---
title: "Créer un fichier de configuration JSON"
slug: "basics-of-json-notation"
updated: 2022-11-20T10:16:49Z
published: 2022-11-20T10:16:49Z
canonical: "help.cooperlink.io/basics-of-json-notation"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.cooperlink.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Basics of JSON notation

## Purpose of the article

Javascript Object Notation (JSON) is used primarily in web technologies to:

- creating configuration files (e.g. to configure workflows in the Cooperlink application)
- data storage (e.g. in so-called document or noSQL databases)
- data transfer (e.g. structure of data exchanged as part of a REST API)
- or the exploitation of data in a database

This article explains the basics of scoring.

## Javascript Object Notation (JSON)

As the name suggests, JSON is a notation, not a language. This means that there are no instructions that can be interpreted by a computer or software. JSON allows you to create data structures in the same way as XML (HTML is a language that is interpreted by web browsers).

### Structure

The basic structure of a JSON file is as follows:

```json
{
  "numericKey": numericValue,
  "textKey": "textValue",
  "booleanKey": true,
  "nestedKey":
  {
     "subPropertyKey": value
  },
  "simpleArrayKey": [1, 2, 3],
  "complexArrayKey": [
      {
           "subPropertyKey1": value
      },
      {
           "subPropertyKey2": value
      }
   ]
}
```

The information contained between curcly-braces is called objects, that is, **collections** or structures of heterogeneous data elements. The data is called **properties** and can be of type:

- simple with **key-value pair** syntax: "key": value
- or complex (i.e. combinations of simple collections).

Properties are separated by a **comma** **except when they end a** **collection**.

Property keys are free. But they are interpreted by the software that uses them. A protocol must therefore be defined to establish an interpretable JSON code. Property values can be of different types: numeric, text (in this case make use of quotation marks ""), boolean, ...

Properties can be **nested** , that is, they can themselves contain a collection of properties delimited by braces { }.

The information enclosed in square brackets [ ] is an **array**. An array is a collection of similar data items stored in contiguous memory locations, either properties or objects.

### Media

JSON notation can be used through different media:

- In a text file that is usually given the .json extension (e.g. config.json)
- In a REST API call (e.g. [https://demo-api.cooperlink.io/tasks](https://demo-api.cooperlink.io/tasks) - Requires prior authentication on [https://demo.cooperlink.io)](https://demo.cooperlink.io)
- In a database

## Tools

There are various free tools to manipulate JSON data with visual aids (colorization of properties in particular) and syntax checking.

- Online
  - [https://jsoneditoronline.org/](https://jsoneditoronline.org/)
  - [https://jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com/](https://jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com/)
- Desktop
  - Notepad++