Json-Visualizer

JSON Explorer / Json-Visualizer is a desktop application written in modern C++ and Qt that helps you inspect, validate and explore JSON documents in a tree view. It's designed for fast parsing (uses simdjson) and provides utilities such as JSON validation, JSON -> XML/CSV/Base64 conversion, minify/pretty-print and JSONPath querying via jsoncons.

This repository contains the full application source (Qt project) and bundled JSON libraries used by the project.

Key features

• Parse and validate JSON quickly using simdjson (embedded in the repo).
• Display JSON as an editable tree using a Qt model/view (QTreeView backed by QJsonModel).
• Query JSON using JSONPath expressions (via jsoncons/jsonpath).
• Generate a summary (counts of objects/arrays/strings/numbers/nulls/booleans, MD5 hash, parsing time, data size).
• Convert JSON to XML, CSV or Base64 (menu actions exist in UI).
• Open/Edit/Save local .json files, browse filesystem and view containing folder.

Screenshots

Default layout

JMESPath Query / Example

JSON Tree view

High-level architecture

• MainWindow.* — Qt UI and main application logic. Connects UI events to worker methods, updates the tree view and summary dialog.
• qjsonmodel.* — A QAbstractItemModel implementation (QJsonModel) and supporting QJsonTreeItem that turns a QJsonDocument into a tree model suitable for QTreeView.
• JsonWorker.* — Helper class that performs parsing (simdjson), tree-generation and JSONPath queries (jsoncons jsonpath). Also measures parsing time.
• simdjson.* — Vendored simdjson implementation (fast C++ JSON parser). Used to validate/parse JSON quickly.
• jsoncons/ and jsoncons_ext/ — bundled jsoncons library used for JSONPath queries and conversions.
• Summary.* — A small dialog that presents counts (object/array/string/number/null/boolean), MD5 hash, parsing time and data size.
• File.* — Simple file operations (open, read, write, browse). UI resources and icons are in icons/ and MainWindow.qrc.

Important files

• JsonVisualizer.pro - Qt project file (qmake). Open this with Qt Creator.
• main.cpp - standard Qt application entry point.
• MainWindow.ui - UI layout used by MainWindow.
• qjsonmodel.cpp/h - model and tree item implementations.
• JsonWorker.cpp/h - parse/validate/query helpers.
• simdjson.cpp/h - embedded simdjson library code.
• jsoncons/ - bundled jsoncons library (JSONPath support).

Build (Windows / Qt)

Prerequisites

• Qt 5.x or Qt 6.x (Qt Widgets module). Qt Creator recommended.
• A C++ compiler supported by Qt (MSVC or MinGW).

Quick steps (recommended: use Qt Creator):

1. Open JsonVisualizer.pro with Qt Creator.
2. Configure kit (select MSVC or MinGW kit) and click "Configure Project".
3. Build and run from Qt Creator (F5 / Run).

Command-line build (example with Qt's qmake + mingw make in PowerShell):

Note: these commands are optional examples — using Qt Creator will be easier.

# from repository root
& qmake JsonVisualizer.pro
# then (depending on kit) use mingw32-make or nmake
# mingw:
mingw32-make
# msbuild/nmake for MSVC (kit dependent)

The repo includes simdjson and jsoncons sources; no external install should be required for a local build.

Run / Usage

1. Start the application.
2. Use File -> Browse or the toolbar to open a .json file.
3. The left pane is the raw JSON editor; the right pane is a tree view generated from the JSON. Edits to the text area trigger re-parse and refresh of the tree view (if valid JSON).
4. Enter JSONPath expressions in the top text box to filter the JSON (placeholder: "Type your JsonPath query here"). Query results (if any) are displayed in the tree view.
5. Use View -> Summary to open the summary dialog (object/array/string/number/null/boolean counts, MD5, parsing time, size).

Notes:

• The UI contains menu actions for conversions (XML/CSV/Base64) and minify. Some actions may be stubs depending on the current code state — examine MainWindow to see which slots are implemented.

Module notes & implementation details

• MainWindow

  • MainWindow::on_plainTextEdit_textChanged() updates the internal JSON string, recomputes MD5 hash, validates JSON via JsonWorker::IsValid, and calls DrawTreeView if valid.
  • File operations are delegated to File helper. Summary dialog is obtained from QJsonModel::getJsonSummary().

• QJsonModel / QJsonTreeItem

  • Builds an in-memory tree representation from a QJsonDocument and exposes it as a QAbstractItemModel for QTreeView.
  • Supports editing of leaf values and reserializing to JSON via QJsonModel::json().

• JsonWorker

  • IsValid(QString&) uses simdjson::dom::parser to parse and returns whether parsing succeeded; also records parsing time.
  • GenerateTreeView hands the raw JSON bytes to QJsonModel::loadJson().
  • QueryJson uses jsoncons::json and jsoncons::jsonpath::json_query to run JSONPath queries; catches errors and returns an empty QString on failure.

• Summary

  • Tracks counts and other metadata and displays them in a modal dialog.

Troubleshooting & tips

• Large documents: simdjson is fast but the UI may still struggle with very large JSON trees. Consider increasing memory or using streaming.
• If you get CAPACITY or other simdjson errors, the file may be larger than the parser's practical limits — consider splitting the document.
• If JSONPath queries return empty, validate the JSON and verify the query syntax; UI placeholder indicates JSONPath support (see jsoncons docs).

Suggested next steps / improvements

• Add unit tests for QJsonModel round-trip JSON -> model -> JSON.
• Add CI (GitHub Actions) that runs a quick build matrix (Windows + Linux) and runs basic tests.
• Improve error reporting for JSONPath queries (show parse errors to user instead of silently returning empty string).
• Add streaming view for very large JSON files.

License

See repository root or ask project owner — the repo does not contain an explicit LICENSE file in the workspace snapshot. Add a license file if you plan to publish.

---

If you'd like, I can now:

• add a docs/USAGE.md with step-by-step screenshots and example JSONPath queries, or
• add small developer docs for each module in docs/ and update source headers with short doxygen-style comments.

Tell me which follow-up you'd prefer and I'll proceed (I'll update the todo list and work on that next).