Convert JSON String(Prettified) back to raw string(with all the escape characters)

Question

So I have a json string as shown below:

 {"count":1,"items":[{"rating":"teens","videos":[{"width":1280,"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/playback/play/99e2399e-368b","dar_image":1.7777777778,"language":"eng","duration":5166,"type":"main","id":"99e2399e-368b","dar_frame":1.7777777778,"height":720}],"trial":false,"metadata_language":"eng","year":2003,"images":[{"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/image/1675610d-e57e.jpg","type":"poster","id":"1675610d-e57e","orientation":"landscape"}],"id":"d0e9d382-e2d4","has_download_policy":true,"title":"Ice Bound","section":"hollywood","crew":[{"role":"director","name":"Roger Spottiswoode"}],"type":"movie","website_url":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/eng/movie/pkdaci6s-ice-bound","description":"Testin'g «ταБЬℓσ»: 1<{2 & 4+1}>3, now 20% off!@#$%^&*(). Another Testing String ","link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/movie/d0e9d382-e2d4","slug":"pkdaci6s","categories":[{"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/category/ca8a9dce-514d","id":"ca8a9dce-514d","title":"Drama"}],"metadata_direction":"ltr","audio_languages":["eng"],"cast":[{"name":"Susan Sarandon"},{"name":"Aidan Devine"},{"name":"Cynthia Mace"}]}],"remaining":1}

I need to convert this to a raw string format, where all the special characters and symbols get replaced with unicode or have escape characters.

 {"count":1,"items":[{"rating":"teens","videos":[{"width":1280,"link":"http:\/\/192.168.195.86:1081\/playback\/play\/99e2399e-368b","dar_image":1.7777777778,"language":"eng","duration":5166,"type":"main","id":"99e2399e-368b","dar_frame":1.7777777778,"height":720}],"trial":false,"metadata_language":"eng","year":2003,"images":[{"link":"http:\/\/192.168.195.86:1081\/image\/1675610d-e57e.jpg","type":"poster","id":"1675610d-e57e","orientation":"landscape"}],"id":"d0e9d382-e2d4","has_download_policy":true,"title":"Ice Bound","section":"hollywood","crew":[{"role":"director","name":"Roger Spottiswoode"}],"type":"movie","website_url":"http:\/\/192.168.195.86:1081\/eng\/movie\/pkdaci6s-ice-bound","description":"Testin\'g \u2xxx \u2xxx\u2xxx\u2xxx\u2xxx\u2xxx\u2xxx\u2xxx: 1<{2 & 4+1}>3, now 20% off!@#$%^&*(). Another Testing String ","link":"http:\/\/192.168.195.86:1081\/movie\/d0e9d382-e2d4","slug":"pkdaci6s","categories":[{"link":"http:\/\/192.168.195.86:1081\/category\/ca8a9dce-514d","id":"ca8a9dce-514d","title":"Drama"}],"metadata_direction":"ltr","audio_languages":["eng"],"cast":[{"name":"Susan Sarandon"},{"name":"Aidan Devine"},{"name":"Cynthia Mace"}]}],"remaining":1}

How will I do this in javascript?
All pointers are welcome.

Example link http://api.icflix.com/tv/catalogue/movies?num=1

@xkcd149 , I think that he wants to convert string to string. — ROMANIA_engineer, Jan 08 '16 at 20:28
take a look at this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32155133 also "escape" might be a more appropriate term...? — Daniel Lizik, Jan 08 '16 at 20:30
Your example seems to show you are "escaping" [SLASH] with [BACKSLASH][SLASH]. Why would you do that? [SLASH] is a "plain-old character" in all languages I'm familiar with, not in need of escaping. — Dan H, Jan 08 '16 at 20:39

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 08 '16 at 22:11

Try this:

function escapeString(str) {
    var result = '',
        code;

    for (var i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
        code = str.charCodeAt(i);
        if (code < 32 || code > 126) {
            result += '\\u2' + code;
        } else {
            result += str[i];
        }
    }
    return result;
}

var orig = '{"count":1,"items":[{"rating":"teens","videos":[{"width":1280,"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/playback/play/99e2399e-368b","dar_image":1.7777777778,"language":"eng","duration":5166,"type":"main","id":"99e2399e-368b","dar_frame":1.7777777778,"height":720}],"trial":false,"metadata_language":"eng","year":2003,"images":[{"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/image/1675610d-e57e.jpg","type":"poster","id":"1675610d-e57e","orientation":"landscape"}],"id":"d0e9d382-e2d4","has_download_policy":true,"title":"Ice Bound","section":"hollywood","crew":[{"role":"director","name":"Roger Spottiswoode"}],"type":"movie","website_url":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/eng/movie/pkdaci6s-ice-bound","description":"Testin\'g «ταБЬℓσ»: 1<{2 & 4+1}>3, now 20% off!@#$%^&*(). Another Testing String ","link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/movie/d0e9d382-e2d4","slug":"pkdaci6s","categories":[{"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/category/ca8a9dce-514d","id":"ca8a9dce-514d","title":"Drama"}],"metadata_direction":"ltr","audio_languages":["eng"],"cast":[{"name":"Susan Sarandon"},{"name":"Aidan Devine"},{"name":"Cynthia Mace"}]}],"remaining":1} ';

result = escapeString(orig);
console.log(result);

