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https://github.com/ml-archive/Serpent
A protocol to serialize Swift structs and classes for encoding and decoding.
https://github.com/ml-archive/Serpent
alamofire carthage cocoapods decoding encoding json mapper model-boiler parsing swift
Last synced: about 1 month ago
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A protocol to serialize Swift structs and classes for encoding and decoding.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/ml-archive/Serpent
- Owner: ml-archive
- License: mit
- Archived: true
- Created: 2016-02-09T15:10:04.000Z (almost 9 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2022-03-10T09:17:42.000Z (almost 3 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-10-29T19:02:25.443Z (3 months ago)
- Topics: alamofire, carthage, cocoapods, decoding, encoding, json, mapper, model-boiler, parsing, swift
- Language: Swift
- Homepage: https://nodes-ios.github.io/Serpent/
- Size: 3.16 MB
- Stars: 286
- Watchers: 15
- Forks: 13
- Open Issues: 11
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
- awesome-ios - Serpent - A protocol to serialize Swift structs and classes for encoding and decoding. (Parsing / JSON)
- awesome-ios-star - Serpent - A protocol to serialize Swift structs and classes for encoding and decoding. (Parsing / JSON)
README
### This library has been deprecated and the repo has been archived.
### The code is still here and you can still clone it, however the library will not receive any more updates or support.
[](https://circleci.com/gh/nodes-ios/Serpent)
[](https://codecov.io/github/nodes-ios/Serpent)
[](https://codebeat.co/projects/github-com-nodes-ios-serpent)
[](https://github.com/Carthage/Carthage)
[](https://cocoapods.org/pods/Serpent)
[](https://github.com/nodes-ios/Serpent/blob/master/LICENSE)
**Serpent** *(previously known as Serializable)* is a framework made for creating model objects or structs that can be easily serialized and deserialized from/to JSON. It's easily expandable and handles all common data types used when consuming a REST API, as well as recursive parsing of custom objects. Designed for use with Alamofire.
It's designed to be used together with our helper app, the [](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler) [Model Boiler](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler), making model creation a breeze.
Serpent is implemented using protocol extensions and static typing.
## 📑 Table of Contents
- [🐍 Why Serpent?](#-why-serpent)
- [📝 Requirements](#-requirements)
- [📦 Installation](#-installation)
- [Carthage](#carthage)
- [CocoaPods](#cocoapods)
- [Swift Package Manager](#swift-package-manager)
- [🔧 Setup](#-setup)
- [💻 Usage](#-usage)
- [Getting started](#getting-started)
- [Using Serpent models](#using-serpent-models)
- [More complex examples](#more-complex-examples)
- [Using with Alamofire](#using-with-alamofire)
- [Date parsing](#date-parsing)
- [👥 Credits](#-credits)
- [📄 License](#-license)
## 🐍 Why Serpent?
There are plenty of other Encoding and Decoding frameworks available. Why should you use Serpent?
* [Performance](https://github.com/nodes-ios/SerpentPerformanceComparison). Serpent is fast, up to 4x faster than similar frameworks.
* [Features](https://github.com/nodes-ios/SerpentPerformanceComparison#-feature-comparison). Serpent can parse anything you throw at it. Nested objects, Enums, URLs, UIColor, you name it!
* [](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler) [Model Boiler](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler). Every framework of this kind requires tedious boilerplate code that takes forever to write. [](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler) [Model Boiler](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler) generates it for you instantly.
* [Alamofire Integration](). Using the included Alamofire extensions makes implementing an API call returning parsed model data as simple as doing a one-liner!
* [Expandability](). Parsing into other datatypes can easily be added.
* [Persisting](). Combined with our caching framework [Cashier](https://github.com/nodes-ios/Cashier), Serpent objects can be very easily persisted to disk.
* 
Serpent Xcode File Template makes it easier to create the model files in Xcode.
