11 KiB
nim-json-serialization
Flexible JSON serialization does not rely on run-time type information.
Overview
nim-json-serialization offers rich features on top of nim-serialization framework. The following is available but not an exhaustive list of features:
- Decode into Nim data types efficiently without an intermediate token.
- Able to parse full spec of JSON including the notorious JSON number.
- Support stdlib/JsonNode out of the box.
- While stdlib/JsonNode does not support the full spec of the Json number, we offer an alternative
JsonValueRef
. - Skipping Json value is an efficient process, no token is generated at all and at the same time, the grammar is checked.
- Skipping is also free from custom serializer interference.
- An entire Json value can be parsed into a valid Json document string. This string document can be parsed again without losing any information.
- Custom serialization is easy and safe to implement with the help of many built-in parsers.
- Nonstandard features are put behind flags. You can choose which features to switch on or off.
- Because the intended usage of this library will be in a security-demanding application, we make sure malicious inputs will not crash this library through fuzz tests.
- The user also can tweak certain limits of the lexer/parser behavior using the configuration object.
createJsonFlavor
is a powerful way to prevent cross contamination between different subsystem using different custom serializar on the same type.
Spec compliance
nim-json-serialization implements RFC8259 JSON spec and pass these test suites:
Switchable features
Many of these switchable features are widely used features in various projects but are not standard JSON features. But you can access them using the flags:
- allowUnknownFields[=off]: enable unknown fields to be skipped instead of throwing an error.
- requireAllFields[=off]: if one of the required fields is missing, the serializer will throw an error.
- escapeHex[=off]: JSON doesn't support
\xHH
escape sequence, but it is a common thing in many languages. - relaxedEscape[=off]: only '0x00'..'0x1F' can be prepended by escape char
\\
, turn this on and you can escape any char. - portableInt[=off]: set the limit of integer to
-2**53 + 1
and+2**53 - 1
. - trailingComma[=on]: allow the presence of a trailing comma after the last object member or array element.
- allowComments[=on]: JSOn standard doesn't mention about comments. Turn this on to parse both C style comments of
//..EOL
and/* .. */
. - leadingFraction[=on]: something like
.123
is not a valid JSON number, but its widespread usage sometimes creeps into Json documents. - integerPositiveSign[=on]:
+123
is also not a valid JSON number, but since-123
is a valid JSON number, why not parse it safely?
Safety features
You can modify these default configurations to suit your needs.
- nestedDepthLimit: 512: maximum depth of the nested structure, they are a combination of objects and arrays depth(0=disable).
- arrayElementsLimit: 0: maximum number of allowed array elements(0=disable).
- objectMembersLimit: 0: maximum number of key-value pairs in an object(0=disable).
- integerDigitsLimit: 128: limit the maximum digits of the integer part of JSON number.
- fractionDigitsLimit: 128: limit the maximum digits of faction part of JSON number.
- exponentDigitsLimit: 32: limit the maximum digits of the exponent part of JSON number.
- stringLengthLimit: 0: limit the maximum bytes of string(0=disable).
Special types
- JsonString: Use this type if you want to parse a Json value to a valid Json document contained in a string.
- JsonVoid: Use this type to skip a valid Json value.
- JsonNumber: Use this to parse a valid Json number including the fraction and exponent part.
- Please note that this type is a generic, it support
uint64
andstring
as generic param. - The generic param will define the integer and exponent part as
uint64
orstring
. - If the generic param is
uint64
, overflow can happen, or max digit limit will apply. - If the generic param is
string
, the max digit limit will apply. - The fraction part is always a string to keep the leading zero of the fractional number.
- Please note that this type is a generic, it support
- JsonValueRef: Use this type to parse any valid Json value into something like stdlib/JsonNode.
JsonValueRef
is usingJsonNumber
instead ofint
orfloat
like stdlib/JsonNode.
Flavor
While flags and limits are runtime configuration, flavor is a powerful compile time mechanism to prevent
cross contamination between different custom serializer operated the same type. For example,
json-rpc
subsystem dan json-rest
subsystem maybe have different custom serializer for the same UInt256
.
Json-Flavor will make sure, the compiler picks the right serializer for the right subsystem.
You can use useDefaultSerializationIn
to add serializers of a flavor to a specific type.
# These are the parameters you can pass to `createJsonFlavor` to create a new flavor.
FlavorName: untyped
mimeTypeValue = "application/json"
automaticObjectSerialization = false
requireAllFields = true
omitOptionalFields = true
allowUnknownFields = true
skipNullFields = false
type
OptionalFields = object
one: Opt[string]
two: Option[int]
createJsonFlavor OptJson
OptionalFields.useDefaultSerializationIn OptJson
`omitOptionalFields` is used by the Writer to ignore fields with null value.
`skipNullFields` is used by the Reader to ignore fields with null value.
