So much bad JSON...

[Donvale]

<rant>
Has HBS ever considered cleaning up their JSON files, my god they are a mess!
I know they don't support modding and all, but it must be hell internally as well when 90% of them throw up errors in all the common JSON editors and validators!
</rant>

 

[Jade_Rook]

Could you provide some examples? I have looked through the JSONs and never seen an error. What editor are you using?

 

[Max_Killjoy]

One example:

I know from the work of other modders that there are a LOT of missing or extra commas that the game luckily can handle, but technically are errors.

 

[Amechwarrior]

I believe the issue is with loaders like ModTek needing good json formatting for inserting or overwriting single entries. I bumped a missing comma in the global.json in the bug reports sub forum a few days ago. The new 1.1 variables in the global.json are also missing trailing commas at the end of the "false" like the rest of the file has. I'm sure other modders could point out tons of such minor errors that hinder easy compatability with json parsers.

I know when 1.0 came out, the json viewers I tried on my phone hated nearly all the important jsons. Some would load, but most gave errors. Had to move to a text viewer program instead.

 

[Jade_Rook]

Ahh... that makes more sense. I am very much a rookie when it comes to modding. I have only ever used Notepad ++ to edit the JSONs. I can see where something automated, like a mod loader, could have trouble, even if the the game engine doesn't care.

Thanks for the explanation!

 

[Donvale]

Pretty much any JSON with comments is broken (especially the ones with comments in line with values), and as stated above quite a few missing comments on none final entries.
Some of the AI behavioural ones are the worst.
I am actually just using TextWrangler on macOS, but it's capable of parsing JSON, but even most web browsers can easily parse JSON and display, but error out on a lot of the Battletech ones.

 

[Justin Kase]

One of the odd things I had noticed, is in fixing the missing commas from a lot of the files, things seemed to run a little better. I haven't done the test in a while, and I really should do it again, but my load times would drop between using the fixed (modded) files and the standard load. But - that was back around the first patch

It does, however, make me wonder if sometimes the game sometimes gets hung up on those little things (missing or excess commas) - like does it read 2 entries without commas as a single data point? And then does it try to make sense of it, or just discard it when it can't find a match?

 

[Donvale]

Hmm I wonder if the file check actually checks files or the resulting values, it would be interesting to know if fixing all the JSON would invalidate for multiplayer.
Probably pretty easy to run a script to find and check all the files, then manually go and fix affected files (which could of course mean almost all of them!).

 

[Justin Kase]

I can tell you that prior to 1.1.0 fixing the file invalidated MultiPlayer for me. I was playing in @Prussian Havoc 's tournament and had to Validate my files before I could play against an opponent.

This wasn't even using fixes that editted/changed/fixed anything.

 

[Lyrch75]

Could you provide some examples? I have looked through the JSONs and never seen an error. What editor are you using?

Almost any of the constants files, many mech_def files, and weapons.

 

[Justin Kase]

Heck - click over here and you can see a whole bunch of them

 

[Jade_Rook]

I believe the issue is with loaders like ModTek needing good json formatting for inserting or overwriting single entries. I bumped a missing comma in the global.json in the bug reports sub forum a few days ago. The new 1.1 variables in the global.json are also missing trailing commas at the end of the "false" like the rest of the file has.

This is a good example. It tells me what to look for and where to look for it (missing commas at the end of "false" entries). Amechwarrior also pointed out why these are an issue, which I consider just as important and helpful.

Almost any of the constants files, many mech_def files, and weapons.

This example isn't helpful. It only gives a vague idea of which files to look in, but nothing about what to look for, what would be consider error. I have looked through those files. I have probably looked through all of them at one point or another with Notepad++. To my untrained eyes, I see nothing wrong.

Heck - click over here and you can see a whole bunch of them

I am assuming that link is supposed to go somewhere and not give me a 404 error.

 

[Justin Kase]

I am assuming that link is supposed to go somewhere and not give me a 404 error.

Clearly you used the middle mouse button when trying to click. Rookie mistake. When I click on it, it goes to another thread here on the forums.



(well, at least it does now - since I fixed it. Thanks bro )

 

[Lyrch75]

This is a good example. It tells me what to look for and where to look for it (missing commas at the end of "false" entries). Amechwarrior also pointed out why these are an issue, which I consider just as important and helpful.

This example isn't helpful. It only gives a vague idea of which files to look in, but nothing about what to look for, what would be consider error. I have looked through those files. I have probably looked through all of them at one point or another with Notepad++. To my untrained eyes, I see nothing wrong.

I am assuming that link is supposed to go somewhere and not give me a 404 error.

Use a Json editor, there are multiple freeones online, and they wil yell like mad as soon as you open one of the flawed files.

http://tomeko.net/software/JSONedit/ is the one I am using

 

[Jade_Rook]

Use a Json editor, there are multiple freeones online, and they wil yell like mad as soon as you open one of the flawed files.

http://tomeko.net/software/JSONedit/ is the one I am using

Thanks for the editor recommendation! I tried it and I see errors.

Actually... they are making me question the validity of JSONedit and its code validator, not HBS's code. I checked the global.JSON file in the behavior folder. It throws an error on line 10 column 13 saying that it is missing a } or object member name. However, line 10 column 13 is a }. I don't know what else it might be looking for.

I can accept that there is an issue, but I don't understand what the issue is. At this point I'm just going to back off and let others who know more about this stuff take care of it. Thank you everyone for trying to help me understand. I do appreciate it!

 

[Max_Killjoy]

Thanks for the editor recommendation! I tried it and I see errors.

Actually... they are making me question the validity of JSONedit and its code validator, not HBS's code. I checked the global.JSON file in the behavior folder. It throws an error on line 10 column 13 saying that it is missing a } or object member name. However, line 10 column 13 is a }. I don't know what else it might be looking for.

I can accept that there is an issue, but I don't understand what the issue is. At this point I'm just going to back off and let others who know more about this stuff take care of it. Thank you everyone for trying to help me understand. I do appreciate it!

I did the same thing with a mod I'm trying to create, and it gave the same error. Only, I don't see any missing , or } in the file -- and when I let the editor "correct" the problem, it just added some line breaks, no , or } was added at all. And the mod also still does not work.

 

[Justin Kase]

@Jade_Rook & @Max_Killjoy : Those editors can only show you what they 'think' may be an error. As Jade already surmised, the code HBS uses likely has some of its own rules. Even in my 'fixes' thread I asked if there are cases where the extra/missing punctuation is purposeful. Most of the changes I made are based on looking at similar files that HBS provided and seeing that A,B, C & D all follow this pattern for 'Mechs, but then E is missing/added punctuation. So, a file like the SimGameConstants.json, which I don't have a frame a reference to compare to - so I don't know if the file is malformed, or meant to be that way

 

[Lyrch75]

Thanks for the editor recommendation! I tried it and I see errors.

Actually... they are making me question the validity of JSONedit and its code validator, not HBS's code. I checked the global.JSON file in the behavior folder. It throws an error on line 10 column 13 saying that it is missing a } or object member name. However, line 10 column 13 is a }. I don't know what else it might be looking for.

I can accept that there is an issue, but I don't understand what the issue is. At this point I'm just going to back off and let others who know more about this stuff take care of it. Thank you everyone for trying to help me understand. I do appreciate it!

One of the common issues I have seen is that there is an extra comma before the "error" that twigged the editors. It highlights the bracket, but if you look up you see that a list ends with a comma

 

[Justin Kase]

or is missing a comma

 

[Lyrch75]

or is missing a comma

or the comma is there, but not in a location that makes a lick of sense.