Using Jsonix in Node.js Programs

Using Jsonix in Node.js Programs

Adding Jsonix to package.json

To use Jsonix with node.js you will first need to add it as dependency in your package.json:

{
    "name": "mypackage",
    "..." : "...",
    "dependencies": {
        "jsonix": "~<VERSION>",
        "..." : "...",
    }
}

If you wish also to compile your schema during the build, also add jsonix-schema-compiler as dependency and configure compilation in prepublish:

{
    "name": "mypackage",
    "..." : "...",
    "dependencies": {
        "jsonix": "~<VERSION>",
        "jsonix-schema-compiler": "~<VERSION>",
        "..." : "..."
    },
    "scripts" : {
        "prepublish" : "java -jar node_modules/jsonix-schema-compiler/lib/jsonix-schema-compiler-full.jar -d mappings mySchema.xsd -b bindings.xjb",
        "..." : "..."
    }
}

See Jsonix Schema Compiler - NPM Usage for mor information.

Using Jsonix in your Node.js code

Once you've added Jsonix as a dependency, you can now require it in your node.js code:

var Jsonix = require('jsonix').Jsonix;

You will also need to required your mappings. Assuming you have generated mappings for you schema in mappings/MySchema.js file:

var MySchema = require('../mappings/MySchema').MySchema;

Now you're ready to create Jsonix context, use it to construct marshallers and unmarshallers and use the to parse and serialize JSON from/to XML:

var context = new Jsonix.Context([ MySchema ]);

var unmarshaller = context.createUnmarshaller();
		
// Unmarshal the XML file
unmarshaller.unmarshalFile( 'my.xml',
	function(myElement) {
		var myData = myElement.value;
		// ...
	});

var myNewElement = {
	// ...
};

var marshaller = context.createMarshaller();
console.log(marshaller.marshalString(myNewElement));

If you get an error like

/Users/johncarlson/Source/x3djson/mappings/x3djson.jsonschema:3
    "id":"#",
        ^
SyntaxError: Unexpected token :
    at exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:53:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:413:25)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:448:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)
    at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
    at require (module.js:384:17)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Users/johncarlson/Source/x3djson/js/generatex3djson.js:2:21)
    at Module._compile (module.js:430:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:448:10)

You are probably including the JSON and not the JS schema mappings.

If you get an error like:

/Users/johncarlson/Source/x3djson/node_modules/xmlhttprequest/lib/XMLHttpRequest.js:292
        throw "Protocol not supported.";
        ^
Protocol not supported.

It's likely you need to use unmarshallFile instead of unmarshallURL.