AJAX - The Complete Reference

136 Part I: Core Ideas

$json = new Services_JSON();

$jsonObject = $json->decode($payloadString);

}

You can run the complete example online at http://ajaxref.com/ch4/jsonrequest.html.

JSON is easy enough to use for requests and, depending on the language and library in

play, it can also be nice to use on the server side, as it automatically creates the variables for

you. Then again, the standard x-www-form-urlencoded format does this too and without

any extra requirements on either side.

Other Request Forms: YAML, Text, and Beyond

The sky’s the limit as far as transmitting data. We present a few more examples here to

prove that point, starting first with a format called YAML.

YAML

YAML (YAML Ain’t Markup Language) is a data serialization language designed to be

expressive, human friendly, portable between programming environments, easy to

implement, and efficient. A complete discussion of YAML can be found at http://yaml.org.

We present just a short discussion of it here to illustrate its potential use in the example.

YAML is quite simple and, interestingly, assigns meaning to whitespace to improve the

format’s readability. For example, list items are indicated with a leading dash (-) and are

presented one per line, like so:

• Larry


• Curly


• Moe

Alternatively, these values could be presented in a more familiar less whitespace

focused format by enclosing the list in brackets.

[ Larry, Curly, Moe ]

To create simple relationships in YAML, use a colon character ( : ) to separate the values

placed individually on each line, like so:

Name: Moe

Hair : True

Hair Color : Black

Stooge Number : 1

To avoid whitespace styling, it is also possible to use curly braces ({}) to enclose the

content:

{ Name: Moe, Hair : True, Hair Color : Black, Stooge Number : 1 }