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converting 'malformed' java json object to javascript

I have a Java JSON Object, its format is [{a=b}], I am trying to pass this object into javascript as a JSON object but its missing " on both the key and value as well as having "=" instead of ":"
Is there a simple way of converting this JAVA JSON object to be consumable by different services?
Parsing is proving to be very complicated as the actual JSON is nested and the lack of quotations and the lacking of indications for nestedness.
Sample of 'JSON' data:
[{wwnType=Virtual, serialNumberType=Virtual, connections=[], modified=2016-10-29T19:00:04.457Z, macType=Virtual, category=server-profile-templates, serverHardwareTypeUri=/rest/server-hardware-types/32006464-D3C6-4B4E-8328-47A193C6116C, bios={overriddenSettings=[], manageBios=false}, firmware={firmwareBaselineUri=null, manageFirmware=false, forceInstallFirmware=false, firmwareInstallType=null}, boot={manageBoot=true, order=[CD, Floppy, USB, HardDisk, PXE]}, hideUnusedFlexNics=true, bootMode=null, state=null, affinity=Bay, localStorage={controllers=[]}, type=ServerProfileTemplateV1, status=OK, description=, eTag=1477767604457/1, serverProfileDescription=test, name=test, created=2016-10-29T19:00:04.428Z, enclosureGroupUri=/rest/enclosure-groups/e989621b-930e-40e7-9db0-a6ddbf841709, uri=/rest/server-profile-templates/db1dbdcc-4237-4452-acc3-cf9dfdc75365, sanStorage={manageSanStorage=false, volumeAttachments=[]}}]
Thanks

It's not going to be simple. However, I think you can do this without writing a full-fledged parser, as long as you're willing to write a tokenizer, or lexical analyzer, to break your input string into tokens. The basic plan could be something like:
Convert your input into a list of tokens. I don't know what the format of your input is, so you'll need to do your own analysis. A token would be something like a single character [, ], {, }, comma, =; or an identifier (a or b in your example, but I don't know what the possible valid formats are); or, maybe, a string literal in quotes, or a numeric literal, depending on what your needs are.
Go through the string and replace the tokens you need to. Based on your example, I'd say that after a {: if the first token after that is an identifier, put it in quotes; if the second token after that is =, change it to :; if the third token after that is an identifier, put it in quotes. The same could be true after a comma, but you'll need to keep track of whether the comma is a separator for a list of key-value pairs in an object, or a list of values in an array. For that, you may need to keep a stack that you push whenever you see [ or {, and pop whenever you see } or ], so that you know whether you're inside an object or an array.
After you're done replacing everything, concatenate the tokens back together. The result should be a well-formed JSON object.
This is just a rough outline, since I really don't know all your requirements. You'll probably have to adapt this answer to meet your exact needs. But I hope this helps as a general idea of how you could approach the problem.
Sorry, I don't think there's a simpler answer, except that you might want to look into parser generators (see Yacc equivalent for Java). I haven't actually looked at any in Java, so I don't know how simple they are to use. Please don't try to solve the whole thing with regexes. (Regexes will be useful for breaking your string into tokens, but trying to do more than that with regexes is likely to produce nothing but migraine.)

I think isn't json object. json object should be like this.
Example:
JSONObject obj = new JSONObject();
obj.put("a", "b");
obj.put("name", "your name");
Output: {"a": "b", "name":"your name"}
Passing into javascript
var obj = '{"a": "b", "name":"your name"}',
var json = JSON.parse(obj);

Why and when do we need to flatten JSON objects?

I am surprised that no one on StackOverflow asked this question before.
Looking through the JSON object documentation and a quick google search did not yield satisfactory results.
What's the advantage of it? How does it work?
Edit: To make it clear, take a look at this flatten/un-flatten example.
Fastest way to flatten / un-flatten nested JSON objects
Thank you.