## 📝 Requirements
* iOS 8.0+ / macOS 10.10+ / tvOS 9.0+ / watchOS 2.0+
* Swift 3.0+
*(Swift 2.2 & Swift 2.3 supported in older versions)*
## 📦 Installation
### Carthage
~~~bash
github "nodes-ios/Serpent" ~> 1.0
~~~
> Last versions compatible with lower Swift versions:
>
> **Swift 2.3**
> `github "nodes-ios/Serpent" == 0.13.2`
>
> **Swift 2.2**
> `github "nodes-ios/Serpent" == 0.11.2`
>
> **NOTE:** Serpent was previously known as **Serializable**.
### CocoaPods
Choose one of the following, add it to your `Podfile` and run `pod install`:
~~~ruby
pod 'Serpent', '~> 1.0' # Just core
pod 'Serpent/Extensions', '~> 1.0' # Includes core and all extensions
pod 'Serpent/AlamofireExtension', '~> 1.0' # Includes core and Alamofire extension
pod 'Serpent/CashierExtension', '~> 1.0' # Includes core and Cashier extension
~~~
> **NOTE:** CocoaPods only supports Serpent using Swift version 3.0 and higher.
### Swift Package Manager
To use Serpent as a [Swift Package Manager](https://swift.org/package-manager/) package just add the following to your `Package.swift` file.
~~~swift
import PackageDescription
let package = Package(
name: "YourPackage",
dependencies: [
.Package(url: "https://github.com/nodes-ios/Serpent.git", majorVersion: 1)
]
)
~~~
## 🔧 Setup
We **highly** recommend you use our [](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler) [Model Boiler](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler) to assist with generating the code needed to conform to Serpent. Instructions for installation and usage can be found at the [Model Boiler GitHub repository](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler).
## 💻 Usage
### Getting started
Serpent supports all primitive types, `enum`, `URL`, `Date`, `UIColor`, other `Serpent` model, and `Array` of all of the aforementioned types. Your variable declarations can have a default value or be optional.
Primitive types do not need to have an explicit type, if Swift is able to infer it normally. `var name: String = ""` works just as well as `var name = ""`. Optionals will of course need an explicit type.
> **NOTE:** Enums you create must conform to `RawRepresentable`, meaning they must have an explicit type. Otherwise, the parser won't know what to do with the incoming data it receives.
#### Create your model struct or class:
~~~swift
struct Foo {
var id = 0
var name = ""
var address: String?
}
~~~
> **NOTE:** Classes must be marked `final`.
#### Add the required methods for `Encodable` and `Decodable`:
~~~swift
extension Foo: Serializable {
init(dictionary: NSDictionary?) {
id <== (self, dictionary, "id")
name <== (self, dictionary, "name")
address <== (self, dictionary, "address")
}
func encodableRepresentation() -> NSCoding {
let dict = NSMutableDictionary()
(dict, "id") <== id
(dict, "name") <== name
(dict, "address") <== address
return dict
}
}
~~~
> **NOTE:** You can add conformance to `Serializable` which is a type alias for both `Encodable` and `Decodable`.
And thats it! If you're using the [](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler) [Model Boiler](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler), this extension will be generated for you, so that you don't need to type it all out for every model you have.
### Using Serpent models
New instances of your model can be created with a dictionary, e.g. from parsed JSON.
~~~swift
let dictionary = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: someData, options: .allowFragments) as? NSDictionary
let newModel = Foo(dictionary: dictionary)
~~~
You can generate a dictionary version of your model by calling `encodableRepresentation()`:
~~~swift
let encodedDictionary = newModel.encodableRepresentation()
~~~
### More complex examples
In this example, we have two models, Student and School.
~~~swift
struct Student {
enum Gender: String {
case male = "male"
case female = "female"
case unspecified = "unspecified"
}
var name = ""
var age: Int = 0
var gender: Gender?
}
struct School {
enum Sport: Int {
case football
case basketball
case tennis
case swimming
}
var name = ""
var location = ""
var website: URL?
var students: [Student] = []
var sports: [Sport]?
