JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a popular data format that is used by many applications to store/transmit/receive hierarchically organised information, like the properties of a list of items. The 'to_json' attribute in Movable Type lets you output data stored in array and hash variables directly in JSON format, without the need for additional loop tags or template code.
<mt:setvarblock name="item{color}">blue</mt:setvarblock><mt:setvarblock name="item{id}">5</mt:setvarblock><mt:setvarblock name="item{status}">OK</mt:setvarblock><mt:var name="item" to_json="1">
This will result in:
{"color":"blue","status":"OK","id":"5"}
Or with a simple array:
<mt:var name="items[0]" value="zero"><mt:var name="items[1]" value="one"><mt:var name="items[2]" value="two"><mt:var name="items[3]" value="three"><mt:var name="items" to_json="1">
Which results in:
["zero","one","two","three"]
It even works recursively:
<mt:setvarblock name="item{color}">blue</mt:setvarblock><mt:setvarblock name="item{id}">5</mt:setvarblock><mt:setvarblock name="item{status}">OK</mt:setvarblock><mt:var name="items{first}" value="$item"><mt:setvarblock name="item{color}">red</mt:setvarblock><mt:setvarblock name="item{id}">7</mt:setvarblock><mt:setvarblock name="item{status}">INACTIVE</mt:setvarblock><mt:var name="items{second}" value="$item"><mt:var name="items" to_json="1">
This results in:
{"first":{"color":"blue","status":"OK","id":"5"},"second":{"color":"red","status":"INACTIVE","id":"7"}}
Neat! I'm sure this will come in handy if you ever need to export large amounts of data from Movable Type in JSON format...
Tweet
Thanks for the tip, Maarten. For more on how to use the JSON in a MT template, I'd recommend the following article:
http://thecomposingstick.com/2010/03/using-jquery-with-movable-type.html
It's truly very difficult in this busy life to listen news on Television, therefore I simply use world wide web for that purpose, and get the most recent news.