Editing JSON (section)

==History==
[[File:Douglas Crockford.jpg|thumb|Douglas Crockford at the Yahoo Building (2007)]]
JSON grew out of a need for a real-time server-to-browser session communication protocol without using browser plugins such as [[Adobe Flash|Flash]] or [[Java (programming language)|Java]] applets, the dominant methods used in the early 2000s.<ref name = "Edu4java, 2014" >{{cite web | url = http://www.edu4java.com/en/java/unofficial-java-history.html | title = Unofficial Java History | access-date = 2019-08-30 | date = 2014-05-26 | website = Edu4Java | quote = In 1996, Macromedia launches Flash technology which occupies the space left by Java and ActiveX, becoming the de facto standard for animation on the client side. | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140526235903/http://www.edu4java.com/en/java/unofficial-java-history.html | archive-date = 2014-05-26 | df = dmy-all}}</ref>

Crockford first specified and popularized the JSON format.<ref name="saga"/> The acronym originated at State Software, a company cofounded by Crockford and others in March 2001. The cofounders agreed to build a system that used standard browser capabilities and provided an [[abstraction layer]] for Web developers to create stateful Web applications that had a persistent duplex connection to a Web server by holding two [[Hypertext Transfer Protocol]] (HTTP) connections open and recycling them before standard browser time-outs if no further data were exchanged. The cofounders had a round-table discussion and voted on whether to call the data format JSML (JavaScript Markup Language) or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), as well as under what [[Software license|license]] type to make it available. The JSON.org<ref>{{cite web|url=http://json.org/|title=JSON|website=json.org}}</ref> website was launched in 2001. In December 2005, [[Yahoo!]] began offering some of its [[Web service]]s in JSON.<ref name="yahoo">{{cite web |url= http://developer.yahoo.com/common/json.html |title= Using JSON with Yahoo! Web services |author= Yahoo! |access-date= July 3, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071011085815/http://developer.yahoo.com/common/json.html |archive-date= October 11, 2007 }}</ref>

A precursor to the JSON libraries was used in a children's digital asset trading game project named [[Cartoon Orbit]] at Communities.com {{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}  which used a browser side plug-in with a proprietary messaging format to manipulate [[DHTML]] elements. Upon discovery of early [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]] capabilities, digiGroups, Noosh, and others used frames to pass information into the user browsers' visual field without refreshing a Web application's visual context, realizing real-time rich Web applications using only the standard HTTP, HTML, and JavaScript capabilities of Netscape 4.0.5+ and Internet Explorer 5+. Crockford then found that JavaScript could be used as an object-based messaging format for such a system. The system was sold to [[Sun Microsystems]], [[Amazon.com]], and [[Electronic Data Systems|EDS]].

JSON was based on a [[subset]] of the [[JavaScript]] scripting language (specifically, Standard [[Ecma International|ECMA]]-262 3rd Edition—December 1999<ref>{{cite web | url = http://json.org | title = Introducing JSON | publisher = json.org |first=Douglas |last=Crockford |author-link=Douglas Crockford |date=May 28, 2009 |access-date=July 3, 2009 |quote=It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999.}}</ref>) and is commonly used with JavaScript, but it is a [[Language-independent specification|language-independent]] data format. Code for [[parsing]] and generating JSON data is readily available in many [[programming languages]]. JSON's website lists JSON [[language binding|libraries]] by language.

In October 2013, [[Ecma International]] published the first edition of its JSON standard ECMA-404.<ref name="ecma2013">{{cite web |date=October 2013 |edition=1st |title=ECMA-404: The JSON Data Interchange Format |url=https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-404/ |access-date=20 November 2023 |publisher=[[Ecma International]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101200049/http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-404.pdf |archive-date=2013-11-01 |url-status=live}}</ref> That same year, {{IETF RFC|7158}} used ECMA-404 as a reference. In 2014, {{IETF RFC|7159}} became the main reference for JSON's Internet uses, superseding {{IETF RFC|4627}} and {{IETF RFC|7158}} (but preserving ECMA-262 and ECMA-404 as main references). In November 2017, [[ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22]] published ISO/IEC 21778:2017<ref name=":0" /> as an international standard. On December 13, 2017, the [[Internet Engineering Task Force]] obsoleted {{IETF RFC|7159}} when it published {{IETF RFC|8259}}, which is the current version of the [[Internet Standard]] STD 90.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc8259/history/ |title=History for draft-ietf-jsonbis-rfc7159bis-04 |website=IETF Datatracker |date=December 2017 |publisher=Internet Engineering Task Force |access-date=2019-10-24 |quote=2017-12-13 [...] RFC published |last1=Bray |first1=Tim }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url = https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc8259/ |title=RFC 8259 - The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Interchange Format |website=IETF Datatracker |date=December 13, 2017 |publisher=Internet Engineering Task Force |access-date=2019-10-24 |quote=Type: RFC - Internet Standard (December 2017; Errata); Obsoletes RFC 7159; Also known as STD 90 |last1=Bray |first1=Tim }}</ref>

Crockford added a clause to the JSON license stating, "The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil", in order to [[open-source]] the JSON libraries while mocking corporate lawyers and those who are overly pedantic. On the other hand, this clause led to [[license compatibility]] problems of the JSON license with other [[open-source license]]s since [[open-source software]] and [[free software]] usually imply no restrictions on the purpose of use.<ref>"[https://lwn.net/Articles/707510/ Apache and the JSON license]" on LWN.net by Jake Edge (November 30, 2016).</ref>