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Introduction

TickTick enables you to put JSON in bash scripts. Yes, just encapsulate them with two back-ticks.

Note: This is just a fun hack. You may want to consider using mature languages like Ruby or Perl to solve actual real life problems. Oh who am I kidding, I use whitespace and brainfuck every day.

Usage

Proper usage (if there is such a thing), is to place the following line right after the "shbang" at the top of your script. For instance:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Nuclear_meltdown_preventer.sh
#
# This is really important stuff. Don't edit it!
#
. ticktick.sh

..

See how that's near the tippity-top? That's where it's supposed to go. If you put it lower, all bets are off. :-(

API

Arrays

A few array manipulation runtime directives are supported:

Notes:

Objects

Miscellaneous

tickParse - parse things inline

tickVars - see the currently defined variables

tickReset - clear the currently defined variables

__tick_var_debug - See the interim bash code

Bash variables ($) in JSON

Along with assignment operations<sup>1</sup>, and Javascript like indexing into objects and arrays.

Additionally, bash variables (eg., "$name") are preserved in the TickTick blocks. For instance, once could do

<pre> `` Var.Data = [] `` `` Var.Data.push($key) `` bashvar=`` Var.Data.pop() `` </pre>

<sup>1</sup>Although Javascript supports $ prefixed variables, this does not.

Examples

Inline Parsing

#!/bin/bash

. ticktick.sh

bob=Bob

``
  people = {
    "HR" : [
      "Alice",
      $bob,
      "Carol"
    ],
    "Sales": {
      "Gale": { "profits" : 1000 },
      "Harry": { "profits" : 500 }
    }
  }
``

function printEmployees() {
  echo
  echo "  The ``people.Engineering.length()`` Employees listed are:"

  for employee in ``people.Engineering.items()``; do
    printf "    - %s\n" "${!employee}"
  done

  echo 
}

echo Base Assignment
`` people.Engineering = [ "Darren", "Edith", "Frank" ] ``
printEmployees

newPerson=Isaac
echo Pushed a new element by variable, $newPerson onto the array
`` people.Engineering.push($newPerson) ``
printEmployees

echo Shifted the first element off: `` people.Engineering.shift() ``
printEmployees

echo Popped the last value off: `` people.Engineering.pop() ``
printEmployees

echo Indexing an array, doing variable assignments

person0=``people.HR[0]``
echo $person0 ``people.HR[1]``

Using a File or cURL

#!/bin/bash
. ../ticktick.sh

# File
DATA=`cat data.json`
# cURL
#DATA=`curl http://foobar3000.com/echo/request.json`

tickParse "$DATA"

echo ``pathname``
echo ``headers["user-agent"]``

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LICENSE

This software is available under the following licenses:

Parts of this work are derived from JSON.sh, which is also available under the aforementioned licenses.