DSON

DSON is a dart library which converts Dart Objects into their JSON representation.

This library was initially a fork from Dartson. Now it contains some differences:

• Dartson uses custom transformers to convert objects to JSON. This produce faster and smaller code after dart2Js. Instead DSON uses serializable and built_mirrors libraries. This should produce code as fast and small as Dartson transformer.
• DSON has the ability to serialize cyclical objects by mean of depth parameter, which allows users to specify how deep in the object graph they want to serialize.
• DSON has the ability to exclude attributes for serialziation in two ways.
• Using @ignore over every attribute. This make excluding attributes too global and hardcoded, so users can only specify one exclusion schema.
• Using exclude map as parameter for toJson method. This is more flexible, since it allows to have many exclusion schemas for serialization.
• DSON uses the annotation @serializable instead @entity which is used by Dartson.

Tutorials

Configuration

1. Create a new dart project.

2. Add dependencies to pubspec.yaml

...
dependencies:
  ...
  dson: ^0.5.0
  ...

3. Create/edit tool/watch.dart and add next code on it:

import 'package:build_runner/build_runner.dart';
import 'package:dson/phase.dart';


main() async {
  await watch(new PhaseGroup()
    ..addPhase(
    // In next line replace `example/**.dart` for the globs you want to use as input, for example `**/*.dart`
    // to take all the dart files of the project as input.
        dsonPhase(const ['example/**.dart'])),
      deleteFilesByDefault: true);
}

4. Run tool/watch.dart to begin watching for changes in dart files

5. Create/edit bin/main.dart or web/main.dart and add the code shown in any of the samples below.

Convert objects to JSON strings

To convert objects to JSON strings you only need to use the toJson function, annotate the object with @serializable and pass the object to the toJson function as parameter:

library example.object_to_json; // this line is needed for the generator

import 'package:dson/dson.dart';

part 'object_to_json.g.dart'; // this line is needed for the generator

@serializable
class Person extends _$PersonSerializable {
  int id;
  String firstName;
  var lastName; //This is a dynamic attribute could be String, int, double, num, date or another type
  double height;
  DateTime dateOfBirth;

  @SerializedName("renamed")
  String otherName;

  @ignore
  String notVisible;

  // private members are never serialized
  String _private = "name";

  String get doGetter => _private;
}

void main() {
  _initMirrors();

  Person object = new Person()
    ..id = 1
    ..firstName = "Jhon"
    ..lastName = "Doe"
    ..height = 1.8
    ..dateOfBirth = new DateTime(1988, 4, 1, 6, 31)
    ..otherName = "Juan"
    ..notVisible = "hallo";

  String jsonString = toJson(object);
  print(jsonString);
  // will print: '{"id":1,"firstName":"Jhon","lastName":"Doe","height":1.8,"dateOfBirth":"1988-04-01T06:31:00.000","renamed":"Juan","doGetter":"name"}'
}

Converting objects to Maps

To convert objects to Maps you only need to use the toMap function, annotate the object with @serializable and pass the object to toMap function as parameter:

library example.object_to_map; // this line is needed for the generator

import 'package:dson/dson.dart';

part 'object_to_map.g.dart';  // this line is needed for the generator

@serializable
class Person extends _$PersonSerializable {
  int id;
  String firstName;
  var lastName; //This is a dynamic attribute could be String, int, duble, num, date or another type
  double height;
  DateTime dateOfBirth;

  @SerializedName("renamed")
  String otherName;

  @ignore
  String notVisible;

  // private members are never serialized
  String _private = "name";

  String get doGetter => _private;
}

void main() {
  _initMirrors();

  Person object = new Person()
    ..id = 1
    ..firstName = "Jhon"
    ..lastName = "Doe"
    ..height = 1.8
    ..dateOfBirth = new DateTime(1988, 4, 1, 6, 31)
    ..otherName = "Juan"
    ..notVisible = "hallo";

  Map map = toMap(object);
  print(map);
  // will print: '{id:1, firstName: Jhon, lastName: Doe, height: 1.8, dateOfBirth: 1988-04-01T06:31:00.000, renamed: Juan, doGetter: name}'
}

Serializing Cyclical Objects

To serialize objects that contains Cyclical References it would be needed to use the annotation @cyclical. If this annotation is present and the depth variable is not set then the non-primitive objects are not going to be parsed and only the id (or hashmap if the object does not contains id) is going to be present. Let's see next example:

library example.serialize_cyclical; // this line is needed for the generator

import 'package:dson/dson.dart';

part 'serialize_cyclical.g.dart';  // this line is needed for the generator

@serializable
@cyclical
class Employee extends _$EmployeeSerializable {
  int id;
  String firstName;
  String lastName;

  Address address;

  Employee manager;
}

@serializable
@cyclical
class Address extends _$AddressSerializable {
  int id;
  String street;
  String city;
  String country;
  String postalCode;

  Employee owner;
}


void main() {
  _initMirrors();

  var manager = new Employee()
    ..id = 1
    ..firstName = 'Jhon'
    ..lastName = 'Doe';
  manager.address = new Address()
    ..id = 1
    ..street = 'some street'
    ..city = 'Miami'
    ..country = 'USA'
    ..owner = manager;

  var employee = new Employee()
    ..id = 2
    ..firstName = 'Luis'
    ..lastName = 'Vargas'
    ..manager = manager;
  employee.address = new Address()
    ..id = 2
    ..street = 'some street'
    ..city = 'Miami'
    ..country = 'USA'
    ..owner = employee;

  print(toJson(employee)); //will print: '{"id":2,"firstName":"Luis","lastName":"Vargas","address":{"id":2},"manager":{"id":1}}'

  print(toJson(employee.address)); // will print: '{"id":2,"street":"some street","city":"Miami","country":"USA","owner":{"id":2}}'

