Why do we use JSON as our object format?
We selected JSON as our format because:
- JSON provides excellent language-independent representation of data structures
- JSON has a simple specification
- JSON handles mixed content
Here are some valuable JSON resources:
Formatting parameters
Parameters need to be formatted in UTF-8.
Filtering data versus consuming data
DataSift is all about data, filtering for what you want to receive and then consuming it, perhaps via our Streaming API or perhaps via Push.
It's important to understand that the data you filter against is not identical to the data you receive. For instance, there are elements in the output data such as a "created_at" date, which you can consume but you cannot include in filtering.
The easiest way to understand is this:
- Targets are something that you can filter on with CSDL
- Output data is something that you receive from DataSift
Take a look at Targets vs Output Data to learn more.