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https://github.com/hunyadi/json-persistence
Type-safe JSON serialization and deserialization for C++17 and later
https://github.com/hunyadi/json-persistence
cpp17 cpp20 header-only json json-parser json-schema serialization
Last synced: 3 days ago
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Type-safe JSON serialization and deserialization for C++17 and later
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/hunyadi/json-persistence
- Owner: hunyadi
- License: mit
- Created: 2022-10-10T12:27:43.000Z (about 2 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2023-04-30T15:40:43.000Z (over 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2023-07-09T18:28:03.055Z (over 1 year ago)
- Topics: cpp17, cpp20, header-only, json, json-parser, json-schema, serialization
- Language: C++
- Homepage:
- Size: 308 KB
- Stars: 3
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# Type-safe JSON persistence for C++17 and later
This header-only library for C++17 and later provides type-safe serialization of C++ objects into JSON strings, and deserialization of JSON strings to C++ objects.
## Features
* Header-only.
* Compile-time correctness.
* (De-)serialize fundamental types `bool`, `short`, `int`, `long`, `float`, `double`, etc. to/from their respective JSON type.
* (De-)serialize `time_point` type to/from an ISO 8601 date-time string in time zone UTC.
* (De-)serialize `year_month_day` type to/from an ISO 8601 date string (C++20 and later only).
* (De-)serialize enumeration types as their underlying integer type or as string (with auxiliary helper functions `to_string` and `from_string`).
* (De-)serialize `vector` type to/from a Base64-encoded string.
* (De-)serialize heterogeneous `pair` and `tuple` to/from a JSON array.
* (De-)serialize container types `vector`, `array`, `set`, etc. to/from a JSON array.
* (De-)serialize dictionary types `map` and `unordered_map` to/from a JSON object.
* Serialize variant types to their stored type. De-serialize variant types using the first matching type.
* (De-)serialize class types by enumerating their member variables.
* Omit JSON object field for missing value in `optional`.
* Skip missing JSON object field for variable with default member initializer in a C++ class.
* (De-)serialize pointer types such as `shared_ptr` and `unique_ptr`.
* Back-reference support for (de-)serialization of C++ pointer types via JSON pointer `{"$ref": "/path/to/previous/occurrence"}`.
* Serialize C++ objects that share pointers only once. De-serialize back-references as C++ pointers to the same object.
* Can use the reflection library [Boost.Describe](https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_80_0/libs/describe/doc/html/describe.html) for parsing, writing and (de-)serializing enumerations as strings.
## Design goals
### Intuitive syntax
1. Define member variables for JSON serialization and de-serialization within the class definition:
```cpp
struct Example
{
bool bool_value = false;
std::string string_value;
std::vector string_list;
std::optional optional_value;
UserDefinedType custom_value;
template
constexpr auto persist(Archive& ar)
{
return ar
& MEMBER_VARIABLE(bool_value)
& MEMBER_VARIABLE(string_value)
& MEMBER_VARIABLE(string_list)
& MEMBER_VARIABLE(optional_value)
& MEMBER_VARIABLE(custom_value)
;
}
};
```
2. Serialize an object to a JSON string:
```cpp
Example obj = { true, "string", {"a","b","c"}, std::nullopt, {"xyz"} };
auto json = write_to_string(obj);
```
in which the variable `json` holds:
```json
{
"bool_value": true,
"string_value": "string",
"string_list": ["a", "b", "c"],
"custom_value": {"value": "xyz"}
}
```
3. Parse a JSON string into an object of the given type:
```cpp
Example res = parse(json);
```
### Easy to use
* Copy the `include` folder to your project's header include path, no build or installation required.
* Get started by including ``, which enables all features.
* Selectively include headers such as `` to tackle a specific use case:
* Use `` for writing a C++ object to a string.
* Use `` for parsing a string into a C++ object.
* Use `` for serializing a C++ object to a JSON DOM document.
* Use `` for de-serializing a JSON DOM document into a C++ object.
* Use `` to import all supported data types for an operation type.
* Use `` to import helper macro `MEMBER_VARIABLE` only.
* Use `` to import helper functions to convert between JSON DOM document and JSON string.
### Extensible
Add new template specializations to support (de-)serializing new types:
* Specialize `JsonWriter` to support writing new C++ types to JSON string.
* Specialize `JsonParser` to support parsing new C++ types from JSON string.
* Specialize `JsonSerializer` to serialize new C++ types to JSON DOM.
* Specialize `JsonDeserializer` to deserialize new C++ types from JSON DOM.
(De-)serialize, parse and write enumeration types as strings by defining value-to-string and string-to-value conversions.