}
~~~
You can get as complicated as you like, and the syntax will always remain the same. The extensions will be:
~~~swift
extension Student: Serializable {
init(dictionary: NSDictionary?) {
name <== (self, dictionary, "name")
age <== (self, dictionary, "age")
gender <== (self, dictionary, "gender")
}
func encodableRepresentation() -> NSCoding {
let dict = NSMutableDictionary()
(dict, "name") <== name
(dict, "age") <== age
(dict, "gender") <== gender
return dict
}
}
extension School: Serializable {
init(dictionary: NSDictionary?) {
name <== (self, dictionary, "name")
location <== (self, dictionary, "location")
website <== (self, dictionary, "website")
students <== (self, dictionary, "students")
sports <== (self, dictionary, "sports")
}
func encodableRepresentation() -> NSCoding {
let dict = NSMutableDictionary()
(dict, "name") <== name
(dict, "location") <== location
(dict, "website") <== website
(dict, "students") <== students
(dict, "sports") <== sports
return dict
}
}
~~~
Again, the [](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler) [Model Boiler](https://github.com/nodes-ios/ModelBoiler) generates all of this code for you in less than a second!
### Using with Alamofire
Serpent comes integrated with Alamofire out of the box, through an extension on Alamofire's `Request` construct, that adds the function `responseSerializable(completion:unwrapper)`
The extension uses Alamofire's familiar `Response` type to hold the returned data, and uses its generic associated type to automatically parse the data.
Consider an endpoint returning a single `school` structure matching the struct from the example above. To implement the call, simply add a function to your shared connection manager or where ever you like to put it:
~~~swift
func requestSchool(completion: @escaping (DataResponse) -> Void) {
request("http://somewhere.com/school/1", method: .get).responseSerializable(completion)
}
~~~
In the consuming method you use it like this:
~~~swift
requestSchool() { (response) in
switch response.result {
case .success(let school):
//Use your new school object!
case .failure(let error):
//Handle the error object, or check your Response for more detail
}
}
~~~
For an array of objects, use the same technique:
~~~swift
static func requestStudents(completion: @escaping (DataResponse<[Student]>) -> Void) {
request("http://somewhere.com/school/1/students", method: .get).responseSerializable(completion)
}
~~~
Some APIs wrap their data in containers. Use the `unwrapper` closure for that. Let's say your `/students` endpoint returns the data wrapped in a `students` object:
~~~json
{
"students" : [
{
"..." : "..."
},
{
"..." : "..."
}
]
}
~~~
The `unwrapper` closure has 2 input arguments: The `sourceDictionary` (the JSON Response Dictionary) and the `expectedType` (the *type* of the target Serpent). Return the object that will serve as the input for the Serializable initializer.
~~~swift
static func requestStudents(completion: (DataResponse<[Student]>) -> Void) {
request("http://somewhere.com/school/1/students", method: .get).responseSerializable(completion, unwrapper: { $0.0["students"] })
}
~~~
If you need to unwrap the response data in every call, you can install a default unwrapper using
~~~swift
Parser.defaultWrapper = { sourceDictionary, expectedType in
// You custom unwrapper here...
return sourceDictionary
}
~~~
The `expectedType` can be used to dynamically determine the key based on the type name using reflection. This is especially useful when handling paginated data.
See [here](https://github.com/nodes-ios/Nodes) for an example on how we use this in our projects at Nodes.
***NOTE:*** `responseSerializable` Internally calls `validate().responseJSON()` on the request, so you don't have to do that.
### Date parsing
Serpent can create `Date` objects from the date strings in the JSON. By default, Serpent can parse the date strings from the following formats: `yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZZZZZ`, `yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss`, `yyyy-MM-dd`. If you need to parse other date formats, you can do it by adding this line to your code (for example, in `AppDelegate`'s `didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:`:
~~~swift
Date.customDateFormats = ["yyyyMMddHHmm", "yyyyMMdd"] // add the custom date formats you need here
~~~
The custom date formats won't replace the default ones, they will be still supported.
## 👥 Credits
Made with ❤️ at [Nodes](http://nodesagency.com).
## 📄 License
**Serpent** is available under the MIT license. See the [LICENSE](https://github.com/nodes-ios/Serpent/blob/master/LICENSE) file for more info.