One significant distinction between using simple objects and JSON data is the inability to include functions within JSON structures.
If your application does not require functions at all, opting for JSON can be advantageous as it offers more constraints. This limitation helps prevent users from executing unwanted actions and also facilitates interoperability with other programming languages.
Nevertheless, in my javascript/node.js framework (accessible via a link in my profile), I leverage javascript objects extensively for configuration purposes. The object-oriented approach proves to be more modular, enabling code factorization, file merging with minimal effort, and slight performance enhancements during interpretation. It's worth noting that JSON does not support comments.
Here are simplified examples illustrating the use of objects and JSON:
Object
// foo.js
var foo = {
foo: 1
};
// bar.js
var bar = {
bar: function() { return 2; }
};
// merge.js
var obj = merge(foo, bar); // Implement merge function just once.
JSON
foo.json (no comments)
{
"foo": 1
}
bar.json (no comments)
{
"bar": 'no functions'
}
// merge.js
// Retrieve the JSON files, parse them (use JSON.parse in javascript), and then merge them.
To explore advanced utilization of objects, please refer to the linked resource in my profile.
UPDATE
If you wish to define default values and specify fields and their types within your JSON structure, consider creating another JSON or an object outlining the schema. In the framework I designed, user inputs are processed based on a contract file:
var jsonConfiguration = '{"withSection1": false}';
var contract = {
withSection1: {
type: 'boolean',
default: true
},
withSection2: {
type: 'boolean',
default: true
},
withSection3: {
type: 'boolean',
default: false
},
withSection4: {
type: 'boolean',
default: true
}
}
// Check types, assign default values when necessary, ...
var configuration = processConfiguration(jsonConfiguration, contract);
drawScreen(configuration);
function processConfiguration(jsonConfiguration, contract) {
var configuration = JSON.parse(jsonConfiguration),
processedConfiguration = {}
;
for (var key in contract) {
if (undefined === configuration[key]) {
processedConfiguration[key] = contract[key].default;
} else {
processedConfiguration[key] = configuration[key];
}
}
return processedConfiguration;
}