Super Helpful Chrome Extension for JSON data
Lately, I’ve been working a lot with JSON data from APIs to build practice projects for my own practice. One thing I realized that I had been taking for granted was a super helpful Chrome extension that makes viewing/ understanding JSON data way easier: JSONView.
There are a ton of free APIs full of JSON data out there, but sometimes, especially for new developers, it can be hard to make sense of them. They can look like like an overwhelming jumble of nonsense that seems impossible to navigate. The good news is that the confusion may be due, in part, to how your browser is displaying the data. JSON data is essentially a collection of objects, which are themselves, a collection of key-value pairs. This is relatively simple to see when notated in a conventional way.
So, if you are using google chrome and you want to visit an API of some kind to try and do something with the data, you may stumble upon a page that looks something like this:
Now, the above image looks like a mess. It doesn’t at all look like readable, digestable information unless you really squint. What we really want to see is something tha tlooks more like the first example above. Good news! All you have to do is download the JSONView chrome extension available here. This will format the raw JSON data automatically so that you can read it without hurting your eyes or your brain.
Ahhhh, so much better! You can see here much of the same information as in the earlier example, but it’s so much more clear and doesn’t take up your entire screen. All I did in order to view the data this way was to install the extension- it does the conversion for you. However, if you want to view the data in the original format that your browser displays, you can simply turn off the extension with one click. Do yourself a favor and download the JSONView extension right now. It’ll save you so much time and effort when you’re trying to traverse APIs. Happy coding!
