JSON Structure for List of Objects

I would like to know, whats the right structure for a list of objects in JSON.

We are using JAXB to convert the POJO's to JSON.

Here is the choices, Please direct me what is right.

foos: [ foo:{..}, foo:{..} ]

 foos : [ {...}, {...} ]

If the first structure is right, what is the JAXB annotation I should use to get the structure right.

3 Answers

The second is almost correct:

{ "foos" : [{ "prop1":"value1", "prop2":"value2" }, { "prop1":"value3", "prop2":"value4" }]
}

The first example from your question,

foos: [ foo: { ... }, foo: { ... }
]

is in invalid syntax. You cannot have object properties inside a plain array.

The second example from your question,

foos: [ { ... }, { ... }
]

is right although it is not strict JSON. It's a relaxed form of JSON wherein quotes in string keys are omitted.

Following is the correct one when you want to obey strict JSON:

"foos": [ { ... }, { ... }
]

This tutorial by Patrick Hunlock, may help to learn about JSON and this site may help to validate JSON.

As others mentioned, Justin's answer was close, but not quite right. I tested this using Visual Studio's "Paste JSON as C# Classes"

{ "foos" : [ { "prop1":"value1", "prop2":"value2" }, { "prop1":"value3", "prop2":"value4" } ]
}