quick and dirty function for JSON REST APIs for your shell.

gistfile1.sh

function jurl() {
  case `echo $1 | tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]'` in 
    "PUT"|"POST")
      curl -vs -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X $1 -d "${2}" $3 | python -mjson.tool
      ;;
    "GET"|"DELETE")
      curl -vs -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X $1 $2 | python -mjson.tool
      ;;
    *)
      echo "Error: Please use of the following HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE." 
      echo "PUT and POST must include a body (e.g.: jurl PUT '["hello, world!"]' http://exmaple.com/)."
      echo "GET and DLETE do not require a body."
      echo "jurl Parameters must be ordred as METHOD [BODY] URL."
      ;;
  esac
}