Illustrator script that uses the command line to cURL a JSON file on remote server. This is just an example and experiment, not meant for production purposes. UNIX required. Not Windows-friendly, sorry. :(

data.json

{
	"key": "value"
}

read-remote-json.jsx

#target illustrator
#targetengine main

var NS = 'TEST';

this[NS] = (function(_$this, _$application, _$window, undefined) {
	
	var _private = {};
	
	_private.term = function($directory, $name) {
		
		var script = [
			'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>',
			'<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">',
			'<plist version="1.0">',
				'<dict>',
					'<key>WindowSettings</key>',
					'<array>',
						'<dict>',
							'<key>ExecutionString</key>',
							'<string>TMP=' + $directory + '/' + $name + '.sh; chmod u+x $TMP; source $TMP;</string>',
						'</dict>',
					'</array>',
				'</dict>',
			'</plist>'
		].join('\n');
		
		return _private.file($directory + '/' + $name + '.term', script);
		
	};
	
	_private.shell = function($directory, $name, $result) {
		
		var script = [
			'#!/usr/bin/env bash\n',
			'cd ' + $directory,
			'curl https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1277106/data.json > ' + $result,
			'exit;'
		].join('\n');
		
		return _private.file($directory + '/' + $name + '.sh', script);
		
	};
	
	_private.file = function($file, $string) {
		
		var f = new File($file);
		
		f.encoding = 'UTF-8';
		f.lineFeed = 'Unix'; // Convert to UNIX lineFeed
		// term.lineFeed = 'Windows';
		// term.lineFeed = 'Macintosh';
		
		f.open('w');
		f.writeln($string);
		f.close();
		
		return f;
		
	};
	
	_private.directory = function($directory, $remove) {
		
		if ( ! $directory.exists) {
			
			$directory.create();
			
		} else if ( !! $remove) {
			
			_private.remove($directory);
			
			$directory.remove();
			
		}
		
	};
	
	_private.script = function($term) {
		
		var result = $term.execute(); // Now execute the term file.
		
	};
	
	_private.read = function($directory, $result) {
		
		var f;
		var result = '';
		
		f = new File($directory + '/' + $result);
		
		if (f.open('r')) {
			
			result = f.read();
			
			f.close();
			
		}
		
		return result;
		
	}
	
	_private.parse = function($json) {
		
		var data;
		
		eval('data = ' + $json);
		
		$.writeln(data.key); // Should return "value".
		
		// Done!!!
		
	}
	
	_$this.init = function($title) {
		
		var json;
		var result;
		var directory;
		var json;
		var name;
		var term;
		
		name = 'tmp'; // Name to use for auto-generated files.
		
		result = 'result.json'; // File name of copy of remote data.
		
		// Determine location of "temp" folder:
		directory = new Folder(File($.fileName).path + '/' + name); // Where do these scripts live?
		
		// Create our temporary directory:
		_private.directory(directory);
		
		term = _private.term(directory, name);
		
		_private.shell(directory, name, result);
		
		// This is just a hack to make sure the files above have been created before calling them ...
		$.sleep(1000);
		
		// ... so, this would be called after every BridgeTalk Message:
		_private.script(term);
		
		// Another hacky way of waiting for files to get created (doing this for demo purposes):
		$.sleep(2000);
		
		// Read the newly-created data file:
		json = _private.read(directory, result);
		
		// Parse the JSON:
		_private.parse(json);
		
		// Done!!!!!
		
	};
	
	return _$this;
	
}((this[NS] || {}), app, Window));

this[NS].init();

Long story short, this script creates .term and .sh files; the .term file sets permissions on the shell script and the shell script requests a json file hosted on my Dropbox public folder (see json file above). This script then writes the contents of the response to a file, reads that file and parses the json.

Example BridgeTalk boilerplate plugin found here.