Result:

{"count":1,"items":[{"rating":"teens","videos":[{"width":1280,"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/playback/play/99e2399e-368b","dar_image":1.7777777778,"language":"eng","duration":5166,"type":"main","id":"99e2399e-368b","dar_frame":1.7777777778,"height":720}],"trial":false,"metadata_language":"eng","year":2003,"images":[{"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/image/1675610d-e57e.jpg","type":"poster","id":"1675610d-e57e","orientation":"landscape"}],"id":"d0e9d382-e2d4","has_download_policy":true,"title":"Ice Bound","section":"hollywood","crew":[{"role":"director","name":"Roger Spottiswoode"}],"type":"movie","website_url":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/eng/movie/pkdaci6s-ice-bound","description":"Testin'g \u2171\u2964\u2945\u21041\u21068\u28467\u2963\u2187: 1<{2 & 4+1}>3, now 20% off!@#$%^&*(). Another Testing String ","link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/movie/d0e9d382-e2d4","slug":"pkdaci6s","categories":[{"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/category/ca8a9dce-514d","id":"ca8a9dce-514d","title":"Drama"}],"metadata_direction":"ltr","audio_languages":["eng"],"cast":[{"name":"Susan Sarandon"},{"name":"Aidan Devine"},{"name":"Cynthia Mace"}]}],"remaining":1}

Or this:

result = orig.split('').map(function(v) {
    var code = v.charCodeAt(0);
    if (code < 32 || code > 126) {
        return '\\u2' + code;
    } else {
        return v;
    }
}).join('');

console.log(result);

Same result:

{"count":1,"items":[{"rating":"teens","videos":[{"width":1280,"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/playback/play/99e2399e-368b","dar_image":1.7777777778,"language":"eng","duration":5166,"type":"main","id":"99e2399e-368b","dar_frame":1.7777777778,"height":720}],"trial":false,"metadata_language":"eng","year":2003,"images":[{"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/image/1675610d-e57e.jpg","type":"poster","id":"1675610d-e57e","orientation":"landscape"}],"id":"d0e9d382-e2d4","has_download_policy":true,"title":"Ice Bound","section":"hollywood","crew":[{"role":"director","name":"Roger Spottiswoode"}],"type":"movie","website_url":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/eng/movie/pkdaci6s-ice-bound","description":"Testin'g \u2171\u2964\u2945\u21041\u21068\u28467\u2963\u2187: 1<{2 & 4+1}>3, now 20% off!@#$%^&*(). Another Testing String ","link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/movie/d0e9d382-e2d4","slug":"pkdaci6s","categories":[{"link":"http://192.168.195.86:1081/category/ca8a9dce-514d","id":"ca8a9dce-514d","title":"Drama"}],"metadata_direction":"ltr","audio_languages":["eng"],"cast":[{"name":"Susan Sarandon"},{"name":"Aidan Devine"},{"name":"Cynthia Mace"}]}],"remaining":1}

The code considers anything below 32 and above 126 to be special characters. You need to update it for you scenario.

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

With the help of this post.

You can parse your string using JSON.parse() (if you don't already have it as an object), and then recursively run through all its properties. For properties that are neither an object nor an array, encode each value using encodeURIComponent().

DEMO:

Here's the JSFiddle.

CODE:

Consider obj a parsed object from your first JSON string in your question. Here's the code in case the JSFiddle link breaks:

escapeObject(obj);
var escaped = JSON.stringify(obj);
document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = escaped;

function escapeObject(theObject) {
  var result = null;
  if(theObject instanceof Array) {
    for(var i = 0; i < theObject.length; i++) {
        result = escapeObject(theObject[i]);
        if (result) {
            break;
        }   
    }
  }
  else
  {        
      for(var prop in theObject) {    
        if (typeof theObject[prop] == typeof "") {
          var escValue = encodeURIComponent(theObject[prop]);
          theObject[prop] = escValue;  
        }
        if(theObject[prop] instanceof Object || theObject[prop] instanceof Array) {
            result = escapeObject(theObject[prop]);
            if (result) {
                break;
            }
        }

    };
  }
  return result;
}

Convert JSON String(Prettified) back to raw string(with all the escape characters)

2 Answers2