Homework: JSON Exercise SOLVED

Homework: JSON Exercise
1. Objectives
• Become familiar with the navigating JavaScript JSON objects;
• Use of JSON.parse parser and synchronous XMLHttpRequest;
• Transform the content of a JSON document into an HTML page.
2. Description
You are required to write an HTML/JavaScript program, which takes the
URL of a JSON document containing Trucking companies information,
parses the JSON file, and extracts the list of trucking companies, displaying
them in a table. The JavaScript program will be embedded in an HTML file
so that it can be executed within a browser.

• Your program should display a text box to enter the JSON file name
as shown below in Figure 1. On clicking the “Submit Query” button,
your program should display the table as shown below, Figure 2. If the
text box is left empty and Submit Query is clicked, an appropriate
error message must be shown.
Figure 1: Initial Page
• Once the JSON file is downloaded, a JavaScript function within the
HTML file parses the JSON document that was passed as an input in
the edit box.
• After parsing the JSON document, a popup window or tab shpuld
display a table consisting of the data for all trucking companies that
are contained in the JSON file. For example, given the following
JSON document:
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http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/truckinglist.json
the table below should be displayed:
Figure 2: Table containing airlines from airlinelist.json
Here is a version of the truckinglist.json file containing the data that is
displayed above:
{
"Mainline": {
"Table": {
"Header": {
"Data": [
"Parent Company",
"Subsidiary Portfolio / Services",
"HQ / Info",
"Annual Revenue ($ million)",
"HomePage",
"Logo"
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]
},
"Row": [

{
"Company": "UPS",
"Services": "UPS Ground, UPS Freight",
"Hubs": {
"Hub": [
"55 Glenlake Parkway, Sandy Springs, Georgia, U.S.",
"UPS is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions
including the transportation of packages and freight; the facilitation of international
trade, and the deployment of advanced technology to more efficiently manage the
world of business."
]
},
"Revenue": "$24,752",
"HomePage": "https://www.ups.com/",
"Logo": "http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/ups.jpg"
},

{
"Company": "FedEx",
"Services": "FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Custom Critical",
"Hubs": {
"Hub": [
"942 South Shady Grove Road[1], Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.",
"FedEx Corporation is an American multinational courier delivery services
company headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. The name FedEx is a syllabic
abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express (now
FedEx Express), which was used from 1973 until 2000. The company is known for its
overnight shipping service, but also for pioneering a system that could track
packages and provide real-time updates on package location."
]
},
"Revenue": "$14,149",
"HomePage": "https://www.fedex.com",
"Logo": "http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/fedex.png"
},
[……………]
]
}
}
}
3. Error Handling
An error condition that should be checked for a JSON file containing NO
trucking companies. An example of a JSON files which does not contain
trucking company entries:
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{
"Mainline": {
"Table": {
"Header": {
"Data": [
"Parent Company",
"Subsidiary Portfolio / Services",
"HQ / Info",
"Annual Revenue ($ million)",
"HomePage",
"Logo"
]
}
}
}
}
In addition, your program should handle the case when the JSON file does
not exist. A proper message should be displayed.
The “structure” of the input JSON files will not change. We will not test the
case where one of the keys is missed. In other words, every Row always
contains the keys: Company, Services, Hubs, Revenue, HomePage, and
Logo. The Hubs tag contains an array with key Hub. Note that The Hub
array may contain ZERO or more values.
If the value of a tag is empty, you should display a blank cell.
You are required to handle the case where the Header data values are
different. Please note that the Data tag values might differ but the JSON
structure remains the same. For example, the Header can be like this:
</Header
"Header": {
"Data": [
"Company",
"Services",
"Location",
"Revenue",
"Home Page",
"Trucking with Logo"
]
}
No other error conditions need be checked. In all cases if an error is found
your program should show an alert box indicating the error was detected.
4. Hints
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• Step 1: Writing Your HTML/JavaScript program - Using the DOM
Parser
Here's how you could use the Microsoft DOM API and the Mozilla
DOM API (used in Firefox) to load and parse a JSON document into a
DOM tree, and then use the DOM API to extract information from
that document.
<script type="text/javascript"
var jsonDoc;
function loadJSON (url) {
var xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,false); //open, send, responseText are
xmlhttp.send(); //properties of XMLHTTPRequest

jsonDoc=xmlhttp.responseText;
return jsonDoc;
}
// ....... processing the document goes here
</script
Now you can parse the JSON file with JSON.parse and generate the
HTML table on the fly by navigating through the JSON object. You
can assume that every JSON file will have identical Object, Array and
key names.
Your task is to write a program that transforms this type of JSON file
into the table as shown above.

• Step 2: Display the Resulting HTML Document
You should use the DOM document.write method to output the
required HTML.
• Step 3: Use JavaScript control syntax
The only program control statements that you will need to use for this
exercise are the “if” and the “for” statements. The syntax of both
statements is practically identical to the syntax of the corresponding
statement in the C, C++ and Java languages, as in:
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if (trucking_keys[j]=="Image") {
// do stuff
}
for (j=0; j<trucking_keys.length; j++) {
// do more stuff
}
Please make a note of the following issue:
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS):
JavaScript cannot call the resources from another domain. This is called
cross side scripting which is not allowed in browsers. Therefore, you must
put your JSON files and your script in the same domain. Please make sure,
when you are testing your implementation, to place both the HTML file and
the JSON file on your local machine IN THE SAME FOLDER. A sample
file can be copied from here:
http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/truckinglist.json
Window.open() method must be used to pop up a new window which would
display the final widget.
Image files can be either local or remote, as these files do not exhibit the
cross-site scripting issue.
Scrollable Window:
The popup window should be scrollable so the user can read all records
listed in the window.
6. Image Test Files
These image files are provided for testing purpose.
http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/jbhunt.jpg
http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/ups.jpg
http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/con-way.png
http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/fedex.png
http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/swift.png
http://cs-server.usc.edu:45678/hw/hw4/yrcw.png
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7. Material You Need to Submit
On your course homework page, your link for this homework should go to a
page that looks like the one displayed in the Figure on page 1. This page
should include your entire JavaScript/HTML/CSS program in a single
file. Also, you should submit your source code electronically to the csci571
account so that it can be graded and compared to all other students' code via
the MOSS code comparison tool. If your submission is composed of
multiple files, 3 points will be deducted.
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