Parse a large JSON file in ActionScript 3

Question

I need to parse a large trace file (up to 200-300 MB) in a Flex application. I started using JSON instead of XML hoping to avoid these problems, but it did not help much. When the file is bigger than 50MB, JSON decoder can't handle it (I am using the as3corelib).

I have doing some research and I found some options:

• Try to split the file: I would really like to avoid this; I don't want to change the current format of the trace files and, in addition, it would be very uncomfortable to handle.
• Use a database: I was thinking of writing the trace into a SQLite database and then reading from there, but that would force me to modify the program that creates the trace file.

From your experience, what do you think of these options? Are there better options?

The program that writes the trace file is in C++.

Answer 1

Using AMF will give you much smaller data sizes for transfer because it is a binary, not text format. That is the best option. But, you'll need some middleware to translate the C++ program's output into AMF data.

Check out James Ward's census application for more information about benchmarks when sharing data:

http://www.jamesward.com/census/ http://www.jamesward.com/2009/06/17/blazing-fast-data-transfer-in-flex/

Answer 2

Maybe you could parse the file into chunks, without splitting the file itself. That supposes some work on the as3 core lib Json parser, but it should be doable, I think.