prettyjson/README.md

Package for formatting JSON data in a coloured YAML-style, perfect for CLI output

# prettyjson [![Build Status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/rafeca/prettyjson.png)](http://travis-ci.org/rafeca/prettyjson) [![NPM version](https://badge.fury.io/js/prettyjson.png)](http://badge.fury.io/js/prettyjson)

Package for formatting JSON data in a coloured YAML-style, perfect for CLI output.

## How to install

Just install it via NPM:

```bash
$ npm install prettyjson
```

## Using it (from the CLI)

This package installs a command line interface to render JSON data in a more convenient way. You can use the CLI
in three different ways:

**Decode a JSON file:** If you want to see the contents of a JSON file, just pass it as the first argument to the CLI:

```bash
$ prettyjson package.json
```

![Example 1](http://rafeca.com/prettyjson/images/example3.png)

**Decode the stdin:** You can also pipe the result of a command (for example an HTTP request) to the CLI to see
the JSON result in a clearer way:

```bash
$ curl https://api.github.com/users/rafeca | prettyjson
```

![Example 2](http://rafeca.com/prettyjson/images/example4.png)

**Decode random strings:** if you call the CLI with no arguments, you'll get a prompt where you can past JSON strings
and they'll be automatically displayed in a clearer way:

![Example 3](http://rafeca.com/prettyjson/images/example5.png)

If you install the package globally (with `npm install -g prettyjson`), the CLI will be installed automatically in your PATH
thanks to npm.

### Customizing colors via command line

Now it's possible to customize the colors of the output via environment variables, thanks to @bahamas10:

```bash
$ PRETTYJSON_KEYS=red PRETTYJSON_DASH=blue PRETTYJSON_STRING=yellow prettyjson package.json
```

The available options are `PRETTYJSON_KEYS`, `PRETTYJSON_DASH`, `PRETTYJSON_STRING` and `PRETTYJSON_INDENT`.

## Using it (from Node.js)

It's pretty easy to use it... you just have to include it in your script and call the `render()` method:

```javascript
var prettyjson = require('prettyjson');

var data = {
  username: 'rafeca',
  url: 'https://github.com/rafeca',
  twitter_account: 'https://twitter.com/rafeca',
  projects: ['prettyprint', 'connfu']
};

console.log(prettyjson.render(data));
```

And will output:

![Example 4](http://rafeca.com/prettyjson/images/example1.png)

You can also configure the colors of the hash keys and array dashes
(using [colors.js](https://github.com/Marak/colors.js) colors syntax):

```javascript
var prettyjson = require('prettyjson');

var data = {
  username: 'rafeca',
  url: 'https://github.com/rafeca',
  twitter_account: 'https://twitter.com/rafeca',
  projects: ['prettyprint', 'connfu']
};

console.log(prettyjson.render(data, {
  keysColor: 'rainbow',
  dashColor: 'magenta',
  stringColor: 'white'
}));
```

Will output something like:

![Example 5](http://rafeca.com/prettyjson/images/example2.png)

## Annotated source

You can check the [annotated source](http://rafeca.com/prettyjson/prettyjson.html) for more information about how it works

## Running Tests

To run the test suite first invoke the following command within the repo, installing the development dependencies:

```bash
$ npm install --dev
```

then run the tests:

```bash
$ npm test
```

You can check the package's [test coverage](http://rafeca.com/prettyjson/coverage.html) if you are one of those test paranoics