Java Script Object Notation (JSON) is a data format which originated from the JavaScript programming world at the end of the 20th century. Although the name suggests it is quite language specific, it is actually a language independent text format which allows you to describe data in a way which is easy for both humans and computers to read and write. Early uses of JSON were specific to the web development world but around 2005-2006 some of the major players in the IT industry began to offer some of their web services to use JSON in addition to XML which they had used before that. If you were someone who worked in the enterprise integration area and in particular with BizTalk, JSON wasn’t something you would be likely to come across before about 2010. If you did, it was usually an unusual scenario. Around this time though there was a large increase in the use of REST based services as an alternative to SOAP based services and closely following that was an increase in scenarios where you may need to use JSON with BizTalk. JSON probably already the default way most new REST based services will offer data, although many do still offer both JSON and XML.
Around this same time, BizTalk introduced us to the REST adapter and BizTalk developers began to explore options for using JSON with BizTalk. This use case will definitely grow a lot in the future versions of BizTalk and we will see more use cases with JSON outside of REST. This is all encouraging stuff, but I feel that a lot of the content around JSON and BizTalk is “how to” based and I felt there was a gap in the area of architectural thinking you should be doing if you are working with JSON as part of your BizTalk setup.
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Richard Seroter is the VP of Product for cloud computing leader CenturyLink, a Microsoft MVP, trainer, speaker, and author of multiple books on application integration strategies. Richard maintains a regularly updated blog on topics of architecture and solution design and can be found on Twitter as @rseroter.
Steef-Jan Wiggers has over 15 years’ experience as a technical lead developer, application architect and consultant, specializing in custom applications, enterprise application integration (BizTalk), Web services and Windows Azure. Steef-Jan is very active in the BizTalk community as a blogger, Wiki author/editor, forum moderator, writer and public speaker in the Netherlands and Europe. For these efforts, Microsoft has recognized him a Microsoft MVP for the past 5 years.
Kent Weare has been employed in the Energy sector in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for the past nine years. He is very passionate about Architecture especially if it involves integrating different systems. Outside his core work responsibilities, you will see him actively participating in technology communities. He recently co-authored three BizTalk books and may be found speaking at Technology events in Canada, the United States and in Europe. He has been recognized for these efforts by Microsoft as a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for the past eight consecutive years.
