Replace newlines between two words - awk

Question

I have a output from a text file as below. I want to put all the contents of the someItems array under one line. So, every line would have the contents of a new someItems array. For example :
"someItems": [
{
"someId": "MountSomers-showtime.com-ETTI0000000000000003-1452005472058",
"source": "MountSomers",
"sourceAssetId": "9",
"title": "Pk_3",
"ppp": "12",
"expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"
}, {
"someId": "MountSomers-ericsson.com- ETTI0000000000000005-1452005472058",
"source": "MountSomers",
"sourceAssetId": "12",
"title": "Pk_5",
"ppp": "12",
"expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"
} ]
"someItems": [
{
"someId": "MountSomers-hbo.com-ETTI0000000000000002-1452005472058",
"source": "MountSomers",
"sourceAssetId": "7",
"title": "Pk_2",
"ppp": "12",
"expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"
}, {
"someId": "MountSomers-showtime.com-ETTI0000000000000003-1452005472058",
"source": "MountSomers",
"sourceAssetId": "9",
"title": "Pk_3",
"ppp": "12",
"expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"
}, {
"someId": "MountSomers-ericsson.com-ETTI0000000000000005-1452005472058",
"source": "MountSomers",
"sourceAssetId": "12",
"title": "Pk_5",
"ppp": "12",
"expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"
} ]
would become
"someItems": [ ..... ]
"someItems": [ ..... ]
I have the below
cat file | | awk '/^"someItems": [/{p=1}/^]/{p=0} {if(p)printf "%s",$0;else printf "%s%s\n",(NR==1?"":RS),$0}'
but it does not do what I wanted...

Answer 1

Since the input contains the brackets [] only in the outer level the solution can be pretty simple:
awk '{gsub("\n","", $0)}1' RS=']\n' file
I'm using ]\n as the input record separator. This gives you the whole portion between "someItems: ..." until the closing ] as $0. gsub() simply replaces the newlines. 1 prints the (modified) record.
You can also use sed:
sed '/\[/{:a;N;/]/!ba;s/\n//g}' file
I'll explain it in a multiline version:
script.sed:
# Address. Matches a line containing the opening [
/\[/ { # Start of block
# Define a label 'a'
:a
# Read a new line and append it to the pattern buffer
N
# If the pattern buffer doens't contain the closing ]
# jump back to label 'a'
/]/!ba
# Replace all newlines once the closing bracket appeared
# Since we don't jump back to 'a' in this case, this means we'll
# leave the block and start a new cycle.
s/\n//g
} # End of block

Answer 2

$ awk '/^"someItems":/ && f { printf "\n" } { printf $0; f=1 } END { printf "\n" }' file.txt
"someItems": [{ "someId": "MountSomers-showtime.com-ETTI0000000000000003-1452005472058", "source": "MountSomers", "sourceAssetId": "9", "title": "Pk_3", "ppp": "12", "expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"}, { "someId": "MountSomers-ericsson.com- ETTI0000000000000005-1452005472058", "source": "MountSomers", "sourceAssetId": "12", "title": "Pk_5", "ppp": "12", "expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"} ]
"someItems": [{ "someId": "MountSomers-hbo.com-ETTI0000000000000002-1452005472058", "source": "MountSomers", "sourceAssetId": "7", "title": "Pk_2", "ppp": "12", "expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"}, { "someId": "MountSomers-showtime.com-ETTI0000000000000003-1452005472058", "source": "MountSomers", "sourceAssetId": "9", "title": "Pk_3", "ppp": "12", "expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"}, { "someId": "MountSomers-ericsson.com-ETTI0000000000000005-1452005472058", "source": "MountSomers", "sourceAssetId": "12", "title": "Pk_5", "ppp": "12", "expirationDate": "2016-01-06T14:51:12Z"} ]
$
Print each line without a trailing newline. Starting with the second occurrence, put a leading newline before each "someItems". Print a newline at the end to keep it classy.