What is JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and how can you put it to work? This concise guide helps busy IT professionals get up and running quickly with this popular data interchange format, and provides a deep understanding of how JSON works. Author Lindsay Bassett begins with an overview of JSON syntax, data types, formatting, and security concerns before exploring the many ways you can apply JSON today. From Web APIs and server-side language libraries to NoSQL databases and client-side frameworks, JSON has emerged as a viable alternative to XML for exchanging data between different platforms. If you have some programming experience and understand HTML and JavaScript, this is your book. Learn why JSON syntax represents data in name-value pairs Explore JSON data types, including object, string, number, and array Find out how you can combat common security concerns Learn how the JSON schema verifies that data is formatted correctly Examine the relationship between browsers, web APIs, and JSON Understand how web servers can both request and create data Discover how jQuery and other client-side frameworks use JSON Learn why the CouchDB NoSQL database uses JSON to store data