JSON and E4X, a path « Life is grand

JSON and E4X, a path

Manipulating XML with Javascript, when you are using Ajax techniques, is a pain. This is why JSON was created and at first I was pleased with it. It seemed a neat way of passing data back and forth without the hassle of traversing XML nodes.

However it struck me that JSON might be a dead end what with the impending arrival of E4X aka ECMAScript for XML. As the name suggest it makes XML manipulation with Javascript a good deal easier. I haven’t worked with it much but as far as I can see it makes XML data a native object in Javascript.

So you can invest in JSON now and then later on switch all your Ajax endpoints to XML and all your client-side script. Or you can battle with XML for now and hope E4X becomes standard in as many browsers as possible.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Derek Lakin 2 years ago 1 point
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Hoping E4X becomes standard across all the major browsers is probably like hoping that you'll never have to write any more browser-specific hacks when doing web design :P

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Paul Watson 2 years ago 1 point
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Though it is one of the least controversial proposals I have seen in years. All the players like XML and E4X does it in a way most people like.

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