JSON

JSON grew out of a need for a real-time server-to-browser session communication protocol without using browser plugins such as [[Adobe Flash|Flash]] or [[Java (programming language)|Java]] applets, the dominant methods used in the early 2000s.{{cite web | url = http://www.edu4java.com/en/java/unofficial-java-history.html | title = Unofficial Java History | access-date = 2019-08-30 | date = 2014-05-26 | website = Edu4Java | quote = In 1996, Macromedia launches Flash technology which occupies the space left by Java and ActiveX, becoming the de facto standard for animation on the client side. | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140526235903/http://www.edu4java.com/en/java/unofficial-java-history.html | archive-date = 2014-05-26 | df = dmy-all}}

JSON grew out of a need for a real-time server-to-browser session communication protocol without using browser plugins such as [[Adobe Flash|Flash]] or [[Java (programming language)|Java]] applets, the dominant methods used in the early 2000s.{{cite web | url = http://www.edu4java.com/en/java/unofficial-java-history.html | title = Unofficial Java History | access-date = 2019-08-30 | date = 2014-05-26 | website = Edu4Java | quote = In 1996, Macromedia launches Flash technology which occupies the space left by Java and ActiveX, becoming the de facto standard for animation on the client side. | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140526235903/http://www.edu4java.com/en/java/unofficial-java-history.html | archive-date = 2014-05-26 | df = dmy-all}}

Crockford first specified and popularized the JSON format. The acronym originated at State Software, a company cofounded by Crockford and others in March 2001. The cofounders agreed to build a system that used standard browser capabilities and provided an [[abstraction layer]] for Web developers to create stateful Web applications that had a persistent duplex connection to a Web server by holding two [[Hypertext Transfer Protocol]] (HTTP) connections open and recycling them before standard browser time-outs if no further data were exchanged. The cofounders had a round-table discussion and voted on whether to call the data format JSML (JavaScript Markup Language) or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), as well as under what [[Software license|license]] type to make it available. The JSON.org{{cite web|url=http://json.org/|title=JSON|website=json.org}} website was launched in 2001. In December 2005, [[Yahoo!]] began offering some of its [[Web service]]s in JSON.{{cite web |url= http://developer.yahoo.com/common/json.html |title= Using JSON with Yahoo! Web services |author= Yahoo! |access-date= July 3, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071011085815/http://developer.yahoo.com/common/json.html |archive-date= October 11, 2007 }}

Crockford first specified and popularized the JSON format. The acronym originated at State Software, a company cofounded by Crockford and others in March 2001. The cofounders agreed to build a system that used standard browser capabilities and provided an [[abstraction layer]] for Web developers to create stateful Web applications that had a persistent duplex connection to a Web server by holding two [[Hypertext Transfer Protocol]] (HTTP) connections open and recycling them before standard browser time-outs if no further data were exchanged. The cofounders had a round-table discussion and voted on whether to call the data format [[JSML]] (JavaScript Markup Language) or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), as well as under what [[Software license|license]] type to make it available. The JSON.org{{cite web|url=http://json.org/|title=JSON|website=json.org}} website was launched in 2001. In December 2005, [[Yahoo!]] began offering some of its [[Web service]]s in JSON.{{cite web |url= http://developer.yahoo.com/common/json.html |title= Using JSON with Yahoo! Web services |author= Yahoo! |access-date= July 3, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071011085815/http://developer.yahoo.com/common/json.html |archive-date= October 11, 2007 }}

A precursor to the JSON libraries was used in a children's digital asset trading game project named [[Cartoon Orbit]] at Communities.com {{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} which used a browser side plug-in with a proprietary messaging format to manipulate [[DHTML]] elements. Upon discovery of early [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]] capabilities, digiGroups, Noosh, and others used frames to pass information into the user browsers' visual field without refreshing a Web application's visual context, realizing real-time rich Web applications using only the standard HTTP, HTML, and JavaScript capabilities of Netscape 4.0.5+ and Internet Explorer 5+. Crockford then found that JavaScript could be used as an object-based messaging format for such a system. The system was sold to [[Sun Microsystems]], [[Amazon.com]], and [[Electronic Data Systems|EDS]].

A precursor to the JSON libraries was used in a children's digital asset trading game project named [[Cartoon Orbit]] at Communities.com {{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} which used a browser side plug-in with a proprietary messaging format to manipulate [[DHTML]] elements. Upon discovery of early [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]] capabilities, digiGroups, Noosh, and others used frames to pass information into the user browsers' visual field without refreshing a Web application's visual context, realizing real-time rich Web applications using only the standard HTTP, HTML, and JavaScript capabilities of Netscape 4.0.5+ and Internet Explorer 5+. Crockford then found that JavaScript could be used as an object-based messaging format for such a system. The system was sold to [[Sun Microsystems]], [[Amazon.com]], and [[Electronic Data Systems|EDS]].