I've started working with JSON recently to define the metadata that my application is going to be using and I needed a good JSON editor for this. I've gone through a few options, but JSONPad was the one that checked all of the boxes, however it does have some minor issues.




JSONPad is an Adobe AIR application, which makes it cross-platform, it looks quite nice too and is easy to use, the toolbar provides buttons for:

• JSON editor to/from JSON object tree loading
• JSON verbose/compressed format switch
• Clipboard
• Tools like XML converter, JSON validator, syntax highlighting

The text area under the toolbar is where the JSON code itself can be edited. The changes here do not have an immediate effect in the JSON tree, you have to click the green down arrow button in the toolbar first, I find this a little annoying.

The JSON tree and properties editor are right under the text area. This provides a structured/graphical way of modifying the JSON code. It's possible to add keys, objects and arrays just by right clicking where you want the new entry inserted. You can also drag anything in the tree around to reposition it, a very handy feature!

One thing I do not like about the properties editor is you have to click the save button after every change or it will prompt you to save.

JSONPad lets you save the JSON code to file too, but where is the load option?!


However, the application does register itself with .json files, so you can open your file directly into the app from your file browser.

A cool feature I found was the XML to JSON screen, it can convert from XML to JSON and also seems to take your existing JSON and convert that to XML, handy for some.


Overall, this app is good if you are working with JSON, but has some minor glitches.

Rating: 4 /5 stars.

-i