Decoder example
type
NimServer = object
name: string
port: int
MixedServer = object
name: JsonValueRef
port: int
StringServer = object
name: JsonString
port: JsonString
# decode into native Nim
var nim_native = Json.decode(rawJson, NimServer)
# decode into mixed Nim + JsonValueRef
var nim_mixed = Json.decode(rawJson, MixedServer)
# decode any value into string
var nim_string = Json.decode(rawJson, StringServer)
# decode any valid JSON
var json_value = Json.decode(rawJson, JsonValueRef)
Load and save
var server = Json.loadFile("filename.json", Server)
var server_string = Json.loadFile("filename.json", JsonString)
Json.saveFile("filename.json", server)
Objects
Decoding an object can be achieved via the parseObject
template.
To parse the value, you can use one of the helper functions or use readValue
.
readObject
and readObjectFields
iterators are also handy when creating a custom object parser.
proc readValue*(r: var JsonReader, table: var Table[string, int]) =
parseObject(r, key):
table[key] = r.parseInt(int)
Sets and list-like
Similar to Object
, sets and list or array-like data structures can be parsed using
parseArray
template. It comes in two variations, indexed and non-indexed.
Built-in readValue
for regular seq
and array
is implemented for you.
No built-in readValue
for set
or set-like
is provided, you must overload it yourself depending on your need.
type
HoldArray = object
data: array[3, int]
HoldSeq = object
data: seq[int]
WelderFlag = enum
TIG
MIG
MMA
Welder = object
flags: set[WelderFlag]
proc readValue*(r: var JsonReader, value: var HoldArray) =
# parseArray with index, `i` can be any valid identifier
r.parseArray(i):
value.data[i] = r.parseInt(int)
proc readValue*(r: var JsonReader, value: var HoldSeq) =
# parseArray without index
r.parseArray:
let lastPos = value.data.len
value.data.setLen(lastPos + 1)
readValue(r, value.data[lastPos])
proc readValue*(r: var JsonReader, value: var Welder) =
# populating set also okay
r.parseArray:
value.flags.incl r.parseInt(int).WelderFlag
Custom iterators
Using these custom iterators, you can have access to sub-token elements.
customIntValueIt(r: var JsonReader; body: untyped)
customNumberValueIt(r: var JsonReader; body: untyped)
customStringValueIt(r: var JsonReader; limit: untyped; body: untyped)
customStringValueIt(r: var JsonReader; body: untyped)
Convenience iterators
readArray(r: var JsonReader, ElemType: typedesc): ElemType
readObjectFields(r: var JsonReader, KeyType: type): KeyType
readObjectFields(r: var JsonReader): string
readObject(r: var JsonReader, KeyType: type, ValueType: type): (KeyType, ValueType)
Helper procs
When crafting a custom serializer, use these parsers, they are safe and intuitive. Avoid using the lexer directly.
tokKind(r: var JsonReader): JsonValueKind
parseString(r: var JsonReader, limit: int): string
parseString(r: var JsonReader): string
parseBool(r: var JsonReader): bool
parseNull(r: var JsonReader)
parseNumber(r: var JsonReader, T: type): JsonNumber[T: string or uint64]
parseNumber(r: var JsonReader, val: var JsonNumber)
toInt(r: var JsonReader, val: JsonNumber, T: type SomeInteger, portable: bool): T
parseInt(r: var JsonReader, T: type SomeInteger, portable: bool = false): T
toFloat(r: var JsonReader, val: JsonNumber, T: type SomeFloat): T
parseFloat(r: var JsonReader, T: type SomeFloat): T
parseAsString(r: var JsonReader, val: var string)
parseAsString(r: var JsonReader): JsonString
parseValue(r: var JsonReader, T: type): JsonValueRef[T: string or uint64]
parseValue(r: var JsonReader, val: var JsonValueRef)
parseArray(r: var JsonReader; body: untyped)
parseArray(r: var JsonReader; idx: untyped; body: untyped)
parseObject(r: var JsonReader, key: untyped, body: untyped)
parseObjectWithoutSkip(r: var JsonReader, key: untyped, body: untyped)
parseObjectSkipNullFields(r: var JsonReader, key: untyped, body: untyped)
parseObjectCustomKey(r: var JsonReader, keyAction: untyped, body: untyped)
parseJsonNode(r: var JsonReader): JsonNode
skipSingleJsValue(r: var JsonReader)
readRecordValue[T](r: var JsonReader, value: var T)
Helper procs of JsonWriter
beginRecord(w: var JsonWriter, T: type)
beginRecord(w: var JsonWriter)
endRecord(w: var JsonWriter)
writeObject(w: var JsonWriter, T: type)
writeObject(w: var JsonWriter)
writeFieldName(w: var JsonWriter, name: string)
writeField(w: var JsonWriter, name: string, value: auto)
iterator stepwiseArrayCreation[C](w: var JsonWriter, collection: C): auto
writeIterable(w: var JsonWriter, collection: auto)
writeArray[T](w: var JsonWriter, elements: openArray[T])
writeNumber[F,T](w: var JsonWriter[F], value: JsonNumber[T])
writeJsonValueRef[F,T](w: var JsonWriter[F], value: JsonValueRef[T])
License
Licensed and distributed under either of
- MIT license: LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT
or
- Apache License, Version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHEv2 or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
at your option. These files may not be copied, modified, or distributed except according to those terms.