Generate unordered list from JSON Data?

Question

I'd like to generate a tree view of my JSON data. Therefore it would be nice to parse the JSON data into a multi-level (!) unordered HTML list. I found a few plugins but I can't get them to work with my JSON data.

Nice solution would be a call to a function and hand over the json data as parameter. The result could be a multi-level unordered list. I assume that the function has to loop through all the JSON data and write ul and li tags.

Is there a straight forward way to do that?

tia!

PS: Example trees (that work with my JSOn data): http://braincast.nl/samples/jsoneditor/ http://www.thomasfrank.se/downloadableJS/JSONeditor_example.html

Answer 1

Just a quick simple example:

function tree(data) {    
    if (typeof(data) == 'object') {
        document.write('<ul>');
        for (var i in data) {
            document.write('<li>' + i);
            tree(data[i]);            
        }
        document.write('</ul>');
    } else {
        document.write(' => ' + data);
    }
}

jQuery version:

function tree(data) {    
    if (typeof(data) == 'object') {        
        var ul = $('<ul>');
        for (var i in data) {            
            ul.append($('<li>').text(i).append(tree(data[i])));         
        }        
        return ul;
    } else {       
        var textNode = document.createTextNode(' => ' + data);
        return textNode;
    }
}

$(document.body).append(tree(data));

Answer 2

Here is a complete pure javascript solution. Recursive traverse the JSON object and construct you ul and li's as you go. It's better for not to add elements to the DOM one at a time, though.

HTML

 <ul id="JSONunorderedList"></ul> 

JAVASCRIPT

var jsonObj ={"labels":[ {"labelFont":"35pt Calibri","labelLocation":{"x":0.1483, "y":0.75},  "labelText":"fluffer"},{"labelFont":"35pt Calibri","labelLocation":{"x":0.666, "y":0.666},  "labelText":"nutter"}]}; //some json to display

var listEl =document.getElementById('JSONunorderedList');
makeList(jsonObj,listEl);

function makeList( jsonObject, listElement){
    for(var i in jsonObject){//iterate through the array or object
        //insert the next child into the list as a <li>
        var newLI = document.createElement('li');
        if  (jsonObject[i] instanceof Array){
            newLI.innerHTML=i+": ARRAY";
            newLI.className="arrayOrObject"; //add a class tag so we can style differently
        }
        else if (  jsonObject[i] instanceof Object){
            newLI.innerHTML=i+": OBJECT";
            newLI.className="arrayOrObject"; //add a class tag so we can style differently
        }
        else
            newLI.innerHTML=i+': '+jsonObject[i];
        listElement.appendChild(newLI);   
        //insert a <ul> for nested nodes 
        if  (jsonObject[i] instanceof Array || jsonObject[i] instanceof Object){
            var newUL = document.createElement('ul');
            //newUL.innerHTML=i;
            listElement.appendChild(newUL);
            makeList(jsonObject[i],newUL);
        }
    }
}

das fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/honkskillet/LvMnG/