[/ Copyright (c) 2019 Vinnie Falco (vinnie.falco@gmail.com) Copyright (c) 2020 Krystian Stasiowski (sdkrystian@gmail.com) Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt) Official repository: https://github.com/cppalliance/json ] [section Overview] [block''''''] [/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------] Boost.JSON is a portable C++ library which provides containers and algorithms that implement [@https://json.org/ JavaScript Object Notation], or simply "JSON", a lightweight data-interchange format. This format is easy for humans to read and write, and easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language ([@https://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/10.0/index.html Standard ECMA-262]), and is currently standardised in [@https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8259 RFC 8259]. JSON is a text format that is language-independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language. This library focuses on a common and popular use-case: parsing and serializing to and from a container called __value__ which holds JSON types. Any __value__ which you build can be serialized and then deserialized, guaranteeing that the result will be equal to the original value. Whatever JSON output you produce with this library will be readable by most common JSON implementations in any language. The __value__ container is designed to be well suited as a vocabulary type appropriate for use in public interfaces and libraries, allowing them to be composed. The library restricts the representable data types to the ranges which are almost universally accepted by most JSON implementations, especially JavaScript. The parser and serializer are both highly performant, meeting or exceeding the benchmark performance of the best comparable libraries. Allocators are very well supported. Code which uses these types will be easy to understand, flexible, and performant. Boost.JSON offers these features: * Fast compilation * Require only C++11 * Fast streaming parser and serializer * Constant-time key lookup for objects * Options to allow non-standard JSON * Easy and safe modern API with allocator support * Optional header-only, without linking to a library [/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------] [section Requirements] * Requires only C++11 * Link to a built static or dynamic Boost library (build instructions can be found [@https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/release/more/getting_started/index.html here]), or use header-only (see below) * Additional link to Boost.Container may be required (as described in its [@https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/release/doc/html/container.html#container.intro.introduction_building_container documentation]) * Supports -fno-exceptions, detected automatically The library relies heavily on these well known C++ types in its interfaces (henceforth termed ['standard types]): * __string_view__ * __memory_resource__, __polymorphic_allocator__ * __error_category__, __error_code__, __error_condition__, __system_error__ [heading Header-Only] To use as header-only; that is, to eliminate the requirement to link a program to a static or dynamic Boost.JSON library, simply place the following line in exactly one new or existing source file in your project. ``` #include ``` MSVC users must also define the macro `BOOST_JSON_NO_LIB` to disable auto-linking. [heading Embedded] Boost.JSON works great on embedded devices. The library uses local stack buffers to increase the performance of some operations. On Intel platforms these buffers are large (4KB), while on non-Intel platforms they are small (256 bytes). To adjust the size of the stack buffers for embedded applications define this macro when building the library or including the function definitions: ``` #define BOOST_JSON_STACK_BUFFER_SIZE 1024 #include ``` [heading Supported Compilers] Boost.JSON has been tested with the following compilers: * clang: 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 * gcc: 4.8, 4.9, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 * msvc: 14.0, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3 [heading Supported JSON Text] The library expects input text to be encoded using UTF-8, which is a requirement put on all JSON exchanged between systems by the [@https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8259#section-8.1 RFC]. Similarly, the text generated by the library is valid UTF-8. The RFC does not allow byte order marks (BOM) to appear in JSON text, so the library considers BOM syntax errors. The library supports several popular JSON extensions. These have to be [link json.input_output.parsing.non_standard_json explicitly enabled]. [endsect] [/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------] [section Quality Assurance] The development infrastructure for the library includes these per-commit analyses: * Coverage reports * Benchmark performance comparisons * Compilation and tests on Drone.io, Azure Pipelines, Appveyor * Fuzzing using clang-llvm and machine learning [heading Security Review (Bishop Fox)] As part of our commitment to producing the very finest C++ libraries that application developers can trust, the C++ Alliance has commissioned Bishop Fox to perform a security audit of the Boost.JSON library. The report is linked here: [@https://cppalliance.org/pdf/C%20Plus%20Plus%20Alliance%20-%20Boost%20JSON%20Security%20Assessment%202020%20-%20Assessment%20Report%20-%2020210317.pdf C Plus Plus Alliance - Boost JSON Security Assessment 2020 - Assessment Report - 20210317] [endsect] [/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------] [h1 Credits] This library wouldn't be where it is today without the help of [@https://github.com/pdimov Peter Dimov] for design advice and optimization assistance. [endsect]