### Fast and efficient
* Built on top of [RapidJSON](https://rapidjson.org/).
* Uses RapidJSON [SAX interface](https://rapidjson.org/md_doc_sax.html) for writing and parsing JSON strings directly, bypassing the JSON DOM.
* Uses [perfect hashing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_hash_function) during parsing to look up the member variable corresponding to a JSON object property name.
* Uses a polymorphic stack to reduce dynamic memory allocations on heap.
* Infers type and range compatibility at compile-time when possible.
* Unrolls loops at compile-time for bounded-length data structures such as pairs, tuples and object properties.
### Platform-neutral
* Uses standard C++17 features only (with the exception of RapidJSON engine).
* Compiles on Linux, MacOS and Windows.
* Compiles with Clang and MSVC.
## Data transformation modes
The library supports several transformation modes:
* writing a C++ object directly to a string (without JSON DOM):
```cpp
std::string str = write_to_string(obj);
```
* parsing a string directly into a C++ object (without JSON DOM):
```cpp
auto obj = parse(str);
```
* serializing a C++ object to a JSON DOM document:
```cpp
rapidjson::Document doc = serialize_to_document(obj);
```
* de-serializing a JSON DOM document into a C++ object:
```cpp
auto obj = deserialize(doc);
```
* writing a JSON DOM document to a string (with utility function `document_to_string`)
* parsing a JSON DOM document from a string (with utility function `string_to_document`)
* serializing a C++ object to a JSON DOM, and then writing the JSON DOM to a string:
```cpp
rapidjson::Document doc = serialize_to_document(obj);
std::string str = document_to_string(doc);
```
* reading a string into a JSON DOM, and then de-serializing the data from JSON DOM into a C++ object:
```cpp
rapidjson::Document doc = string_to_document(str);
auto obj = deserialize(doc);
```
## Default member initializers
If a class has a [default member initializer](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/data_members#Member_initialization), the value of that member variable is assigned when the object is constructed. As a result, these member variables can be treated as if they were optional for JSON de-serialization and parsing; when the corresponding object key is missing in the source JSON, processing can continue without error. Use the macro `MEMBER_VARIABLE_DEFAULT` to indicate that omitting the JSON property corresponding to this member variable is allowed:
```cpp
struct Default
{
template
constexpr auto persist(Archive& ar)
{
return ar
& MEMBER_VARIABLE_DEFAULT(value)
;
}
private:
std::string value = "default";
};
```
The same technique can be applied to member variables whose value is assigned in the default constructor.
## Defining persistence in derived classes
The following example illustrates how to define the `persist` function in a derived class that inherits members from a base class and defines additional member variables of its own:
```cpp
struct Base
{
template
constexpr auto persist(Archive& ar)
{
return ar
& MEMBER_VARIABLE(base_member)
;
}
private:
std::string base_member;
};
struct Derived : Base
{
template
constexpr auto persist(Archive& ar)
{
return this->Base::persist(ar)
& MEMBER_VARIABLE(derived_member)
;
}
private:
std::string derived_member;
};
```
## Enumeration to string conversion
In order to (de-)serialize, parse and write enumeration types as strings, define value-to-string and string-to-value conversions with the type trait class `enum_traits`:
```cpp
namespace persistence
{
template<>
struct enum_traits
{
static std::string_view to_string(MyEnum value)
{
// return a distinct string literal for each enumeration value
return std::string_view();
}
static bool from_string(const std::string_view& name, MyEnum& value)
{
// assign enumeration value based on string literal
value = MyEnum();
// return true if value has been assigned; false on no match
return true;
}
};
}
```
Use utility function `make_enum_converter` and class `EnumConverter` to implement `to_string` and `from_string` with less boilerplate code.
If the reflection library [Boost.Describe](https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_80_0/libs/describe/doc/html/describe.html) is enabled, provide reflection metadata for enumerations with `BOOST_DESCRIBE_ENUM`. The string names assigned with this macro are used in parsing, writing and (de-)serializing enumerations.
In order to enable Boost.Describe reflections, compile your project with the preprocessor macro `PERSISTENCE_BOOST_DESCRIBE`. Make sure the following headers are available:
```cpp
#include
#include
```
## Error reporting
Functions that take both a source and a target object reference return a boolean result and throw no exceptions. Functions that take only a source argument and return a target object value throw exceptions on error.
Consider the following C++ code that invokes the parser:
```cpp
try {
parse("{\"bool_value\": true, []}");
} catch (JsonParseError& e) {
std::cout << e.what() << std::endl;
}
```
There is a syntax error in the JSON string. Running the above code prints:
```
parse error at offset 21: Missing a name for object member.
