diff --git a/jsonexamples/CMakeLists.txt b/jsonexamples/CMakeLists.txt
index 6bbd0599e..5cd04e05d 100644
--- a/jsonexamples/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/jsonexamples/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,8 +1,6 @@
 set(SIMDJSON_BENCHMARK_DATA_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR} PARENT_SCOPE)
 set(EXAMPLE_JSON ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/twitter.json PARENT_SCOPE)
 set(EXAMPLE_NDJSON ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/amazon_cellphones.ndjson PARENT_SCOPE)
-add_library(jsonexamples-data INTERFACE)
-target_compile_definitions(jsonexamples-data INTERFACE SIMDJSON_BENCHMARK_DATA_DIR="${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/")
 
 # Copy static files to the build dir so they live alongside the generated ones
 file(GLOB_RECURSE example_files RELATIVE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} *.json *.ndjson)
@@ -11,3 +9,8 @@ foreach(example_file ${example_files})
 endforeach(example_file)
 
 add_subdirectory(generated)
+
+add_library(jsonexamples-data INTERFACE)
+target_compile_definitions(jsonexamples-data INTERFACE SIMDJSON_BENCHMARK_DATA_DIR="${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/")
+add_dependencies(jsonexamples-data ${example_files})
+add_dependencies(jsonexamples-data generated-data)
diff --git a/jsonexamples/generated/CMakeLists.txt b/jsonexamples/generated/CMakeLists.txt
index 64066c98e..678c09006 100644
--- a/jsonexamples/generated/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/jsonexamples/generated/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -11,4 +11,7 @@ if (RUBY_EXECUTABLE)
     WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
   )
   add_custom_target(generated-data DEPENDS ${generated_files})
+else (RUBY_EXECUTABLE)
+  # TODO make this work without Ruby and make it part of the normal build
+  add_custom_target(generated-data)
 endif (RUBY_EXECUTABLE)