prettyjson

Package for formatting JSON data in a coloured YAML-style, perfect for CLI output

How to install

The easiest way is by installing it from the npm repository:

$ npm install prettyjson

Using it (from the CLI)

This package installs a command line interface to render JSON data in a more convenient way. You can use the CLI in three different ways:

Decode a JSON file: If you want to see the contents of a JSON file, just pass it as the first argument to the CLI:

$ prettyjson package.json

Decode the stdin: You can also pipe the result of a command (for example an HTTP request) to the CLI to see the JSON result in a clearer way:

$ curl https://api.github.com/users/rafeca | prettyjson

Decode random strings: if you call the CLI with no arguments, you'll get a prompt where you can past JSON strings and they'll be automatically displayed in a clearer way:

If you install the package globally (with npm install -g prettyjson), the CLI will be installed automatically in your PATH thanks to npm.

Using it (from Node.js)

It's pretty easy to use it... you just have to include it in your script and call the render() method:

var prettyjson = require('prettyjson');

var data = {
  username: 'rafeca',
  url: 'https://github.com/rafeca',
  twitter_account: 'https://twitter.com/rafeca',
  projects: ['prettyprint', 'connfu']
};

console.log(prettyjson.render(data));

And will output:

You can also configure the colors of the hash keys and array dashes (using colors.js colors syntax):

var prettyjson = require('prettyjson');

var data = {
  username: 'rafeca',
  url: 'https://github.com/rafeca',
  twitter_account: 'https://twitter.com/rafeca',
  projects: ['prettyprint', 'connfu']
};

console.log(prettyjson.render(data, {
  keysColor: 'rainbow', 
  dashColor: 'magenta'
}));

Will output something like:

Annotated source

You can check the annotated source for more information about how it works

Running Tests

To run the test suite first invoke the following command within the repo, installing the development dependencies:

$ npm install --dev

then run the tests:

$ npm test

Change Log

0.3.0 — January 24, 2012

• Added CLI interface
• Now prettyjson package requires Nodejs 0.6.x

0.2.1 — January 23, 2012

• Fix: Bug when the JSON has attributes with booleans, integers or null values

0.2.0 — January 22, 2012

• Now using node-releasetools for the release process
• Disabled Node.js 0.6 from Travis CI temporally
• Minor copy in Readme.md

0.1.4 — December 1, 2011

• Added contributors to the Readme file

0.1.3 — November 17, 2011

• Fixed the GitHub publishing of tags in the jake task
• Updated package.json to make it compatible with Node.js 0.6.x
• Updated travis YAML file to use the new Node.js support on Travis

0.1.2 — November 14, 2011

• Updated Jakefile with tasks to automate publishing new versions

0.1.1 — October 11, 2011

• Added changelog jake task to add changelog automatically
• The library version is retrieved from package.json file

0.1.0 — October 10, 2011

• Initial release

Contributors

Rafael de Oleza rafeca@gmail.com

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2011 Rafael de Oleza rafeca@gmail.com

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.