Troubleshooting JSON formatting - json

Question

I’m trying to build a large JSON file that’s a compendium for Dungeons and Dragons. I thought I had gotten my JSON formatting correct, but when I try to give it to a program that reads/navigates JSON, it’s saying that it’s not a valid JSON file. Is anyone able to take a look and maybe point me in the right direction? Here’s a shortened version of the larger file:
{"Items":{"Arrow of Slaying":{"Name":"Arrow of Slaying"},{"Detail":"very rare"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Roll":"6d10"},{"Description":"An arrow of slaying is a magic weapon meant to slay a particular kind of creature."},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.05"}},{"Arrows":{"Name":"Arrows"},{"Description":"Ammunition: You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammunition to fire from the weapon. Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack. At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended ammunition by taking a minute to search the battlefield. Source: Player's Handbook p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Value":"0.05"},{"Weight":"0.05"}},{"Arrows +1":{"Name":"Arrows +1"},{"Detail":"uncommon"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Description":"You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this piece of magic ammunition. Once it hits a target, the ammunition is no longer magical. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.05"}},{"Arrows +2":{"Name":"Arrows +2"},{"Detail":"rare"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Description":"You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this piece of magic ammunition. Once it hits a target, the ammunition is no longer magical. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.05"}},{"Arrows +3":{"Name":"Arrows +3"},{"Detail":"very rare"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Description":"You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this piece of magic ammunition. Once it hits a target, the ammunition is no longer magical. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.05"}},{"Blowgun Needle of Slaying":{"Name":"Blowgun Needle of Slaying"},{"Detail":"very rare"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Roll":"6d10"},{"Description":"A blowgun needle of slaying is a magic weapon meant to slay a particular kind of creature. Some are more focused than others; for example, there are both needles of dragon slaying and needles of blue dragon slaying. If a creature belonging to the type, race, or group associated with a needle of slaying takes damage from the needle the creature must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking an extra 6d10 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much extra damage on a successful one. Once a needle of slaying deals its extra damage to a creature, it becomes a nonmagical blowgun needle. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 152"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.02"}},{"Blowgun Needles":{"Name":"Blowgun Needles"},{"Description":"Ammunition: You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammunition to fire from the weapon. Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack. At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended ammunition by taking a minute to search the battlefield. Source: Player's Handbook p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Value":"0.02"},{"Weight":"0.02"}},{"Blowgun Needles +1":{"Name":"Blowgun Needles +1"},{"Detail":"uncommon"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Description":"You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this piece of magic ammunition. Once it hits a target, the ammunition is no longer magical. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.02"}},{"Blowgun Needles +2":{"Name":"Blowgun Needles +2"},{"Detail":"rare"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Description":"You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this piece of magic ammunition. Once it hits a target, the ammunition is no longer magical. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.02"}},{"Blowgun Needles +3":{"Name":"Blowgun Needles +3"},{"Detail":"very rare"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Description":"You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this piece of magic ammunition. Once it hits a target, the ammunition is no longer magical. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.02"}},{"Crossbow Bolt of Slaying":{"Name":"Crossbow Bolt of Slaying"},{"Detail":"very rare"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Roll":"6d10"},{"Description":"A crossbow bolt of slaying is a magic weapon meant to slay a particular kind of creature. Some are more focused than others; for example, there are both bolts of dragon slaying and bolts of blue dragon slaying. If a creature belonging to the type, race, or group associated with a bolt of slaying takes damage from the bolt the creature must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking an extra 6d10 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much extra damage on a successful one. Once a bolt of slaying deals its extra damage to a creature, it becomes a nonmagical crossbow bolt. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 152"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.075"}},{"Crossbow Bolts":{"Name":"Crossbow Bolts"},{"Description":"Ammunition: You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammunition to fire from the weapon. Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack. At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended ammunition by taking a minute to search the battlefield. Source: Player's Handbook p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Value":"0.05"},{"Weight":"0.075"}},{"Crossbow Bolts +1":{"Name":"Crossbow Bolts +1"},{"Detail":"uncommon"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Description":"You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this piece of magic ammunition. Once it hits a target, the ammunition is no longer magical. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.075"}},{"Crossbow Bolts +2":{"Name":"Crossbow Bolts +2"},{"Detail":"rare"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Description":"You have a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this piece of magic ammunition. Once it hits a target, the ammunition is no longer magical. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.075"}},{"Crossbow Bolts +3":{"Name":"Crossbow Bolts +3"},{"Detail":"very rare"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Description":"You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this piece of magic ammunition. Once it hits a target, the ammunition is no longer magical. Source: Dungeon Master's Guide p. 150"},{"Type":"Arrow"},{"Weight":"0.075"}},{"Wand of Wonder":{"Name":"Wand of Wonder"},{"Detail":"rare (requires attunement by a Spellcaster)"},{"Magic":"Yes"},{"Roll":"1d6+1"},{"Description":"This wand has 7 charges."},{"Type":"Miscellaneous"},{"Weight":"1"}}}

Answer 1

It looks like you're having a nesting issue with your json object.
Just looking at the first bit of your json:
{
"Items": {
"Arrow of Slaying": {
"Name": "Arrow of Slaying"
},
{
"Detail": "very rare"
},
{
"Magic": "Yes"
},
{
"Roll": "6d10"
},
{
"Description": "An arrow of ..."
},
{
"Type": "Arrow"
},
{
"Weight": "0.05"
}
},
{
"Arrows": {
"Name": "Arrows"
},
{
"Description": "Ammunition: You can use a ..."
},
{
"Type": "Arrow"
},
{
"Value": "0.05"
},
{
"Weight": "0.05"
}
},
{
...
It looks like you're trying to group the details of items within their parent object, but you are actually grouping each thing as its own object, causing a nesting issue.
Here is a cleaned up version:
{
"Items": {
"Arrow of Slaying": {
"Name": "Arrow of Slaying",
"Detail": "very rare",
"Magic": "Yes",
"Roll": "6d10",
"Description": "An arrow of slaying is a magic weapon meant to slay a particular kind of creature.",
"Type": "Arrow",
"Weight": "0.05"
},
"Arrows": {
"Name": "Arrows",
"Description": "Ammunition: You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammunition to fire from the weapon. Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack. At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended ammunition by taking a minute to search the battlefield. Source: Player's Handbook p. 150",
"Type": "Arrow",
"Value": "0.05",
"Weight": "0.05",
},
"Continue items here": {
"Name": "Name",
"Description": "..."
}
}
}
You can tell right away that each item and its properties are properly organized. So if you need to use the type of Arrow of Slaying you can access it through: jsonVariableName['Items']['Arrow of Slaying']['Type'];
Depending on what IDE you're developing with, you might want to add a json beautify addon/ extension. I found that using a browser tool like codebeautify will just return an error if something is wrong. Instead, if you use the atom-beautify package, it will expand it and let you know where the errors are. That way you at least have something, rather than a general error that doesn't help you.
Hope this helps :)

Answer 2

The program is correct, that's not valid JSON. Every object, that is, {...} needs to have its properties with a name (in quotes), a colon, and then a value (that can be another object). Looking at a simple version of you JSON we have (... represent the rest of the stuff):
{
"Items": {
"Arrow of Slaying": {
"Name": "Arrow of Slaying"
},
{ "Detail": "very rare" },
...
}
}
I believe "Detail" was supposed to be a property of the same object after "Arrow of Slaying", instead of a new object. A correct JSON, in my opinion, would then be the following:
{
"Items": {
"Arrow of Slaying": {
"Name": "Arrow of Slaying",
"Detail": "very rare",
...
},
...
}
}