Serialization

Kismet can export data as several different formats; generally these formats are indicated by the type of endpoint being requested (such as foo.json)

JSON #

Kismet will export objects in traditional JSON format suitable for consumption in javascript or any other language with a JSON interpreter.

TJSON #

Some JSON processing systems use the period (.) as a separator for trees and paths, while Kismet uses it as part of the name space of the field.

Using the .tjson extension on any REST endpoint will return normal JSON records, but all field names will be changed so that the . separator is swapped for _; for example kismet.device.base will become kismet_device_base, and sensor.device.last_record would become sensor_device_last_record.

EKJSON #

“EK” JSON is modeled after the Elastic Search JSON format, where a complete JSON object is found on each line of the output.

Kismet supports ekjson on any REST endpoint which returns a vector/list/array of results.

Added 2019-10 To be compatible with the ELK interpretation of field names, Kismet now permutes all field names in ekjson output, replacing all instances of . with _.

ITJSON #

Added 2019-10

“IT” or “Iterative” JSON is a variant of JSON optimized for large vector/array data sets. Instead of containing the entire output in a JSON array, each element of the array is sent on its own newline.

All non-ELK use of previous ekjson endpoints should now use itjson endpoints. The ekjson serialization now modifies field names.

Kismet supports itjson on any REST endpoint which returns a vector/list/array of results.

The itjson results must be parsed as a stream instead of as a traditional JSON object. Attempting to parse an itjson response as traditional JSON will result in syntax errors.

PRETTYJSON #

“Pretty” JSON is optimized for human readability and includes metadata fields describing what Kismet knows about each field in the JSON response. For more information, see the previous section, Exploring the REST system.

“Pretty” JSON should only be used for learning about Kismet and developing; for actual use of the REST API standard “JSON” or “EKJSON” endpoints should be used as they are significantly faster and optimized.