# Any data file as JSON? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [May 16, 2014, 8:10am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252 "2014-05-16T08:10:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markus\_Amalthea\_Magn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Markus\_Amalthea\_Magn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Markus_Amalthea_Magn)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 8:10am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/1 "2014-05-16T08:10:07Z")
Hey all, What does it mean in the changelog for Ansible 1.6 that “Any data file can also be JSON”? I figured this could be playbooks, but apparently not. What are “data files”? Best regards, Markus ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 12:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/2 "2014-05-16T12:31:53Z")
stuff loaded as inventory variable files (group\_vars/|host\_vars/) or with var\_files or roles defaults|vars/main.yml or the include\_vars task.​ They are normally yaml which is a superset of json. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/3 "2014-05-16T12:41:38Z")
Kinda – saying YAML is a superset of JSON is a bit confusing IMHO, but maybe that’s just me. It’s easier to say that YAML can contain inline JSON inside the document. Here’s an example: ---
**Author:** ![Markus\_Amalthea\_Magn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Markus\_Amalthea\_Magn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Markus_Amalthea_Magn)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/4 "2014-05-16T12:44:07Z")
I have not managed to run a playbook that is JSON, but maybe I missed something. I think YAML is quite annoying in how it handles whitespace/indentation, so I would love to do everything in JSON instead 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Markus\_Amalthea\_Magn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Markus\_Amalthea\_Magn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Markus_Amalthea_Magn)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 12:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/5 "2014-05-16T12:49:37Z")
For example, a playbook looking this fails: { “hosts”: “all” } “ERROR: parse error: playbooks must be formatted as a YAML list, got \” ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/6 "2014-05-16T12:53:45Z")
playbooks are a list of plays, not an object/hash​/dict ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 12:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/7 "2014-05-16T12:53:59Z")
This message about YAML here is a bit spurious, it means “playbooks must be formatted as a list”. You did specify a dictionary… ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 1:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/8 "2014-05-16T13:05:01Z")
technically not valid json cause it doesn’t start with { }, but here is a json version of my stash installation playbook, which works with ansible. [ { “hosts”:“stash”, “sudo”:“true”,“roles”:[“oracle\_java\_7”, “stash”]} ] ​ ---
**Author:** ![Markus\_Amalthea\_Magn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Markus\_Amalthea\_Magn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Markus_Amalthea_Magn)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/9 "2014-05-16T13:07:47Z")
Yeah, this works: [{ “hosts”: “all” }] ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/10 "2014-05-16T13:24:48Z")
The error message is actually correct, it must be a YAML list, json doesn’t work here because ansible starts with lists/arrays not object/hash/dictionaries, so you cannot use json but shorthand yaml (which is what my example is).​ ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/11 "2014-05-16T14:54:31Z")
Markus, Yes please! I think we can remove the word “YAML” here and just say “must be formatted as a list”. Brian, Actually starting with a [ is fine in JSON. It needs to be an array of hashes though. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 3:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/12 "2014-05-16T15:04:57Z")
yes, if we follow the ECMA standard, sadly not all json parsers do. from my reading of the code, this ends up being parsed by the yaml interpreter not the json one.​ Also tested the python2.7 json lib: > > > import json > > > data = open(‘test.json’) > > > j = json.load(data) > > > Traceback (most recent call last): > > > File “”, line 1, in > > > File “/usr/lib/python2.7/json/ **init**.py”, line 290, in load > > > \*\*kw) > > > File “/usr/lib/python2.7/json/ **init**.py”, line 338, in loads > > > return \_default\_decoder.decode(s) > > > File “/usr/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py”, line 366, in decode > > > obj, end = self.raw\_decode(s, idx=\_w(s, 0).end()) > > > File “/usr/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py”, line 382, in raw\_decode > > > obj, end = self.scan\_once(s, idx) > > > ValueError: Expecting property name: line 1 column 5 (char 4) > > > import yaml > > > y = yaml.load(data) > > > print y > > > [{‘work’: ‘yes!’}] the file:test.json: [{ work: ‘yes!’}] ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/13 "2014-05-16T15:08:30Z")
The actual standard: [http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-404.pdf](http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-404.pdf) The problem is some parsers look for ONLY a leading ‘{’ to determine if it is json, a leading ‘[’ should be just as valid. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/14 "2014-05-16T23:19:25Z")
I think it failed for you Bryan because you need quotes around “work”, not because of the leading character. ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/any-data-file-as-json/15252/15 "2014-05-23T14:39:51Z")
ah, yes, yaml is more forgiving about quoting.