APIs, protocols and data formats · Bytes and shapes

Data formats-style app

Illustrative system design for a bytes and shapes app like Data formats: 3 topics to read, from requirements to deep dives.

Illustrative design, not Data formats’s actual implementation. Arrowbox is not affiliated with Data formats’s owner. Disclaimer

Core

JSON on the wireBeginner · 28 min read · Sign in to read
Every browser speaks it and every human can read it, but JSON has only six types. Integers past 2^53, dates, missing vs null and parsing a large body on the main thread are where frontends get hurt.
Binary formats: protobuf and friendsIntermediate · 29 min read · Sign in to read
Encode field numbers and compact integers instead of repeated key names and digits. Payloads shrink and parse predictably, at the cost of needing the schema to read them and being unreadable in DevTools.
Forms, files and streamed bodiesIntermediate · 30 min read · Sign in to read
Not everything is one JSON object: forms have their own encodings, files should travel as raw bytes rather than base64, and long results can arrive as a stream of small records the page renders as they come.