The HostBridge JavaScript Engine (HB.js) has long supported JSON as an integration API to CICS applications on the host.  The development team at HostBridge has just released a new, native JSON parser for HB.js that supports much larger documents while providing substantially better performance.

The JSON parser that previously ran in HB.js was written in JavaScript. It worked fine for small JSON documents of about 300 to 400 KB.  However, some HostBridge customers were using much larger JSON documents, up to 50 or 60 MB.  The old parser could parse these documents given enough memory and time, but it probably would have taken a relatively long time.

To eliminate a potential performance issue when processing large JSON documents, the HostBridge development team, using native code, wrote a new, native JSON parser that runs in HB.js. This new HostBridge JSON parser is much faster, by several orders of magnitude. It allows HB.js users to parse large JSON documents into JavaScript objects very quickly.

How to Get the New JSON Parser

Any HB.js customer can easily take advantage of this new parser by simply sending an email request to support@hostbridge.com. The HostBridge support team will then provide a new module with the new parser. The new module is separate and doesn’t affect any, other existing modules. The support team will also show customers how to make use of the new parser. Keep this in mind: unless you request the new module, you will continue to process JSON documents with the old parser. There is no cost to HostBridge customers for this HB.js enhancement.

Any HostBridge customer who is taking JSON documents from the outside and using them inside the host will benefit from this new parser. Whether the JSON documents in use are large or small, the new, native HostBridge JSON parser will deliver better performance.