clon

A convenient syntax to generate JSON (or YAML) for commandline "mumbo-jumbo".

Syntax Overview

Syntax resembles that of JSON with a few caveats:

• a field is a key/value pair
• fields are separated by space (one or more)
• curly braces hold objects
• square brackets hold arrays

fields

A field is defined by: IDENTIFIER = VALUE .

• field key/value pairs have a equal = between them as in key = value
• each field is separated by space (one or more does not matter)

$ clon firstName = Scarlett lastName = Johansson

generates...

{
   "firstName": "Scarlett",
   "lastName": "Johansson"
}

• values are treated as strings by default
• other types (numbers, booleans, null) need to be prefixed with a colon :
  • es. age = :30 customer = :true
• to refer to an environment variable prefix the value with a ^
  • es. bucket = ^S3_BUCKET
  • by default the .env file in the current folder is used, use the -env-file flag to change it)

$ clon fullName = \"Scarlett Johansson\" age = :36 hot = :true

generates...

{
   "age": 36,
   "fullName": "Scarlett Johansson",
   "hot": true
}

objects

An object is defined by: IDENTIFIER = { fields... }.

• begin a new object using the left curly brace {
• close the object with a right curly brace }

$ clon user = { name=foo age=:30 active=:true address = { zip=123 country=IT } }

generates...

{
   "user": {
      "active": true,
      "address": {
         "country": "IT",
         "zip": "123"
      },
      "age": 30,
      "name": "foo"
   }
}

• you can also use dotted notation (and mix things)

$ clon user = { name=foo age=:30 active=:true address.zip=123 address.country=IT }

$ clon user.name=foo user.age=:30 user.active=:true user.address = {zip=123 country=IT}

$ clon user.name=foo user.age=:30 user.active=:true user.address.zip=123 user.address.country=IT

are all examples that generate the same JSON as above; it's up to you to find your way.

arrays

An array is defined by: IDENTIFIER = [ fields...].

• begin a new array using the left square brace [
• end the array with a right quare brace ]

$ clon tags = [ foo bar qix ]

{
   "tags": [
      "foo",
      "bar",
      "qix"
   ]
}

You can create an array of object too:

$ clon pets = [ { name=Dash kind=cat age=:3 } {name=Harley kind=dog age=:4} ]

{
   "pets": [
      {
         "age": 3,
         "kind": "cat",
         "name": "Dash"
      },
      {
         "age": 4,
         "kind": "dog",
         "name": "Harley"
      }
   ]
}

Usage

$ clon user = { name=foo age=:30 type=C address.zip=123 address.country=Italy }

generates...

{
   "user": {
      "address": {
         "country": "Italy",
         "zip": "123"
      },
      "age": 30,
      "name": "foo",
      "type": "C"
   }
}

Use Cases ?

Create JSON payload and POST it with cURL

$ clon user = { name=Pinco age=:30 address = { zip=123 country=CA } } \
  | curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
         -X POST --data-binary @- \
         https://httpbin.org/anything

Elasticsearch query string query

$ clon query.query_string.query = \"new york city\" \
  | curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
         --data-binary @- http://localhost:9200/_search

How to install?

In order to use the map command, compile it using the following command:

go get -u github.com/lucasepe/map

This will create the executable under your $GOPATH/bin directory.

Ready-To-Use Releases

If you don't want to compile the sourcecode yourself, Here you can find the tool already compiled for:

• MacOS
• Linux
• Windows

Credits

Thanks to @jawher for the amazing jg idea and original implementation - this is a modified fork.

What I changed?

• lexer and parser now can resolve attribute values ​​from environment variables
• dotenv files support
• additional YAML format encoding
• go modules support