# Terms and abbreviations

Documentation owner: product `access`; documentation version: `next`.
Source: `content/products/access/next/configuration-reference/terms-and-abbreviations.md` at commit `eaf7a020437971baeee95e87eaf963636040ac71`.

## General

### JSON

JavaScript Object Notation

_JSON is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent but uses conventions that are familiar to programmers of the C-family of languages, including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and many others. These properties make JSON an ideal data-interchange language._

See more: [https://www.json.org/](https://www.json.org/)

### Property

A property is a name-value pair. Property names are _always_ strings (`"..."`), values can be of any JSON type.

In JSON a property looks like this:

```
"property_name": <property-value>
```

Properties MUST be defined inside an `object` and separated by commas (`,`). Objects are defined using curly brackets (`{}`):

```
{
  "property_name": <property-value>
}
```

Property values can be of the following types:

* string (`"string value"`)
* number (`1`, `99`, `765474`, `3.14`)
* boolean (`true`, `false`)
* object (`{}`)
* array (`[]`)

```json
{
    "str": "string property",
    "int": 79,
    "float": 3.14,
    "bool": true,
    "obj": {
        "object_property": "another string value"
    },
    "arr": [
        "first array element",
        "second array element"
    ] 
}
```

Objects and arrays can be nested (an object can contain a property with a value of type array that contains objects).

## Advanced

### Property expansion

Property expansion means replacing a property value, or parts of a value, with the value of another property. The expression is the path to the property.

```json
{
    "first_property": "first value",
    "second_property": "${first_property}"
}
```

For more information and details, see: [Property expansion](/products/access/next/configuration-reference/property-expansion/)

### File inclusion

Configuration supports inclusion of files to enable modularisation. Only files of type JSON (with file extension `.json`) containing an object or an array can be included.

An inclusion looks like this:

```
"included_property": "@include:path/to/file.json"
```

Inclusion will replace the property value with the content of the _included_ file (JSON object or array).

Paths to included files can be absolute or relative. Relative paths are resolved against the directory of the _including_ file.

For more information and details, see: [File inclusion](/products/access/next/configuration-reference/file-inclusion/)