There are many situations where you get JSON text that was automatically built by some library. Throughout the programming languages, there are many libraries that build JSON text (one example is here).
Whenever libraries add some additional object or array wrappings, you might want to get rid of them maybe because you send the JSON to the server and your code there crashes because it expects a primitive value instead of an object (or an array). Or, if your JSON is a server response, you don't want the resulting Javascript code having to differ between object/array or not object/array. In all these cases, flattening is helpful as it will save you time. You will have to implement lesser if/elses, and you can reliably expect your data structure to be as flat as possible.
The other approach to improve code for the scenario mentioned is to write the code in a maximal robust way so there is no way for it to crash by superfluous wrappings ever. So always expect some wrappers and get it's contents. Then, flattening is not needed.
You see, it depends on what is building the JSON and what is parsing it. The building may be out of your scope.
This leads also to data model questions. I've worked with XML code that needed to be parsed quiet a different way if there where 0 entries of some XY, or if there were >0 entries of some XY. Having a wrapper that is allowed to have 0 or more entries of some XY will make live easier. These are data model desicions.
In all cases where the JSON represents an object structure that I've combined manually, I expect it not to change. So flattening something I've designed in detail would be disturbing. Standard operations as far I've seen them do not need flattening (e.g. JSON.stringify(), json_encode() etc.)

Here's a simple scenario: In a web app you have an HTTP POST that is updating a complex relational object.
POST
update=1
&user.id=12345
&user.email=testmail#domain.tld
&user.profile.name=Mr. Test
&user.profile.age=42
&user.profile.friend.0.email=tom#domain.tld
&user.profile.friend.1.email=sally#domain.tld
&user.profile.friend.2.email=bob#domain.tld
&user.profile.skill.0.id=100
&user.profile.skill.0.name=javascript
&user.profile.skill.1.id=200
&user.profile.skill.1.name=piano
Everything is already in a flat structure, so why not have a simple one-to-one binding? If you had a list of constraints or security requirements that you needed to enforce you could validate them by searching directly on the sorted key list.
Flat structures are easier for people to understand and work with there's even some cross-over with database de-normalisation. It also allows for context specific security and constraints to be implemented in a readable, but more verbose way.
When showing a user's view in full you may want to hide the display of the primary key ID for the user's list of skills.
"user.profile.skill.#.id": { hidden: true, readonly: true }
But when looking directly at a skill (to possibly edit it as an administrator) you may want to see the ID.
"skill.id": { readonly: true }
If you were writing a user-centric/self-service type CMS application you'd get more users on board and able to contribute using a straightforward flat model (flat abstraction of the underlying nested relational model) than you would with just the nested model.
TLDR: Flat is easier to read than nested. While programmers can handle nested schemas, recursive parsing and processing; end-users and admins usually prefer that part abstracted away.

