I work a lot with JSON endpoints and having a browser extension to pretty print the JSON response is invaluable. However, sometimes I’m using a different machine (or guiding someone on their machine) and rather than asking them to install a browser extension, I use this trick. If the user is on the page displaying the JSON response, running this command in the browser console will pretty print the response await (await fetch(window.location.href)).json()
.
Pretty Print JSON from URL Example
For example, if you visit my Mastodon account and request the JSON response https://phpc.social/@salcode.json, you’ll see a page of code that is difficult to read.
If you then run
await (await fetch(window.location.href)).json()
from the browser console, you’ll get a nicely formatted JSON object in the browser console and you can expand or collapse parts of the object.
Browser Extension
On Google Chrome, I’m a fan of the JSONVue extension, which makes running the above command unnecessary.
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