Basic Idea on JSON

What is JSON?

JSON is a very lightweight data format based on a subset of the JavaScript syntax, namely array and object literals. JSON allows communicating with server in a standard way. JSON is used as communication notation instead of XML.

JSON objects are typed while XML data is typeless
1.JSON types: string, number, array, boolean,
2.XML data are all string

JSON stands for Javascript Object Notation which is a data structuring format that is extremely clean and lightweight. Even though JSON is native to javascript (as in, it can be turned into an object directly by javascript), it is quite easy to handle with other languages, making it an ideal replacement of XML when javascript is involved with the exchange of data (i.e. ajax).

var fruitColors =
{
"apple":"green",
"banana":"yellow",
"orange":"orange"
};

alert(fruitColors .apple); //outputs "green"
alert(fruitColors .orange); //outputs "orange"

The above code creates an javascript object bike with two properties apple and orange

JSON Structures
• A collection of name/value pairs
In various languages, this is realized as an object, record,struct, dictionary, hash table, keyed list, or associative array
• An ordered list of values
In most languages, this is realized as an array, vector, list, or sequence

JSON Object Notation
• A JSON object is an unordered set of name/value pairs
• A JSON object begins with { (left brace) and ends with } (right brace)
• Each name is followed by : (colon) and the name/value pairs are separated by , (comma)

For more info please visit:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb299886.aspx
http://www.json.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON