allow omitting the colon if the value is an object

src/main/java/com/typesafe/config/impl/Parser.java

@@ -398,14 +398,24 @@ final class Parser {
                 } else {
                     Path path = parseKey(t);
                     Token afterKey = nextTokenIgnoringNewline();
-                    if (!isKeyValueSeparatorToken(afterKey)) {
-                        throw parseError("Key may not be followed by token: "
-                                + afterKey);
-                    }
 
-                    consolidateValueTokens();
+                    Token valueToken;
-                    Token valueToken = nextTokenIgnoringNewline();
+                    AbstractConfigValue newValue;
-                    AbstractConfigValue newValue = parseValue(valueToken);
+                    if (flavor == SyntaxFlavor.CONF
+                            && afterKey == Tokens.OPEN_CURLY) {
+                        // can omit the ':' or '=' before an object value
+                        valueToken = afterKey;
+                        newValue = parseObject();
+                    } else {
+                        if (!isKeyValueSeparatorToken(afterKey)) {
+                            throw parseError("Key may not be followed by token: "
+                                    + afterKey);
+                        }
+
+                        consolidateValueTokens();
+                        valueToken = nextTokenIgnoringNewline();
+                        newValue = parseValue(valueToken);
+                    }
 
                     String key = path.first();
                     Path remaining = path.remainder();

src/test/resources/equiv01/omit-colons.conf

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+{
+    "ints" {
+        "fortyTwo" : 42,
+        "fortyTwoAgain" : 42
+    },
+
+    "floats"
+{
+        "fortyTwoPointOne" : 42.1,
+        "fortyTwoPointOneAgain" : 42.1
+    },
+
+    "strings"   
+
+   {
+        "abcd" : "abcd",
+        "abcdAgain" : "abcd",
+        "a" : "a",
+        "b" : "b",
+        "c" : "c",
+        "d" : "d",
+        "concatenated" : "null bar 42 baz true 3.14 hi"
+    },
+
+    "arrays"            {    
+        "empty" : [],
+        "1" : [ 1 ],
+        "12" : [1, 2],
+        "123" : [1, 2, 3],
+        "ofString" : [ "a", "b", "c" ]
+    },
+
+    "booleans" {
+        "true" : true,
+        "trueAgain" : true,
+        "false" : false,
+        "falseAgain" : false
+    },
+
+    "nulls" {
+        "null" : null,
+        "nullAgain" : null
+    }
+}

src/test/scala/com/typesafe/config/impl/EquivalentsTest.scala

@@ -87,6 +87,6 @@ class EquivalentsTest extends TestUtils {
         // it breaks every time you add a file, so you have to update it.
         assertEquals(2, dirCount)
         // this is the number of files not named original.*
-        assertEquals(8, fileCount)
+        assertEquals(9, fileCount)
     }
 }

src/test/scala/com/typesafe/config/impl/TestUtils.scala

@@ -172,6 +172,8 @@ abstract trait TestUtils {
 
     private val validConfInvalidJson = List[ParseTest](
         """{ "foo" = 42 }""", // equals rather than colon
+        """{ foo { "bar" : 42 } }""", // omit the colon for object value
+        """{ foo baz { "bar" : 42 } }""", // omit the colon with unquoted key with spaces
         """{ "foo" : bar }""", // no quotes on value
         """{ "foo" : null bar 42 baz true 3.14 "hi" }""", // bunch of values to concat into a string
         "{ foo : \"bar\" }", // no quotes on key