Formatting cURL Output in the Windows Terminal

Question

When I try to perform the cURL request here, Windows 7 (x64) returns an output with no line breaks:

C:\Users\kiwi>curl http://www.documentcloud.org/api/search.json?q=group:nytimes

{"total":2821,"page":1,"per_page":10,"q":"group:nytimes","documents":[{"id":"862
75-isn-10015-abd-al-rahim-al-nashiri-jtf-gtmo","title":"ISN 10015 - Abd al Rahim
 al Nashiri - JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment","access":"public","pages":15,"descri
ption":null,"source":null,"created_at":"Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:50:19 +0000","update
d_at":"Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:11:41 +0000","canonical_url":"http://www.documentclou
d.org/documents/86275-isn-10015-abd-al-rahim-al-nashiri-jtf-gtmo.html","resource
s":{"pdf":"http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/86275/isn-10015-abd-al-rahim-al
-nashiri-jtf-gtmo.pdf","text":"http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/86275/isn-1
0015-abd-al-rahim-al-nashiri-jtf-gtmo.txt","thumbnail":"http://s3.documentcloud.
org/documents/86275/pages/isn-10015-abd-al-rahim-al-nashiri-jtf-gtmo-p1-thumbnai
l.gif","search":"http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/86275/search.json?q={que
ry}","page":{"text":"http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/86275/pages/isn-1001
5-abd-al-rahim-al-nashiri-jtf-gtmo-p{page}.txt","image":"http://s3.documentcloud
.org/documents/86275/pages/isn-10015-abd-al-rahim-al-nashiri-jtf-gtmo-p{page}-{s
ize}.gif"}}},{"id":"86274-isn-10020-majid-khan-jtf-gtmo-detainee-assessment","ti
tle":"ISN 10020 - Majid Khan - JTF-GTMO Detainee Assessment","access":"public","
pages":12,"description":null,"source":null,"created_at":"Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:50:
18 +0000","updated_at":"Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:10:01 +0000","canonical_url":"http:/
/www.documentcloud.org/documents/86274-isn-10020-majid-khan-jtf-gtmo-detainee-as
sessment.html","resources":{"pdf":"http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/86274/i
sn-10020-majid-khan-jtf-gtmo-detainee-assessment.pdf" ...

This may be the default behaviour, but is there anything I can do to get some readable JSON output when using cURL on Windows?

Answer 1

Its an old question but I want to answer in total's simple context.

1. Install Node.Js (Optional) - If you do not have Node js then download the LTS Version of Node JS (you can even install latest if you want)
2. After Installation (or if you already have node js install then just for confirmation type node -v and npm -v.
3. Both should return a proper version numbers as shown below

4. Once you are done with installation confirmation then go ahead and install global version (using -g) flag of jsontool lib on node. npm install -g jsontool

1. Once you are done with the installation in previous step then simply use the pipe | json in last line of curl request.
2. Output without json pipe
3. Output with json pipe

Answer 2

Not exactly, but here's a Python script that improves on that.

import urllib2
import simplejson
import pprint

URL = "http://www.documentcloud.org/api/search.json?q=group:nytimes"

def showfeed(argv):
    argv[1] if len(argv) > 1 else URL
    fo = urllib2.urlopen(URL)
    obj = simplejson.loads(fo.read())
    pprint.pprint(obj)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    import sys
    showfeed(sys.argv)

Answer 3

Check out HTTPie, it's like cURL but a lot more human friendly, meaning that it will format json response accordingly and the like:

http://httpie.org/