JSON Tool Kit is a lightweight, high-performance Visual Studio Code extension that helps developers quickly escape, unescape, stringify, parse, pretty-print, and minify JSON strings directly within the editor.

With full support for multi-cursor editing, custom selection areas, and full-document fallback, this extension integrates seamlessly into your formatting and refactoring workflows without any external dependencies.

Features

Escape JSON String: Convert text into a JSON-escaped string without surrounding quotes.
Unescape JSON String: Reverse escaping on text (supporting unicode, newlines, tabs, quotes, backslashes) with graceful syntax error reporting.
Stringify Selection: Convert text into a valid JSON string literal (including surrounding quotes).
Parse JSON String: Parse a JSON string literal (including surrounding quotes) back to raw text.
Pretty Print JSON: Format raw JSON strings with 2-space indentation.
Minify JSON: Remove all unnecessary whitespace from JSON.
Multi-Cursor Support: Process multiple selections concurrently.
Zero Dependencies: Lightweight footprint, targetting the latest VS Code API.

Installation

Open Visual Studio Code.
Go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X).
Search for JSON Tool Kit.
Click Install.

Alternatively, you can install the extension from the command line:

code --install-extension pranavwaikar.json-tool-kit

Usage

Select the text you want to transform (or clear selection to operate on the entire document), open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P), and run one of the following commands:

GIF Placeholder: Extension In Action

JSON Tool Kit Demo

Command List & Examples

Command ID	Title	Description / Behavior
`jsonStringTools.escape`	JSON String Tools: Escape JSON String	Escapes special characters like `"` and `\n` without wrapping in quotes.
`jsonStringTools.unescape`	JSON String Tools: Unescape JSON String	Decodes escape sequences like `\"` and `\n` back to normal text.
`jsonStringTools.stringify`	JSON String Tools: Stringify Selection	Turns the selection into a valid double-quoted JSON string literal.
`jsonStringTools.parse`	JSON String Tools: Parse JSON String	Parses a quoted JSON string literal back to raw text.
`jsonStringTools.pretty`	JSON String Tools: Pretty Print JSON	Formats valid JSON with 2-space indentation.
`jsonStringTools.minify`	JSON String Tools: Minify JSON	Compresses valid JSON by stripping whitespaces.

Command Examples

1. Escape JSON String

Input:
```
Hello "World"
Line 2
```
Output:
```
Hello \"World\"\nLine 2
```

2. Unescape JSON String

Input:
```
Hello \"World\"\nLine 2
```
Output:
```
Hello "World"
Line 2
```

3. Stringify Selection

Input:
```
Hello "World"
```
Output:
```
"Hello \"World\""
```

4. Parse JSON String

Input:
```
"Hello\nWorld"
```
Output:
```
Hello
World
```

5. Pretty Print JSON

Input:
```
{"name":"JSON Tool Kit","active":true}
```

Output:

{
  "name": "JSON Tool Kit",
  "active": true
}

6. Minify JSON

Input:

{
  "name": "JSON Tool Kit",
  "active": true
}

Output:
```
{"name":"JSON Tool Kit","active":true}
```

Development

To develop and test the extension locally:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/pranavwaikar/json-tool-kit.git
cd json-tool-kit

Install development dependencies:
```
npm install
```
Compile the TypeScript files:
```
npm run compile
```
Open the project in VS Code:
```
code .
```
Press F5 to start a new Extension Development Host window.
Open any file in the new window, select text, and test the commands.

Publishing

To package and publish the extension to the VS Code Marketplace:

Install @vscode/vsce globally:
```
npm install -g @vscode/vsce
```
Package the extension (generates a .vsix bundle):
```
vsce package
```
Publish to the Marketplace:
```
vsce publish
```
Note: You will need a Personal Access Token (PAT) from Azure DevOps to publish.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

JSON Tool Kit