Using Node.JS, how do I read a JSON file into (server) memory?

Solution 1:

Sync:

var fs = require('fs');
var obj = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('file', 'utf8'));

Async:

var fs = require('fs');
var obj;
fs.readFile('file', 'utf8', function (err, data) {
  if (err) throw err;
  obj = JSON.parse(data);
});

Solution 2:

The easiest way I have found to do this is to just use require and the path to your JSON file.

For example, suppose you have the following JSON file.

test.json

{
  "firstName": "Joe",
  "lastName": "Smith"
}

You can then easily load this in your node.js application using require

var config = require('./test.json');
console.log(config.firstName + ' ' + config.lastName);