What is the best format to return array in JSON response?

Question

I'm asking about the best practice to return data array in a JSON response...

Like this :

{ myObjectContainsArray: [ {object1}, {object2}, {object3}] }

// and get it like this => myObjectContainsArray[0].object1property

Or :

[{object1}, {object2}, {object3}]
// and get it like this => [0].object1property

What is the best way ?

Thanks

deceze · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-18 12:42:10Z

2

There's a potential cross-site vulnerability when returning plain arrays, described here: https://haacked.com/archive/2009/06/25/json-hijacking.aspx/

It turns out that a script that contains a JSON array is a valid JavaScript script and can thus be executed. A script that just contains a JSON object is not a valid JavaScript file. For example, if you had a JavaScript file that contained the following JSON:
{"Id":1, "Balance":3.14}
And you had a script tag that referenced that file:
<script src="http://example.com/SomeJson"></script>
You would get a JavaScript error in your HTML page. However, through an unfortunate coincidence, if you have a script tag that references a file only containing a JSON array, that would be considered valid JavaScript and the array gets executed. [..]

Therefore it's recommended to only return objects.

answered Jun 18, 2019 at 12:42

deceze♦

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2 Comments

Quentin Over a year ago

This is largely a non-issue these days: fetch.spec.whatwg.org/#corb

Ema.H Over a year ago

Thanks a lot, have a nice day :)

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