NAME

JSON::Server - JSON-only server

SYNOPSIS

use JSON::Server;
my $js = JSON::Server->new (handler => \& hello, port => '7777', data => 'OK');
$js->serve ();

sub hello
{
    my ($data, $input) = @_;
    return {%$input, hello => 'world', data => $data};
}

(This example is included as synopsis.pl in the distribution.)

Then test your server:

$ perl examples/synopsis.pl &
$ telnet localhost 7777
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
{"I'm feeling lucky":"punk"}
{
        "I'm feeling lucky":"punk",
        "data":"OK",
        "hello":"world"
}
Connection closed by foreign host.

VERSION

This documents version 0.00_05 of JSON-Server corresponding to git commit 71cae7de6b2d061388b6bcc05c5ef6efd2a280c1 released on Sun Feb 7 08:01:36 2021 +0900.

DESCRIPTION

This sets up an internet socket through which JSON passes.

METHODS

new

    my $js = JSON::Server->new (handler => \& something, data => $my_data,
		                port => '3737');
data

Your data which you want to pass to the handler. This can be omitted, in which case the handler will be sent an undefined value as its first argument.

handler

Your handler (callback).

sub handler
{
    my ($data, $input) = @_;
    return {error => "I don't like this input"};
}
my $js = JSON::Server->new (handler => \&handler);

The handler function should accept two arguments, the first is the user data which is supplied to "new" and the second is the parsed input from the socket. It should return one value which is then passed back through the socket as JSON. The user handler function does not serialize or deserialize anything, usually it would take a hash reference as an argument and return a hash reference as result.

If you do not supply a handler, the server substitutes an echo function which merely returns your input back to you, and prints a warning.

port

The port to serve on. This needs to be specified, there is no default value.

serve

$js->serve ();

Serves JSON on the specified port. Input is JSON, output is JSON. Non-JSON input results in a response of the form {"error":"invalid JSON"} being returned. What is or is not valid JSON is decided by "valid_json" in JSON::Parse.

CONTROLLING THE SERVER

There is a "backdoor" for controlling the server. To access this, you need to send an object (a hash reference) with the key JSON::Server::control,

send_to_server ({'JSON::Server::control' => 'stop'});

It accepts the following commands:

stop

{"JSON::Server::control":"stop"} causes the server to return from its event loop. It prints a response {"JSON::Server::response":"stopping"} to acknowledge the control message.

Whatever else is sent in the object with the control message is discarded.

DEPENDENCIES

boolean

boolean is used as the compatibility module for putting true or false values into the JSON, so if you need those in your output,

use boolean;

and then

my $value = true;

etc. in your code to get true and false literals in your JSON. (Perl's built-in undef will produce null. See the documentation of JSON::Create for full details about literals.)

IO::Socket

This is used to communicate the information to and from the client.

JSON::Create

This is used to encode the response JSON from a native structure.

JSON::Parse

This is used to decode the received JSON into a native structure.

"decode_utf8" in Unicode::UTF8

This is used to convert the received JSON from the socket before it is passed to "JSON::Parse".

SEE ALSO

JRPC
JSON::RPC::Dispatcher
JSON::RPC
RPC::JSON

AUTHOR

Ben Bullock, <bkb@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT & LICENCE

This package and associated files are copyright (C) 2021 Ben Bullock.

You can use, copy, modify and redistribute this package and associated files under the Perl Artistic Licence or the GNU General Public Licence.