Library or algorithm to convert a HOCON string to a valid json string

Question

I am limited to using hocon for our config files in our java app's. My problem is I cannot change the format but I now need to store it in another backend that only accepts flat yaml files.

Example app.conf file:

play {
  http {
    port = 9000
    port = ${?HTTP_PORT}
    secret.key = "secretKey"
    secret.key = ${?APPLICATION_SECRET}
    errorHandler = Example.handler.ErrorHandler
  }
}

Attempt 1: Read and parse hocon file with TypesafeConfig:

final ConfigRenderOptions renderOptions = ConfigRenderOptions.defaults()
          .setOriginComments( false )
          .setJson( true )
          .setComments( false );


// Render mergedConfig: Config
String jsonFromHocon = mergedConfig.root().render( renderOptions );
final JsonNode jsonNodeTree = mapper.readTree( jsonFromHocon );

There are 2 problems when this happens:

• The mapper.readTree will throw an error because the 2nd entry of play.http.port is not a number and it is not quoted, ${?HTTP_PORT} is the literal value; I want to preserve the features of hocon which include env replacements if the value is not quoted.

• Even if the values were converted into legal values - when it is converted to json it is overwritten with the last value. This breaks feature parity with hocon.

Any ideas on how to take advantage of typeSafe configs ability to print out conf to semi-valid json.

I cannot use a packaged json parser unless I am able to manipulate the result of the values. I googled a bit on how to custom read values but I do not believe it is possible at this time.

expected output: Add quotes to all values and append the value __replace__ to all keys with duplicate keys and have the env vars

play {
  http {
    port = "9000"
    port__replace__ = "${?HTTP_PORT}"
    secret.key = "\"secretKey\""
    secret.key__replace__ = "${?APPLICATION_SECRET}"
    errorHandler = "Example.handler.ErrorHandler"
  }
}

Please prove me wrong! Or suggest an idea! Is there a hocon format to yaml format parser out there?