JSON Archives

New Tools for Large XML and JSON Documents

May 24, 2023/in Development, JSON, XML /by Erin Cavanaugh

Code editors with a graphical option in addition to the traditional text view are great for developers working with XML or JSON. Graphical editors like Grid View in XMLSpy provide a visual representation of the JSON or XML structure, making it easier to understand, navigate, and edit complex data hierarchies.

XMLSpy introduced Grid View years ago and has been improving on it ever since. The most recent update includes the ability to split the editing pane horizontally or vertically, which is especially handy when working with large documents.

Let’s see how it works.

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Tags: Grid view, new features, XMLSpy

Split Mode in Grid View and More in v2023r2

April 12, 2023/in Data Integration, Development, JSON, XML /by Erin Cavanaugh

The latest release of Altova software includes ongoing enhancements for graphical XML and JSON editing in XMLSpy Grid View, new tools for working with XPath/XQuery, support for integrating VDA EDI data in MapForce, and much more.

Here’s a quick overview of all the new functionality being introduced.

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Tags: MapForce, new features, video, What's new, XMLSpy

Analyze JSON Data with Filters, Formulas, and Charts

May 4, 2022/in JSON, Tools /by David McGahey

Software developers and other data professionals often need to examine new data instances before designing processes for efficient production. As JSON becomes a more popular format for data exchange, the tradeoff for smaller data payloads can be loss of clarity of the underlying data structure.

XMLSpy has supported viewing, modeling, and editing JSON files since 2010 and includes rich tools to analyze JSON data, including applying filters, formulas, and charts.

Let’s take a look.

Tags: data analysis, Grid view, JSON, tools, XMLSpy

Transforming and Converting Protobuf

February 10, 2022/in Data Integration, Database, JSON, protocol buffers, XML /by David McGahey

MapForce supports mapping protocol buffers (Protobuf) to and from other structured data formats as mapping sources or targets. In the constant quest for more efficient ways to transfer, manipulate, and manage large structured data sets, Google has created a language- and platform-neutral data format similar to XML, but smaller, faster, and simpler than even JSON data. Tools are available to generate and work with Protobuf using Java, Python, C++, C#, Ruby, and other programming languages.

The structure of any Protobuf message is defined in a .proto file that defines each field name and value type. Altova MapForce lets users drop these .proto files into a data mapping as a source or target along with any other data, including XML, JSON, relational databases, Excel, flat files, REST and SOAP web services, and others. .proto files versions 2 and 3 are supported.

A MapForce data mapping creates compatibility between existing XML, JSON, database or legacy data formats and new applications leveraging the efficiency of Protobuf.

5 Reasons to Choose a Graphical JSON Schema Editor

January 19, 2022/in Development, JSON /by Erin Cavanaugh

The advantages of JSON as a lightweight, interoperable data format have secured its place as a favored mechanism for serializing and transporting data on the web. However, most applications still benefit from or require validation of client-submitted data. Enter the JSON Schema spec, which lets you describe the structure of JSON data for a particular application, for both documentation and validation purposes.

Though JSON Schema code is by design human-readable, building a complex schema with nested and repeating sections in a text-only editor becomes time consuming and error-prone quickly. Let’s look at five ways a graphical editor is a must-have for JSON Schema development.

Tags: JSON, JSON Schema, XML JSON, XMLSpy

Data Mapping NoSQL Databases

November 26, 2021/in Database, Database mapping, JSON /by David McGahey

NoSQL databases are non-tabular databases that store data differently than traditional databases made up of relational tables. Two of the most popular NoSQL databases, MongoDB and Apache CouchDB, store data as collections of BSON (binary JSON) and JSON documents. These databases leverage flexible JSON schemas and scale easily with large amounts of data and high user loads.

Altova MapForce has long supported data mapping all popular relational databases and now also includes native support for data mapping NoSQL databases. MapForce includes functionality for inserting, extracting, filtering, and ordering NoSQL data. Let’s look at an example.

New Features in XML and JSON Grid Editors

November 9, 2021/in Development, JSON, XML /by Erin Cavanaugh

XMLSpy is known for its graphical editing views, which make working with and editing XML and JSON more straightforward – and therefore increase developer productivity.

Both XML Grid and JSON Grid have received major updates in recent releases, and we’re committed to making these graphical views as feature-rich and effective as possible through continuous improvement. As such, we rely on and appreciate feature requests and developer feedback. The latest release of XMLSpy provides some great updates in response to this input.