This document helps you to understand the structure of the browser JSON files.
The currently accepted browser identifiers are defined in the compat-data schema. They are re-used for the browser data scheme. No other identifiers are allowed and the file names should also use the browser identifiers.
For example, for the browser identifier firefox
, the file name is firefox.json
.
The file firefox.json
is structured like this:
{
"browsers": {
"firefox": {
"name": "Firefox",
"preview_name": "Nightly",
"pref_url": "about:config",
"releases": {
"1.5": {
"release_date": "2005-11-29",
"release_notes": "https://developer.mozilla.org/Firefox/Releases/1.5",
"status": "retired",
"engine": "Gecko",
"engine_version": "1.8"
}
}
}
}
}
It contains an object with the property browsers
which then contains an object with the browser identifier as the property name (firefox
).
Underneath, there is a releases
object which will hold the various releases of a given browser by their release version number ("1.5"
).
The name
string is a required property which should use the browser brand name and avoid English words if possible, for example "Firefox"
, "Firefox Android"
, "Safari"
, "iOS Safari"
, etc.
An optional boolean indicating whether the browser supports flags. This is a hint to data contributors and tools. A true
value does not mean that there exists any flag data for the browser and a false
value does not guarantee a lack of flag data for the browser.
An optional string containing the URL of the page where feature flags can be changed (e.g. "about:config"
for Firefox or "chrome://flags"
for Chrome).
An optional string containing the name of the preview browser. For example, "Nightly" for Firefox, "Canary" for Chrome, and "TP" for Safari.
The release objects consist of the following properties:
-
A mandatory
status
property indicating where in the lifetime cycle this release is in. It's an enum accepting these values:retired
: This release is no longer supported (EOL). For NodeJS and Deno, every minor/patch release aside from the latest within the major release is considered "retired".current
: This release is the official latest release.exclusive
: This is an exclusive release (for example on a flagship device), not generally available.beta
: This release will the next official release.nightly
: This release is the current alpha / experimental release (like Firefox Nightly, Chrome Canary).esr
: This release is an Extended Support Release or Long Term Support release.planned
: This release is planned in the future.
-
An optional
release_date
property with theYYYY-MM-DD
release date of the browser's release. -
An optional
release_notes
property which points to release notes. It needs to be a valid URL. -
An optional
accepts_flags
boolean property indicating whether the release supports flags.This is a hint to data contributors and tools. A
true
value does not mean that there exists any flag data for the release and afalse
value does not guarantee a lack of flag data for the release. -
An optional
engine
property which is the name of the browser's engine. -
An optional
engine_version
property which is the version of the browser's engine. This may or may not differ from the browser version.
This structure is exported for consumers of @mdn/browser-compat-data
:
> const compat = require('@mdn/browser-compat-data');
> compat.browsers.firefox.releases['1.5'].status;
// "retired"