FAQs

Frequently asked questions about Internet Object — what it is, its features, interoperability, size and performance, status, and how to take part.

Getting oriented

Why do we need another data-interchange format?

Internet Object was created to address long-standing limitations of JSON — today's most common interchange format — including keys repeated on every record, the absence of a built-in schema, no comments, and no native streaming model. It keeps JSON's readability while removing that redundancy and adding schema-driven validation, precise data types, comments, and streaming. For the full background, read the story.

Why is it called "Internet Object"?

The name reflects its purpose: a compact, readable way to exchange objects — structured data — across the internet. A document is treated as data plus the schema that gives it shape, so the same objects travel efficiently between services, languages, and platforms.

When should I use Internet Object, and when not?

Internet Object suits data that has a stable shape and is exchanged or stored repeatedly: APIs, records and collections, logs, configuration, and high-volume or streamed data where size and validation matter. It is less compelling for one-off, entirely ad-hoc data with no recurring shape, where JSON's ubiquity may outweigh the savings. See Best Practices & Guidelines for guidance.

Is Internet Object a replacement for JSON, or a complement?

Either, depending on your needs. It can replace JSON where its schema, compactness, comments, precise types, or streaming are valuable, and it interoperates with JSON where you need to keep using it — a wide subset of JSON parses directly as Internet Object. You can adopt it incrementally rather than all at once.

Features

Is a schema required, or can I use it schemaless?

A schema is recommended but not required. Internet Object is schema-first, not schema-required: a document with no schema is still valid, and its values map to positional keys. Declare a schema once the data has a stable shape, leaves your control, or needs validation. See Schema-First Design.

Does it support comments, dates, and precise numbers?

Yes. Internet Object supports comments, native date and time values, and precise numeric types — including exact decimals and big integers — that JSON either omits or represents loosely as strings or floats. See Comments, Date and Time, Decimal, and BigInt.

Does Internet Object support binary data?

Yes — as encoded binary. The wire form is text-based and human-readable, so it does not embed raw bytes directly; instead it provides a binary type that carries binary data as base64 text (b'…'), which a parser decodes to bytes. This keeps documents safe to transmit and read as plain text while still representing binary payloads. See Binary.

Does it support streaming?

Yes. Because a collection is a sequence of independent records, Internet Object can be produced and consumed incrementally — one record at a time, each validated on its own — without waiting for the whole document. The framing, record model, and error handling are defined in the Streaming chapter.

Working with JSON and other formats

Can an Internet Object parser read JSON, and can a schema validate it?

Largely, yes. JSON compatibility was not an original goal, but a wide subset of JSON parses directly as Internet Object data; and because it parses as data, the same schema validates both an Internet Object document and an equivalent JSON object. See JSON Compatibility for the exact rules and the lossy cases.

Can I use Internet Object to validate my existing JSON API?

Yes. Because a wide subset of JSON parses directly as Internet Object data, you can write an Internet Object schema and validate the JSON your API already sends and receives — without changing the API itself. This makes adoption low-risk: keep your existing JSON on the wire and gain schema-driven validation now, then move to the more compact Internet Object encoding later if you choose. See JSON Compatibility.

How do I convert to and from JSON or other formats?

Internet Object maps cleanly to and from JSON and other common formats. The Converting To/From Other Formats chapter covers the mapping rules, and JSON Compatibility covers the JSON specifics, including where a conversion can lose precision.

Size and performance

Is an Internet Object document smaller than JSON?

Usually, and often by a wide margin. For record-heavy data an uncompressed Internet Object document is commonly 40–60% smaller than the equivalent JSON — and sometimes more — because field names are declared once in the schema rather than repeated on every record. Once both are gzipped the difference narrows and depends on the data.

Is Internet Object faster to build and parse than JSON?

Building is very fast. The format is simple and straightforward, and a document can be produced by plain string concatenation or interpolation — no special serializer is required.

Parsing is not a like-for-like comparison. A JSON parser only checks syntax, whereas an Internet Object parser, in a single pass, also validates the data against the schema — types, constraints, defaults, and required fields. You receive validated, structured data, not just parsed text. As with any format, raw parsing speed depends more on the quality of the parser and the workload than on the format itself.

Status, ecosystem, and licensing

Is Internet Object ready for production, and what is the current status?

The specification is at 1.0 Draft, published alongside the public beta of the reference implementation. The format is ready for evaluation and early adoption; the specification and the implementation are still converging, so check the status notes on individual pages before relying on a feature in production. Implementations version independently and declare the specification version they conform to.

Which languages have libraries?

A JavaScript/TypeScript reference implementation is available in public beta. Libraries for other languages are planned, and the specification is deliberately language-agnostic so anyone can implement it. See the Roadmap, and the contribution options below to help build one.

How is Internet Object licensed?

The specification is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0 — free to share with attribution, with no modified versions. Example snippets in the specification are dedicated to the public domain under CC0, and the reference libraries are licensed under Apache-2.0. Full details are on the License page.

Community

How can I contribute?

Contributions are welcome in many forms:

Join a team building an Internet Object library in your favorite language.
Write a blog post or article about Internet Object.
Help friends and colleagues get started with the format.
Help develop the technical documentation.
Proofread and help correct the specification and its language.
Translate the documentation into other languages.
Spread the word about Internet Object.

How do I report an issue or propose a change?

Issues, corrections, and proposals are handled in the specification's repository at github.com/maniartech/InternetObject-specs. Open an issue describing the problem or suggestion; substantive changes to the format are discussed there before they enter the specification.