74 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
74 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: "JSON Feed Is Cool (+ a Simple Tool to Create Your Own)"
|
|
date: 2017-08-02T00:00:00+00:00
|
|
draft: false
|
|
canonical_url: https://www.viget.com/articles/json-feed-validator/
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
A few months ago, Manton Reece and Brent Simmons [announced the creation
|
|
of JSON Feed](https://jsonfeed.org/2017/05/17/announcing_json_feed), a
|
|
new JSON-based syndication format similar to (but so much better than)
|
|
[RSS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS) and
|
|
[Atom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(standard)). One might
|
|
reasonably contend that Google killed feed-based content aggregation in
|
|
2013 when they end-of-lifed™ Google Reader, but RSS continues to enjoy
|
|
[underground
|
|
popularity](http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/rss-dead-look-numbers/) and
|
|
JSON Feed has the potential to make feed creation and consumption even
|
|
more widespread. So why are we[^1] so excited about it?
|
|
|
|
## JSON > XML
|
|
|
|
RSS and Atom are both XML-based formats, and as someone who's written
|
|
code to both produce and ingest these feeds, it's not how I'd choose to
|
|
spend a Saturday. Or even a Tuesday. Elements in XML have both
|
|
attributes and children, which is a mismatch for most modern languages'
|
|
native data structures. You end up having to use libraries like
|
|
[Nokogiri](http://www.nokogiri.org/) to write code like
|
|
`item.attributes["name"]` and `item.children[0]`. And producing a feed
|
|
usually involves a full-blown templating solution like ERB. Contrast
|
|
that with JSON, which maps perfectly to JavaScript objects (-\_-), Ruby
|
|
hashes/arrays, Elixir maps, etc., etc. Producing a feed becomes a call
|
|
to `.to_json`, and consuming one, `JSON.parse`.
|
|
|
|
## Flexibility
|
|
|
|
While still largely focused on content syndication, [the
|
|
spec](https://jsonfeed.org/version/1) includes support for plaintext and
|
|
title-less posts and custom extensions, meaning its potential uses are
|
|
myriad. Imagine a new generation of microblogs, Slack bots, and IoT
|
|
devices consuming and/or producing JSON feeds.
|
|
|
|
## Feeds Are (Still) Cool
|
|
|
|
Not to get too high up on my horse or whatever, but as a longtime web
|
|
nerd, I'm dismayed by how much content creation has migrated to walled
|
|
gardens like Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Medium that make it super easy
|
|
to get content *in*, but very difficult to get it back *out*. [Twitter
|
|
killed RSS in 2012](http://mashable.com/2012/09/05/twitter-api-rss), and
|
|
have you ever tried to get a list of your most recent Instagram photos
|
|
programmatically? I wouldn't. Owning your own content and sharing it
|
|
liberally is what the web was made for, and JSON Feed has the potential
|
|
to make it easy and fun to do. [It's how things should be. It's how they
|
|
could be.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgqiSBxvdws)
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
## Your Turn
|
|
|
|
If this sounds at all interesting to you, read the
|
|
[announcement](https://jsonfeed.org/2017/05/17/announcing_json_feed) and
|
|
the [spec](https://jsonfeed.org/version/1), listen to this [interview
|
|
with the
|
|
creators](https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2017/05/31/ep-192), and
|
|
**try out this [JSON Feed
|
|
Validator](https://json-feed-validator.herokuapp.com/) I put up this
|
|
week**. You can use the [Daring Fireball
|
|
feed](https://daringfireball.net/feeds/json) or create your own. It's
|
|
pretty simple right now, running your input against a schema I
|
|
downloaded from [JSON Schema Store](http://schemastore.org/json/), but
|
|
[suggestions and pull requests are
|
|
welcome](https://github.com/vigetlabs/json-feed-validator).
|
|
|
|
[^1]: [The royal we, you know?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLR_TDO0FTg#t=45s)
|