CSON

CoffeeScript-Object-Notation. Same as JSON but for CoffeeScript objects.

Since v2, this CSON package is a higher-level wrapper around the lower-level CSON Parser.

What is CSON?

Everyone knows JSON, it's the thing that looks like this:

{
  "greatDocumentaries": [
    "earthlings.com",
    "forksoverknives.com",
    "cowspiracy.com"
  ],
  "importantFacts": {
    "emissions": "Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.\nGoodland, R Anhang, J. “Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change were pigs, chickens and cows?”\nWorldWatch, November/December 2009. Worldwatch Institute, Washington, DC, USA. Pp. 10–19.\nhttp://www.worldwatch.org/node/6294",
    "landuse": "Livestock covers 45% of the earth’s total land.\nThornton, Phillip, Mario Herrero, and Polly Ericksen. “Livestock and Climate Change.” Livestock Exchange, no. 3 (2011).\nhttps://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/10601/IssueBrief3.pdf",
    "burger": "One hamburger requires 660 gallons of water to produce – the equivalent of 2 months’ worth of showers.\nCatanese, Christina. “Virtual Water, Real Impacts.” Greenversations: Official Blog of the U.S. EPA. 2012.\nhttp://blog.epa.gov/healthywaters/2012/03/virtual-water-real-impacts-world-water-day-2012/\n“50 Ways to Save Your River.” Friends of the River.\nhttp://www.friendsoftheriver.org/site/PageServer?pagename=50ways",
    "milk": "1,000 gallons of water are required to produce 1 gallon of milk.\n“Water trivia facts.” United States Environmental Protection Agency.\nhttp://water.epa.gov/learn/kids/drinkingwater/water_trivia_facts.cfm#_edn11",
    "more": "http://cowspiracy.com/facts"
  }
}

Now let's write the same thing in CSON:

# Comments!!!

# An Array with no commas!
greatDocumentaries: [
	'earthlings.com'
	'forksoverknives.com'
	'cowspiracy.com'
]

# An Object without braces!
importantFacts:
	# Multi-Line Strings! Without Quote Escaping!
	emissions: '''
		Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
		Goodland, R Anhang, J. “Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change were pigs, chickens and cows?”
		WorldWatch, November/December 2009. Worldwatch Institute, Washington, DC, USA. Pp. 10–19.
		http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6294
		'''

	landuse: '''
		Livestock covers 45% of the earth’s total land.
		Thornton, Phillip, Mario Herrero, and Polly Ericksen. “Livestock and Climate Change.” Livestock Exchange, no. 3 (2011).
		https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/10601/IssueBrief3.pdf
		'''

	burger: '''
		One hamburger requires 660 gallons of water to produce – the equivalent of 2 months’ worth of showers.
		Catanese, Christina. “Virtual Water, Real Impacts.” Greenversations: Official Blog of the U.S. EPA. 2012.
		http://blog.epa.gov/healthywaters/2012/03/virtual-water-real-impacts-world-water-day-2012/
		“50 Ways to Save Your River.” Friends of the River.
		http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/site/PageServer?pagename=50ways
		'''

	milk: '''
		1,000 gallons of water are required to produce 1 gallon of milk.
		“Water trivia facts.” United States Environmental Protection Agency.
		http://water.epa.gov/learn/kids/drinkingwater/water_trivia_facts.cfm#_edn11
		'''

	more: 'http://cowspiracy.com/facts'

Which is far more lenient than JSON, way nicer to write and read, no need to quote and escape everything, has comments and readable multi-line strings, and won't fail if you forget a comma.

Using CSON

Via the Command Line

Use CSON with the command line with:

# Convert a JSON file into a CSON file
json2cson in.json > out.cson
# Same thing via piping
cat in.json | json2cson > out.cson

# Convert a CSON file into a JSON file
cson2json in.cson > out.json
# Same thing via piping
cat in.cson | cson2json > out.json

Requires a global CSON install: npm install -g cson

Via the API

Include CSON:

var CSON = require('cson')

Each method can be executed without a callback like so:

var result = CSON.createCSONString({a:{b:'c'}}, {/* optional options argument */})
if ( result instanceof Error ) {
	console.log(result.stack)
} else {
	console.log(result)
}

Or via a callback like so:

CSON.createCSONString({a:{b:'c'}}, {/* optional options argument */}, function(err,result){
	console.log(err, result)
})

Executing the method with a callback still executes the method synchronously.

Click the below function names to open more detailed documentation.

Require Files

Object CSON.requireCSFile(filePath, opts?, next?)
Requires a CoffeeScript file and returns the result Object
Object CSON.requireJSFile(filePath, opts?, next?)
Requires a JavaScript file and returns the result Object
Object CSON.requireFile(filePath, opts?, next?)
Requires or parses a file path of the desired format into an Object If the format option is not specified, we use the filename to detect what it should be, otherwise we default to parsing CSON

Install

npm

Install Globally

Install: npm install --global cson
Executables: cson, cson2json, json2cson

Install Locally

Install: npm install --save cson
Executables: npx cson, npx cson2json, npx json2cson
Import: import * as pkg from ('cson')
Require: const pkg = require('cson')

Editions

This package is published with the following editions:

cson/source/index.coffee is CoffeeScript source code with Require for modules
cson aliases cson/edition-esnext/index.js
cson/edition-esnext/index.js is CoffeeScript compiled for Node.js 6 || 8 || 10 || 12 || 14 || 16 || 18 || 20 || 21 with Require for modules

History

Discover the release history by heading on over to the HISTORY.md file.

Backers

Code

Discover how to contribute via the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

Authors

Benjamin Lupton — Accelerating collaborative wisdom.

Maintainers

Benjamin Lupton — Accelerating collaborative wisdom.

Contributors

Finances

Donors

License

Unless stated otherwise all works are:

and licensed under:

Artistic License 2.0

bevry/cson