A Java implementation of the Ion data notation.

This repository contains a git submodule called ion-tests, which holds test data used by ion-java's unit tests.

The easiest way to clone the ion-java repository and initialize its ion-tests submodule is to run the following command.

$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/amzn/ion-java.git ion-java

Alternatively, the submodule may be initialized independently from the clone by running the following commands.

$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update

The submodule points to the tip of the branch of the ion-tests repository specified in ion-java's .gitmodules file.

ion-java may now be built and installed into the local Maven repository with the following command.

$ mvn install

To pull upstream changes into ion-java, start with a simple git pull. This will pull in any changes to ion-java itself (including any changes to its .gitmodules file), but not any changes to the ion-tests submodule. To make sure the submodule is up-to-date, use the following command.

$ git submodule update --remote

This will fetch and update the ion-tests submodule from the ion-tests branch currently specified in the .gitmodules file.

For detailed walkthroughs of git submodule usage, see the Git Tools documentation.

To start using ion-java in your code with Maven, insert the following dependency into your project's pom.xml:

<dependency>
  <groupId>software.amazon.ion</groupId>
  <artifactId>ion-java</artifactId>
  <version>1.2.0</version>
</dependency>

A great way to get started is to use the Ion cookbook. The API documentation will give a lot of detailed information about how to use the library.