I realize this is a 5 year old question at this point, but I figured, I'd add my thoughts to it, in case someone runs into a similar use case and finds this useful.
One of the use cases why you would want to flatten a JSON object, is for dynamic template binding via Regular Expression (RegEx) string interpolation. Well wasn't that a mouthful 👀😅? It simply translates to "template filling a string without hardcoding".
Ok Imagine a scenario, you have a template string like this for an email:
Hello {{firstName}},
It is amazing you chose to join our site. We are happy to have you on board.
To get started, we would really love it if you can confirm your email address
by clicking on the link: {{confirm_url}}.
Welcome aboard
The Team!
Given the following JSON object in memory:
{
"user" : {
"prefix" : "Dr.",
"firstName" : "Awah",
"lastName" : "Teh",
"email" : "awah#superduperubercoolsite.com",
"address" : {
"street": "100 Main St",
"city" : "PleasantVille",
"state" : "NY",
"phone" : "+1-212-555-1212"
}
},
"meta" : {
"confirm_url" : "http://superduperubercoolsite.com/confirm/ABC123"
}
}
it seems super simple to do a Regular Expression replace like so (assuming our email template string was stored in a variable named template and the json object was stored in a variable called templateData:
template = template.replace(new RegExp('{{firstName}}', 'g'), templateData.user.firstName);
template = template.replace(new RegExp('{{confirm_url}}', 'g'), templateData.meta.confirm_url);
Easy right? --> Actually yes! How about this email had 10 templated fields, or you wanted to decouple the template from the code, by storing it in a separate system like SendGrid, where your cool head of marketing can access the template and make changes to the copy-language, without having to call someone from engineering to make changes to the code, test the code and redeploy to production (what a hassle).
This is exactly where flattening of the JSON comes save the day!
Now there are many ways to flatten JSON, I have attached a link to a codepen I wrote that has logic to flatten JSON (actually, I demonstrate two similar but different approaches in the methods flattenJSONIntoKVP and flattenJSONIntoRAW check 'em out!).
That said, there are other implementations out there, and it is worth remembering that the focus on this post is to discuss the WHY JSON flattening could be useful, not the HOW.
Moving on! Assume you flattened the JSON from above (using my implementation that results in key value pairs) to something like this:
[
{ "key": "user.prefix", "value": "Dr."},
{ "key": "user.firstName", "value": "Awah"},
{ "key": "user.lastName", "value": "Teh"},
{ "key": "user.email", "value": "awah#superduperubercoolsite.com"},
{ "key": "user.address.street", "value": "100 Main St"},
{ "key": "user.address.city", "value": "{PleasantVille"},
{ "key": "user.address.state", "value": "NY"},
{ "key": "user.address.phone", "value": "+1-212-555-1212"},
{ "key": "meta.confirm_url", "value": "http://superduperubercoolsite.com/confirm/ABC123"},
]
Now, my friend, you are cooking with GAS!
Why, cause now you can dynamically interpolate the template string with values from the JSON object without giving too much worry to the structure of the JSON (if it changes due to the application evolving, you don't have to also remember to come down here and change this interpolation code -- you simply just have to update the email template itself, which mind you, is on SendGrid [per this example]).
So how to do it you say?: Simple, iteratively. Let's assume that flattened from above was stored in a variable called flatJSON:
///Notice how I use Javascripts native string interpolation to create my RegExp
///Also note that I am replacing the dot (.) in my flattened JSON variable names with a double underscore (__), I only do this because my intended target is SendGrid, and I don't believe it likes dots in its template placeholders.
flatJSON.forEach(kvp=>template = template.replace(new RegExp(`{{${kvp.key.replace(/\./g, '__'}}}`, 'g'), kvp.value));
That's it, one line of code to replace possibly 10 or even hundreds or even thousands (ok.. maybe not thousands, but you get the point).
Ohh! almost forgot, we need to update our template string.
Notice how now, in our new templated string we can use a somewhat FQDN style variable to map back to our original JSON (Ideally if SendGrid supported dots in their template placeholders, this would look super sweet but alas, can't always win everything!😭.
Hello {{user__firstName}},
It is amazing you chose to join our site. We are happy to have you on board.
To get started, we would really love it if you can confirm your email address
by clicking on the link: {{meta__confirm_url}}.
Welcome aboard {{user__prefix}} {{user__lastName}}!
The Team!
Et Voila!
Just like that, we have accomplished some good here today; we have:
Answered the WHY of flattening JSON objects
We dibble-dabbled into the how, with the codepen example
And we even overviewed a use case where taking advantage of JSON flattening can help you write durable dynamic code, that evolves as your underlying object structures change -- and that doesn't require you to leverage the big bad ugly eval method (we can talk about big bad ugly eval on another post).

Why JSON result could be boolean instead of object or array?

From JSON website:
JSON is built on two structures:
A collection of name/value pairs. In various languages, this is realized as an object, record, struct, dictionary, hash table, keyed list, or associative array.
An ordered list of values. In most languages, this is realized as an array, vector, list, or sequence.
Now I have a sample service that returns a boolean (this is in PHP, but it could be any server side language):
<?php
header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo 'true';
exit;
And when requesting this page with ajax (for example with jQuery):
$.ajax({
url: 'service.php',
dataType: 'json',
success: function (data) {
console.log(data);
console.log(typeof data);
}
});
The result would be:
-> true
-> boolean
My question is why it's allowed to return boolean as a JSON.
Doesn't it have conflict with JSON definition?
ALSO
Also I can return number or string in my service:
<?php
header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo '2013';
exit;
And the result is:
-> 2013
-> number
And for string:
<?php
header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo '"What is going on?"';
exit;
And the result is:
-> What is going on?
-> string

