Revision as of 17:04, 4 January 2026

Description

Identification of JSON, YAML, and TOML document types.

Functionality

JSONID parses serialization/deserialization formats ("serde") such as JSON, YAML, and TOML to provide unambiguous identification. JSONID also introduces a declarative syntax for writing document type signatures to enable identification of specific serde document types. Key-value attributes can be shared across formats, and so signatures for JSON and YAML, for example, need only be written once.

Registry

As a temporary placeholder JSONID signatures are available in a registry. The long-term goal of this project is to enable other registries to delivery JSONID compatible signatures, e.g. PRONOM, Wikidata, and remove the need for a centralized resource like this.

Universal fingerprint

JSONID exports two universal fingerprints enabling the assertion of equivalence between different data objects. Universal Numerical Fingerprint (UNF) is also used in the Dataverse project. Content Identifiers (CIDs) come from the IPFS project and enable content-addressed storage within that ecosystem and others.

PRONOM signature development

JSONID provides a high-level language for output of PRONOM compatible signatures. The feature set is still in its BETA phase but JSONID provides two distinct capabilities:

Registry output

JSONID's registry can be output using the `--pronom` flag. A signature file will be created under `jsonid_pronom.xml` which can be imported into DROID for identification of document types registered with JSONID.

JSONID's registry is output alongisde a handful of baseline JSON signatures designed to capture "plain"-JSON that is not yet encoded in the registry.

Signature development

A standalone `json2pronom` utility is provided for creation of potentially robust DROID compatible signatures.

As a high-level language, signatures can be defined in easy to understand syntax and then output consistently via the `json2pronom` utility. Signatures include sensible defaults for whitespace and other aspects that are difficult for signature developers to consistently anticipate when writing JSON based signatures.

See the JSONID docs for more information.

User experiences

Development Activity

	Identification of JSON, YAML, and TOML document types
Homepage:	https://github.com/ffdev-info/jsonid
Source Code:	https://github.com/ffdev-info/jsonid
License:	Apache 2.0
Cost:	Free and Open Source (FOSS)
Platforms:	Windows, Linux, MacOS
Language:	Python
Input Formats:	JSON, JSONL, YAML, TOML
Function:	File Format Identification

All development activity is visible on GitHub: https://github.com/ffdev-info/jsonid/commits

Release Feed

Below the last 3 release feeds:

2026-04-08 07:17:21: [tag:github.com,2008:Repository/964720703/0.12.4 0.12.4]; by github-actions[bot]
2026-01-15 15:59:23: [tag:github.com,2008:Repository/964720703/0.12.3 0.12.3]; by github-actions[bot]
2026-01-04 23:05:32: [tag:github.com,2008:Repository/964720703/0.12.2 0.12.2]; by github-actions[bot]

Activity Feed

Below the last 5 commits:

2026-04-08 07:10:46: [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/6b874c6a3ce1831df92294b52a92243eb29ccbf2 Update registry entries]; by ross-spencer https://github.com/ross-spencer
2026-04-08 07:10:29: [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/497ed60a1175a555cbbc371195af337eb6543831 Update ToC]; by ross-spencer https://github.com/ross-spencer
2026-04-08 07:09:11: [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/33e773cfdf5d187c9b31cf4e6dc48d43d6ed3c21 Update readme and apply linting]; by ross-spencer https://github.com/ross-spencer
2026-04-08 07:01:47: [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/bf8dd4d8b5a79adebbbd0738f4c37665c48a952e Add DROID reference file]; by ross-spencer https://github.com/ross-spencer
2026-04-08 06:56:27: [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/2a17f07b8d288d3b1c418bb614f715d2fc0a7550 Add pylint exception]; by ross-spencer https://github.com/ross-spencer

Difference between revisions of "JSONID"