helm-x-path-walker modifies buffer

[timjstewart]

1. Open JSON File
2. Note that the buffer has not been modified (e.g. no asterisk appears by the buffer name).
3. M-x helm-x-path-walker
4. enter a string that matches one or more nodes in the JSON file.
5. Hit C-j (Jump to path)
6. Note that an asterisk appears near the buffer name.

[timjstewart]

I have been looking for a tool like this (currently using jq from the command line). Thanks for creating this!

[Lompik]

Thanks for giving it try.

This is currently a known drawback. "Untidy" JSONs is not supported. The JSON has to be the formated as if piped into "python -m json" (or formatted as per python json module). However if the buffer is already modified it should ask you to save before running helm-x-path-walker. Currently this package does not test if the formatting is as expected as I think it is a rare case.
I'll take another look at the JSON code to see if any improvement can be made (or find another python module).
For [XH]TML, the underlying module (lxml) also provide the line number on the elements so it will accept messy files without problem.