET may be:
49	check: build library and run unit tests.
50
51
52* Running the test manually:
53  ==========================
54
55Notes that test can be run by scons using the 'check' target (see above).
56
57You need to run test manually only if you are troubleshooting an issue.
58
59In the instruction below, replace "path to jsontest.exe" with the path
60of the 'jsontest' executable that was compiled on your platform.
61
62cd test
63# This will run the Reader/Writer tests
64python runjsontests.py "path to jsontest.exe"
65
66# This will run the Reader/Writer tests, using JSONChecker test suite
67# (http://www.json.org/JSON_checker/).
68# Notes: not all tests pass: JsonCpp is too lenient (for example,
69# it allows an integer to start with '0'). The goal is to improve
70# strict mode parsing to get all tests to pass.
71python runjsontests.py --with-json-checker "path to jsontest.exe"
72
73# This will run the unit tests (mostly Value)
74python rununittests.py "path to test_lib_json.exe"
75
76You can run the tests using valgrind:
77python rununittests.py --valgrind "path to test_lib_json.exe"
78
79
80* Building the documentation:
81  ===========================
82
83Run the python script doxybuild.py from the top directory:
84
85python doxybuild.py --open --with-dot
86
87See doxybuild.py --help for options.
88
89Notes that the documentation is also available for download as a tarball.
90The documentation of the latest release is available online at:
91http://jsoncpp.sourceforge.net/
92
93* Generating amalgamated source and header
94  ========================================
95
96JsonCpp is provided with a script to generate a single header and a single
97source file to ease inclusion in an existing project.
98
99The amalgamated source can be generated at any time by running the following
100command from the top-directory (requires python 2.6):
101
102python amalgamate.py
103
104It is possible to specify header name. See -h options for detail. By default,
105the following files are generated:
106- dist/jsoncpp.cpp: source file that need to be added to your project
107- dist/json/json.h: header file corresponding to use in your project. It is
108equivalent to including json/json.h in non-amalgamated source. This header
109only depends on standard headers.
110- dist/json/json-forwards.h: header the provides forward declaration
111of all JsonCpp types. This typically what should be included in headers to
112speed-up compilation.
113
114The amalgamated sources are generated by concatenating JsonCpp source in the
115correct order and defining macro JSON_IS_AMALGAMATION to prevent inclusion
116of other headers.
117
118* Using json-cpp in your project:
119  ===============================
120
121include/ should be added to your compiler include path. jsoncpp headers
122should be included as follow:
123
124#include <json/json.h>
125
126
127* Adding a reader/writer test:
128  ============================
129
130To add a test, you need to create two files in test/data:
131- a TESTNAME.json file, that contains the input document in JSON format.
132- a TESTNAME.expected file, that contains a flatened representation of
133  the input document.
134
135TESTNAME.expected file format:
136- each line represents a JSON element of the element tree represented
137  by the input document.
138- each line has two parts: the path to access the element separated from
139  the element value by '='. Array and object values are always empty
140  (e.g. represented by either [] or {}).
141- element path: '.' represented the root element, and is used to separate
142  object members. [N] is used to specify the value of an array element
143  at index N.
144See test_complex_01.json and test_complex_01.expected to better understand
145element path.
146
147
148* Understanding reader/writer test output:
149  ========================================
150
151When a test is run, output files are generated aside the input test files.
152Below is a short description of the content of each file:
153
154- test_complex_01.json: input JSON document
155- test_complex_01.expected: flattened JSON element tree used to check if
156    parsing was corrected.
157
158- test_complex_01.actual: flattened JSON element tree produced by
159    jsontest.exe from reading test_complex_01.json
160- test_complex_01.rewrite: JSON document written by jsontest.exe using the
161    Json::Value parsed from test_complex_01.json and serialized using
162    Json::StyledWritter.
163- test_complex_01.actual-rewrite: flattened JSON element tree produced by
164    jsontest.exe from reading test_complex_01.rewrite.
165test_complex_01.process-output: jsontest.exe output, typically useful to
166    understand parsing error.
167
168* License
169  =======
170
171See file LICENSE for details. Basically JsonCpp is licensed under
172MIT license, or public domain if desired and recognized in your jurisdiction.
173
174