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Columbia university has chosen JSON as standard representation for API and web services. Where needed we will also provide response as XML, but JSON is preferred, specifically following the {json:api} specification which is relatively lightweight and, the json-schema.org schema specification. For more on API specification see API Specification ({json:api} and RAML 1.0).
JSON
JSON is an open standard format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs. It is the most common data format used for browser/server communication primarily because it maps directly to JavaScript objects (JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation), largely replacing XML which is used by AJAX.
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