Why convert BDOB to JSON?
CBOR is a compact binary sibling of JSON used to save space and parse faster, but it isn't human-readable. People decode a .bdob blob to .json so they can inspect, edit, diff, or feed the data into tools that only speak text JSON.
How to convert BDOB to JSON
cbor2 (Python) OPEN-SOURCE
Install with pip install cbor2, then run python -m cbor2.tool -d file.bdob --pretty to print the decoded data as formatted JSON. Add -o out.json to write it to a file.
About these formats
A .bdob file is a NATO Binary Binding Data Object: a small binary record that binds metadata, usually a confidentiality label, to a data object. It is defined by the NATO Metadata Binding…
Open .BDOB details →
.JSON
JavaScript Object Notation file
A JSON file is a plain-text data file in JavaScript Object Notation format, used by web APIs, app configurations, and data exports. Any text editor opens it - Notepad on Windows, TextEdit…
Open .JSON details →Quality & what to watch
- The conversion is officially documented as lossy - byte strings, non-string map keys, and CBOR tags are flattened into whatever JSON can represent.
- If the
.bdobcame from a specific app, its schema is not described inside the file, so you get the raw structure but not necessarily meaningful field names. - Special floats (NaN, Infinity) and very large integers may not round-trip back to identical CBOR.
Frequently asked questions
Is .bdob always CBOR?
.bdob name signals a binary data blob and CBOR is the common case, but confirm by decoding - if cbor2 errors out, the file uses a different binary format.Will I get my JSON back into .bdob exactly?
cbor2.dumps can produce slightly different bytes than the original blob.Do I need to write code?
python -m cbor2.tool is a ready-made command-line utility, and cbor.me needs no install at all.Can I edit the data first?
cbor2 if you need the binary form back.
