zjson

zjson — JSON via Source Copy

Add JSON parsing and generation to a Java project by copying the org.json source files in — no Maven or Gradle dependency.

What is zjson

A Java 25, zero-dependency fork of the org.json reference implementation, trimmed to three classes:

• JSONObject — JSON object: key/value map with typed accessors

• JSONArray — JSON array: ordered values, Iterable<Object>

• JSONTokener — the parser both classes delegate to

• Package: org.json

• Source: https://github.com/AdamBien/z-JSON-java (src/main/java/org/json)

• Requires: Java 21+ (developed against Java 25)

Not included in this fork: JSONStringer, JSONWriter, XML/CDL/HTTP/Cookie conversion. Use JSONObject and JSONArray for building output.

Source Integration

Copy the org/json package into the project's source root — keep the package org.json; declarations unchanged. Unlike single-class utilities, the package is not repackaged; org.json stays as-is and is imported with import org.json.*;.

Copy the three files from GitHub, preserving the org/json path. This is the canonical method — it needs only curl and works on any machine, with no local checkout or extra tooling:

for f in JSONObject JSONArray JSONTokener; do
  curl -sf "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AdamBien/z-JSON-java/main/src/main/java/org/json/$f.java" \
    -o "src/main/java/org/json/$f.java" --create-dirs
done

For a single-file zb/CLI project whose source root is the project root, drop the src/main/java/ prefix and copy into org/json/ directly. After copying, build normally (e.g. /zb). The three files compile alongside application code with no further configuration.

Optional local shortcut: if a z-JSON-java checkout and the zjsoncp script are present on the machine, running zjsoncp from the source root copies the same org/json package locally. This is a convenience only — the curl method above is the portable default.

API

Parsing

import org.json.*;

JSONObject obj = new JSONObject("""
    {"name":"Duke","age":29,"tags":["java","jvm"],"active":true}
    """);

String name   = obj.getString("name");          // "Duke"
int age        = obj.getInt("age");              // 29
boolean active = obj.getBoolean("active");       // true
JSONArray tags = obj.getJSONArray("tags");       // ["java","jvm"]

JSONArray arr = new JSONArray("[1,2,3]");
int first = arr.getInt(0);                        // 1