CJSON (Commented JavaScript Object Notation) is a comments enabled json config loader.

JSON has a good spec, is implemented in every language, has easy to read syntax and is much more powerful than ini files.

JSON is perfect for writing config files, except of one problem - there are no comments, but sometimes config files get large and need to be commented.

Well, you could just evaluate json file as a JavaScript using one-liner, right?

The purpose of this module is to avoid dirty JavaScript configs and to enable clean, consistent, secure, portable and JSON valid notation.

CJSON supports JavaScript style comments: singleline "//" and multiline "/**/". It takes care about comments inside of strings.

Example of such shiny config file:

/*
 * This is my app configuration file.
 *
 */
{
	"host": "localhost",
	// app is listening on this port
	"port": 8888
}

API

load the module

var cjson = require('cjson');

cjson.load(path, [options]);

Load config file from given path, array of paths or directory. Second parameter is optional and can be a boolean or object.

• path {String|Array} absolute path to the file, array of paths or directory
• options {Boolean|Object} optional options. If you pass true as second param, its the same as {merge: true} and will merge all configs together.

options defaults:

{
    // deep merge all passed/found config files, see `cjson.extend`
    merge: false,
    // allows you to do some string replacements, see `cjson.replace`.
    replace: null,
    // freeze config recursively, see `cjson.freeze`
    freeze: false,
    // you can use any other extension for your config files, f.e. .cjson
    ext: '.json',
    // you can use any parser you want. the default uses JSON.parse for maximum
    // speed, if it throws it uses uses an alternative parser to give more
    // helpful errors
    parse: jph.parse
}

Examples:

// just one config
var conf = cjson.load('/path/to/your/config.json');

// array of configs
var conf = cjson.load(['/path/to/your/config1.json', '/path/to/your/config2.json']);

//output
{
	config1: {key1: 'value1'}
	config2: {key2: 'value2'}
}


// use optional merge parameter
// array of configs
var conf = cjson.load(['/path/to/your/config1.json', '/path/to/your/config2.json'], true);

// output
{
	key1: 'value1',
	key2: 'value2'
}


// load all config files from a directory
var conf = cjson.load('/path/to/your/configs');

// overwriting dev config with production
var paths = ['/path/to/conf.json'];
if (process.env.NODE_ENV ==='production') {
	paths.push('/path/to/conf-prod.json');
}
var conf = cjson.load(paths, true);

cjson.extend([deep], target, object1, [objectN])

Merge the contents of two or more objects together into the first object.

• deep If true, the merge becomes recursive.
• target The object to extend. It will receive the new properties.
• object1 An object containing additional properties to merge in.
• objectN Additional objects containing properties to merge in.

Example:

var object = cjson.extend({}, object1, object2);

cjson.decomment(str)

Remove JavaScript style comments, singleline - '//' and multiline - '/**/'. It takes care of comments inside of strings and escaping.

cjson.parse(str, [reviver])

Like JSON.parse, but it takes care of comments. Optional reviver argument is for JSON.parse method and will be called for every key and value at every level of the final result.

cjson.replace(str, obj)

Replace all strings {{key}} contained in {key: 'value'}, where key can be any property of the passed obj.

Example:

var str = '{"path": "{{root}}/src"}'; // json file contents
cjson.replace(str, {root: '/usr'}); // '{"path": "/usr/src"}'

cjson.freeze(obj)

Recursively freeze an object.

Installation

npm install cjson