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https://github.com/google/serialization.dart

A serialization library for Dart.
https://github.com/google/serialization.dart

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A serialization library for Dart.

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# General serialization for Dart objects.



[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/google/serialization.dart.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/google/serialization.dart)



Save and restore objects flexibly.



This can serialize and de-serialize objects to multiple different

formats. It is most useful if you have Dart on both ends, rather

than needing to communicate with an external system. It can handle

cycles, inheritance, getters and setters, private or final fields set

via constructors, objects

serialized in different ways at different times, and other complex

options. It can handle serializing acyclic objects with only public

fields to a simple JSON format, but might be more heavyweight than is

necessary if that's the only requirement.



This has no privileged access to object representations, so objects

are accessed and created according to their public APIs. As a result,

serializations from older versions where the internal representation

has changed can still be read as long as the public API is still available.



The way an object's state is read and written is defined by

SerializationRules. These can be implemented in various ways. The

easiest to use is using mirrors to find the members. Rules can also be

hand-written or, for relatively simple classes, generated using a

transformer.



## Usage



Import either



    import "package:serialization/serialization.dart"



or



    import "package:serialization/serialization_mirrors.dart"



depending on whether or not you want the mirrored rules. These are

more convenient, but cause increased code size in dartj2s.



To use the transformer, include something in the pubspec like



     transformers:

       - serialization :

         $include: ["lib/stuff.dart", "lib/more_stuff.dart"]



Then, set up the generated rules in a Serialization instance, and then call

write(). The serialization rules will be named as

the name of the model file with `_serialization_rules` appended to it,

so in the case of `stuff.dart`, `stuff_serialization_rules.dart`, in

the same directory as the original.



Normally you won't ever see these files, because the

transformer creates it on the fly and it is sent directly to pub serve

or to dart2js without ever being written to disk.

To see the generated code, run pub build in debug mode, e.g.

if there is a program in the package's `bin` directory to run something

using these files, then



    pub build --mode=debug bin



would generate the code for that, and also log which

files were generated, in the form



    Generated serialization rules in my_package|lib/stuff_serialization_rules.dart



It's also possible to run the transformer's code outside of the

transformer, which is helpful for debugging or to use the code in a

different way. See the `test/transformer/generate_standalone.dart' for

an example of that.



The bin directory code would look something like.



    import 'package:my_package/stuff_serialization_rules.dart' as foo;

     ...

     var serialization = new Serialization();

     foo.rules.values.forEach(serialization.addRule);

     ...

     sendToClient(serialization.write(somePerson));



and on the client, do something like



     p = readFromServer(personId).then((data) => serialization.read(data));



Alternatively, if using the mirrored rules, just tell the

serialization which classes might be serialized.



      var serialization = new Serialization()

	    ..addRuleFor(Person);

        ..addRuleFor(Address);

      serialization.write(address);



For more concrete examples, see the `test` directory, and particularly

for examples of the transformer it may be useful to look at the

`pubspec.yaml` for this package, and the`test/transformer` directory.



## Requests and bugs



Please file feature requests and bugs via the

[GitHub Issue Tracker][issues]. This is licensed under the

[same license as Dart][LICENSE]



## Disclaimer



This is not an official Google project.



[issues]: https://github.com/google/serialization.dart/issues

[LICENSE]: https://github.com/google/serialization.dart/blob/master/LICENSE