JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

Technical explanation

JSON represents values as objects, arrays, strings, numbers, booleans or null according to a defined grammar. RFC 8259 specifies the interoperable format and registers the application/json media type; object member names are strings and ordering should not be relied upon for meaning.

Business relevance

JSON is a common contract between APIs, applications, automation platforms and data pipelines, making consistent validation and versioning important for reliable integrations.

Implementation example

A CRM webhook sends a JSON object containing an event type, timestamp and customer identifier; the receiving service validates it against a schema before processing.

Limitations and common misconceptions

JSON has no built-in comments, schema, date type or binary type. Duplicate object names and large numeric values can create interoperability problems, and parsing untrusted input requires size and security controls.

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