If you develop web services and you're an IntelliJ IDEA user, then here's a simple tip that can save some time.
Let's say you have an ugly JSON response that came from a log, the output from a cURL command, or elsewhere.
It might look something like this example response from jsonapi.org:
{ "data": [{ "type": "articles", "id": "1", "attributes": { "title": "JSON:API paints my bikeshed!", "body": "The shortest article. Ever.", "created": "2015-05-22T14:56:29.000Z", "updated": "2015-05-22T14:56:28.000Z" }, "relationships": { "author": { "data": {"id": "42", "type": "people"} } } }], "included": [ { "type": "people", "id": "42", "attributes": { "name": "John", "age": 80, "gender": "male" } } ] }
Try these steps:
- Copy it.
- Open IntelliJ.
- Go to File > New > Scratch file... or use the shortcut key Shift + Command (Apple) + N.
- Choose "JSON" (hint: you can type "json").
- Paste.
- Go to Code > Reformat code or use the shortcut key Alt + Option + L.
Note: The above shortcut keys are for macOS. Review the IntelliJ Keymap reference for the corresponding shortcuts in your operating system.
The result will now be that you have nicely-formatted / prettified JSON:
{
"data": [
{
"type": "articles",
"id": "1",
"attributes": {
"title": "JSON:API paints my bikeshed!",
"body": "The shortest article. Ever.",
"created": "2015-05-22T14:56:29.000Z",
"updated": "2015-05-22T14:56:28.000Z"
},
"relationships": {
"author": {
"data": {
"id": "42",
"type": "people"
}
}
}
}
],
"included": [
{
"type": "people",
"id": "42",
"attributes": {
"name": "John",
"age": 80,
"gender": "male"
}
}
]
}
And that can help a lot with your dev and support tasks! 👍
Alt + Option + L, intead of Alt there should be Cmd? Cmd + Option + L