ShopLocal Luvs JSON

Posted on 2 June 2009 by Patrick FlanaganNo Comments

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In an ongoing effort to ever increase the access to the wealth of hyper-localized, in-store promotional content that ShopLocal uniquely has control of, the team is proud to announce the support of JSON within the REST based SmartDelivery API (SDAPI).  JSON for those that are not total nerds stands for JavaScript Object Notation which is defined as a lightweight data-interchange format (XML is another data-interchange format for example).  This is essentially an alternate data format to the current XML only format that the SDAPI (the localized distribution engine) now returns. Behind the scenes, the JSON enabled outputs of SDAPI version 2 calls uses all of the same:

• Database logic / procs
• Business logic
• Parameter names
• Variables values
• Attribute/data fields names

Options and choice are good when it comes to allowing web developers pick the right solution for the application they are trying to build. So adding support for JSON was a very natural outcome. A few of the biggest benefits from a developer perspective of supporting JSON formated data are:

• JSON formatted data is essentially serialized Javascript objects which makes it fit better within client side scripting which is primarily done in Javascript
• Cross domain calls are now easily permitted (no more always having to update the crossdomain.xml file) and can be used for Javascript applications.  This is done by the addition of new API parameter (named ‘callback’) which allows specifying an existing JS function that will take an object as an input parameter.  By doing so, this will allow crossdomain calls to occur

What this new data format (e.g. JSON) allows is better integration capabilities into digital applications such as:

• AJAX driven widgets
• Web mashups that heavile use Javascri[t
• Dynamic mobile display ads
• Native mobile applications (like the native iPhone circular application)

JSON is really a great data format especially when the digital application that is consuming this dynamic external data is heavily built using Javascript

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