RequireJS plugin to load JSON files

json.js

/*!
 * RequireJS plugin for loading JSON files
 * - depends on Text plugin and it was HEAVILY "inspired" by it as well.
 *
 * IMPORTANT: it only works on r.js optimizer after version 0.26+ 20011/09/27
 *
 * @author Miller Medeiros
 * @version 0.0.1 (2011/06/10)
 * Released under the WTFPL <http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/>
 */
define(['text'], function(text){

    var jsonParse = (typeof JSON !== 'undefined' && typeof JSON.parse === 'function')? JSON.parse : function(val){
            return eval('('+ val +')'); //quick and dirty
        },
        buildMap = {};

    //API
    return {

        load : function(name, req, onLoad, config) {
            text.get(req.toUrl(name), function(data){
                if (config.isBuild) {
                    buildMap[name] = data;
                    onLoad(data);
                } else {
                    onLoad(jsonParse(data));
                }
            });
        },

        //write method based on RequireJS official text plugin by James Burke
        //https://github.com/jrburke/requirejs/blob/master/text.js
        write : function(pluginName, moduleName, write){
            if(moduleName in buildMap){
                var content = buildMap[moduleName];
                write('define("'+ pluginName +'!'+ moduleName +'", function(){ return '+ content +';});\n');
            }
        }

    };
});

I know that a plugin for JSON is kinda stupid since if you have the files locally you can just wrap them into a define call and if it is on your server you can just load it as text and parse the JSON data, but you get the idea..

just to save the example I used on this bug report and as further reference.

Weird coincidence - this is exactly what I was looking for this morning, found it via google, right after reading your blog post about AMD/CJS. Nice work dude!

I don't actually think it's stupid - as long as it doesn't cause a performance hit, it will save a whole bunch of shitty code like this:

try {
    // parseJSON
} catch (e) {
    // blah
}

And when you're working with a big team of backend developers, this is a definitely a good solution, saves having to explain AMD format to them and why suddenly they need to expose their APIs as javascript files instead of pure JSON.

(PS. trying it out in our app now. Will post on that pull request in a little while)

exactly, that was the reason why I created it, I prefer to keep the files with the .json extension and calling $.parseJSON() all the time is boring... Another benefit is that we can use JSONLint to validate it or even JSON Schema if needed.

I have a few more plugins on my gists, need to create a blog post linking to all of them...

Yeah definitely! Maybe make a repository for AMD plugins so they're all in one place?

moved all my plugins to a new repository: https://github.com/millermedeiros/requirejs-plugins

cough

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON#JavaScript_eval.28.29

still using eval in https://github.com/millermedeiros/requirejs-plugins/blob/master/src/json.js

JSON.parse is widely supported.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/parse