You are correct that a valid JSON text can only be an object or an array. I asked Douglas Crockford about this in 2009 and he confirmed it, saying "Strictly speaking, it is object|array, as in the RFC."
The JSON RFC specifies this in section 2:
A JSON text is a serialized object or array.
JSON-text = object / array
The original JSON syntax listed on json.org does not make this clear at all. It defines all of the JSON types, but it doesn't say anywhere which of these types may be used as a "JSON text" - a complete valid piece of JSON.
That's why I asked Doug about it and he referred me to the RFC. Unfortunately, he didn't follow up on my suggestion to update json.org to clarify this.
Probably because of this confusion, many JSON libraries will happily create and parse (invalid) JSON for a standalone string, number, boolean, etc. even though those aren't really valid JSON.
Some JSON parsers are more strict. For example, jsonlint.com rejects JSON texts such as 101, "abc", and true. It only accepts an object or array.
This distinction may not matter much if you're just generating JSON data for consumption in your own web app. After all, JSON.parse() is happy to parse it, and that probably holds true in all browsers.
But it is important if you ever generate JSON for other people to use. There you should follow the standard more strictly.
I would suggest following it even in your own app, partly because there's a practical benefit: By sending down an object instead of a bare string, you have a built-in place to add more information if you ever need to, in the form of additional properties in the object.
Along those lines, when I'm defining a JSON API, I never use an array at the topmost level. If what I have is an array of items of some sort, I still wrap it in an object:
{
"items": [
...
]
}
This is partly for the same reason: If I later want to add something else to the response, having the top level be an object makes that easy to do without disrupting any existing client code.
Perhaps more importantly, there's also a possible security risk with JSON arrays. (I think that risk only affects the use of eval() or the Function constructor to parse JSON, so you're safe with JSON.parse(), but I'm not 100% sure on this.)

Note, the answer from Michael Geary is outdated since rfc7158 in 2013 which does not limit JSON text to array or object anymore. The current RFC https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8259 says:
A JSON text is a serialized value. Note that certain previous
specifications of JSON constrained a JSON text to be an object or an
array. Implementations that generate only objects or arrays where a
JSON text is called for will be interoperable in the sense that all
implementations will accept these as conforming JSON texts.

Variable in JSON

I don't have much experience with JSON, I want to know if something like this is possible.
{
"variable": "A really long value that will take up a lot of space if repeated",
"array": [variable, variable, variable]
}
Obviously that isn't valid, but I want to know if there is a way to do this. I tried using "variable" but of course that just sets the array item to the string "variable". The reason I want to do this is I need to repeat long values in a multidimensional array, which takes up a lot of space.
Thanks.

If you are willing to do some post-processing on the JSON after parsing it, then you can use a token value in your array, and replace the token after parsing with the variable. Example:
{
"variable": "A really long value",
"array": ["variable", "variable", "variable"]
}
Then, in your code that parses:
var obj = JSON.parse(str);
for (var i=0; i<obj.array.length; i++)
{
obj.array[i] = obj[obj.array[i]];
}

Are you worried about space in the output, or in the object created from the JSON? In the latter case, it's likely that the string values will be coalesced when the parsing happens.
If you're concerned about the size of the JSON, then you'll probably either want to change to another format, or de-duplicate the strings in the JSON.
You could add an object to your JSON data that maps ID numbers to strings, then use the IDs to represent te strings.

There is no way to do this in pure JSON (full spec here).
If you wanted to do something like that you might want to look into templating tools such as Handlebars

you will get your answer here jason tutorial for beginners
example:
var data={
"firstName":"Ray",
"lastName":"Villalobos",
"joined":2012
};

JavaScript dictionary encoder for short text

I have the following JSON:
{"test": {"property 1": 345, "property 2": 976, "property 3": "asd"}}
I need to compress it to be very short, like that (in URL)
/#params=abs54sgdasd1we!ewd
I have a list of defined properties on that JSON, so that's why I'm asking what is the best dictionary encoder for JS. Later I should be able to decode from that string back to JSON.

You could just HTMLencode the whole JSON string. Remember that you need the key in "key": "value" pairs in the Object/"Associative array"/"dictionary", since ordering is not mandatory for that. Otherwise, 345|976|"asd" could end up as 976|"asd"|345 without the keys and have unexpected results. Otherwise, covert it to an Array/List so the order is maintained and you only rely on the order of values.
If "very short" is the main requirement and it must be in the URL, then store the JSON in a DB and generate an id or hash (like crc, md5) based on it as a lookup key which you can add to the URL parameters.
Edit: The property1,2,3 names can be reduced to a, b, c if you don't want to switch to an Array.
Edit2: If the application it will interact with is cookie aware, you could store the data in a cookie and the hash in the URL.
And, if the values of property 1-3 are limited, you could map them to predefined values of fixed length.