```
Take another example with a mismatch for the property value type:
```cpp
try {
parse("{\"bool_value\": true, \"string_value\": []}");
} catch (JsonParseError& e) {
std::cout << e.what() << std::endl;
}
```
Even though the above JSON string is syntactically correct, a JSON array cannot be cast into a C++ string, which produces an error:
```
parse error at offset 38: Terminate parsing due to Handler error.
```
Similarly, the deserializer not only reports the nature of the error encountered but also its location with a [JSON Pointer](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6901). Consider the following:
```cpp
try {
deserialize(
"{"
"\"bool_value\": true,"
"\"string_value\": \"lorem ipsum\","
"\"string_list\": [\"a\",23]"
"}"
);
} catch (JsonDeserializationError& e) {
std::cout << e.what() << std::endl;
}
```
Notice how the second element of `string_list` (a C++ `vector`) has the wrong data type: a JSON number instead of a JSON string. The error message identifies the location: `/string_list` to select the property in the root object and `/1` to identify the second element in the array (with zero-based indexing):
```
wrong JSON data type; expected: string at /string_list/1
```
## Generating JSON schema
The library understands the most common C++ types and can emit corresponding [JSON Schema](https://json-schema.org/) types. For example, take the following C++ code:
```cpp
std::cout << schema_document_to_string() << std::endl;
```
In this case, the output may look like as follows:
```json
{
"$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
"definitions": {
"UserDefinedType": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"value": { "type": "string" }
},
"required": ["value"],
"additionalProperties": false
}
},
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"bool_value": {
"type": "boolean"
},
"string_value": {
"type": "string"
},
"string_list": {
"type": "array",
"items": { "type": "string" }
},
"optional_value": {
"type": "integer",
"minimum": -2147483648,
"maximum": 2147483647
},
"custom_value": {
"$ref": "#/definitions/UserDefinedType"
}
},
"required": [
"bool_value",
"string_value",
"string_list",
"custom_value"
],
"additionalProperties": false
}
```
## Performance
The following table shows relative performance of writing, parsing and (de-)serializing a C++ `vector` object of 100,000 elements. Each element is a composite object holding (vectors of) boolean, integer and string values. When represented as JSON, the string takes approximately 100 MB. DOM is the `Document` object constructed by RapidJSON when de-serializing a JSON string.
| Case | Operation | Duration |
|:---- |:------------------------------------------------------------ | --------:|
| 1 | write object to string | 310 ms |
| 2 | parse object from string | 672 ms |
| 3 | serialize DOM to string | 336 ms |
| 4 | deserialize DOM from string | 411 ms |
| 5 | serialize object to DOM | 223 ms |
| 6 | deserialize object from DOM with exceptions disabled | 365 ms |
| 7 | deserialize object from DOM with exceptions enabled | 386 ms |
Cases 1 and 2 capture the end-to-end performance of this header-only library. Cases 3 and 4 reflect functionality provided by RapidJSON out of the box, and act as reference values; accessors are needed to get data out of DOM instead of manipulating C++ objects directly. Cases 5, 6 and 7 help estimate the relative cost of (de-)serializing an object to/from DOM, as a step towards a JSON string. Comparison of Case 1 with Cases 3 + 5, and of Case 2 with Cases 4 + (6 or 7) gives an estimate of the savings gained by translating from a C++ object directly to/from a JSON string.
## Limitations and workarounds
JSON parser does not support back-references (`{"$ref": "/path/to/previous/occurrence"}`); parsing pointer-like types always creates a new instance. When back-references are present, read the JSON string into a JSON DOM with the utility function `string_to_document`, and then de-serialize the data from JSON DOM with `deserialize`.
Parsing and de-serializing raw pointers is not permitted due to lack of clarity around ownership. Use `unique_ptr` and `shared_ptr` instead. Writing and serializing raw pointers is allowed, the pointee object is written.
JSON parser does not support variant types. Instead, read the JSON string into a JSON DOM with the utility function `string_to_document`, and then de-serialize the data from JSON DOM with `deserialize`. JSON writer, serializer and de-serializer support variant types.
## Comparison to other libraries
Unlike [Boost.JSON](https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_80_0/libs/json/doc/html/index.html) and [nlohmann/json](https://github.com/nlohmann/json), this library does not introduce a variant JSON `value` type whose contents you can manipulate with accessors at run time. Instead, this library uses the original C++ data types, and employs compile-time inference to perform the appropriate action on parsing, writing and (de-)serialization.