  // depth is a optional parameter that could be a list that should contains strings or Maps<String, Map>
  print(toJson(employee, depth: ['address']));
  /* will print:
           '{"id":2,"firstName":"Luis","lastName":"Vargas",'
              '"address":{"id":2,"street":"some street","city":"Miami","country":"USA","owner":{"id":2}},'
              '"manager":{"id":1}}'
  */

  print(toJson(employee, depth: [{'manager': ['address']}, 'address']));
  /* will print:
         '{"id":2,"firstName":"Luis","lastName":"Vargas",'
            '"address":{"id":2,"street":"some street","city":"Miami","country":"USA",'
              '"owner":{"id":2}},'
            '"manager":{"id":1,"firstName":"Jhon","lastName":"Doe",'
              '"address":{"id":1,"street":"some street","city":"Miami","country":"USA","owner":{"id":1}}}}');
  */
}

as you can see employee has an address, and the address has an owner of type Employee. If the property id is not present in the object then it is going to take the hashcode value from the object as reference. And finally, the depth parameter passed to serialize function tells serializer how deep you want to go throw the reference. This help us not only to avoid cyclical reference, but to determine what referenced objects should be serialized.

The same applies for lists:

library example.serialize_cyclical_list; // this line is needed for the generator

import 'package:dson/dson.dart';

part 'serialize_cyclical_list.g.dart'; // this line is needed for the generator

@serializable
@cyclical
class Student extends _$StudentSerializable {
  int id;
  String name;

  List<Course> courses;
}

@serializable
@cyclical
class Course extends _$CourseSerializable {
  int id;

  DateTime beginDate;

  List<Student> students;
}

void main() {
// by the moment is needed to initialize the mirrors manually
  _initMirrors();

  var student1 = new Student()
    ..id = 1
    ..name = 'student1',
      student2 = new Student()
        ..id = 2
        ..name = 'student2',
      student3 = new Student()
        ..id = 3
        ..name = 'student3',
      course1 = new Course()
        ..id = 1
        ..beginDate = new DateTime.utc(2015, 1, 1)
        ..students = [student1, student2],
      course2 = new Course()
        ..id = 2
        ..beginDate = new DateTime.utc(2015, 1, 2)
        ..students = [student2, student3],
      course3 = new Course()
        ..id = 3
        ..beginDate = new DateTime.utc(2015, 1, 3)
        ..students = [student1, student3];

  student1.courses = [course1, course3];
  student2.courses = [course1, course2];
  student3.courses = [course2, course3];

  var students = [student1, student2, student3];
  print(toJson(students));

  print(toJson(student1)); // will print: '{"id":1,"name":"student1","courses":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]}'

  print(toJson(student1, depth: ['courses']));
/* will print:
      '{'
        '"id":1,'
        '"name":"student1",'
        '"courses":['
          '{"id":1,"beginDate":"2015-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","students":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]},'
          '{"id":3,"beginDate":"2015-01-03T00:00:00.000Z","students":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]}'
        ']'
      '}');
   */

  print(toJson(student1.courses));
/* will print:
      '['
        '{"id":1,"beginDate":"2015-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","students":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]},'
        '{"id":3,"beginDate":"2015-01-03T00:00:00.000Z","students":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]}'
      ']');
  */

  print(toJson(student2.courses, depth: ['students']));
/* will print:
      '['
        '{"id":1,"beginDate":"2015-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","students":['
          '{"id":1,"name":"student1","courses":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]},'
          '{"id":2,"name":"student2","courses":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]}'
        ']},'
        '{"id":2,"beginDate":"2015-01-02T00:00:00.000Z","students":['
          '{"id":2,"name":"student2","courses":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]},'
          '{"id":3,"name":"student3","courses":[{"id":2},{"id":3}]}'
        ']}'
      ']'
   */
}

Without the annotation @cyclical the program is going to throw a stack overflow error caused by the serializing of cyclical objects.

Excluding attributes from being serialized

To exclude parameter from being serialized we have two options the first option is using @ignore over the attribute to ignore. However this approach is too global. What I want to say with this is that the attribute is going to be ignored always.

Another way to exclude attributes is adding the parameter exclude to serialize function. In this way we only exclude those attributes during that serialization.

library example.exclude_attributes; // this line is needed for the generator

import 'package:dson/dson.dart';

// replace `main` for the name of your file
part 'exclude_attributes.g.dart';  // this line is needed for the generator

@serializable
@cyclical
class Student extends _$StudentSerializable {
  int id;
  String name;

  List<Course> courses;
}

@serializable
@cyclical
class Course extends _$CourseSerializable {
  int id;

  DateTime beginDate;

  List<Student> students;
}

void main() {
  _initMirrors();

  var student1 = new Student()
    ..id = 1
    ..name = 'student1',
      student2 = new Student()
        ..id = 2
        ..name = 'student2',
      student3 = new Student()
        ..id = 3
        ..name = 'student3',
      course1 = new Course()
        ..id = 1
        ..beginDate = new DateTime.utc(2015, 1, 1)
        ..students = [student1, student2],
      course2 = new Course()
        ..id = 2
        ..beginDate = new DateTime.utc(2015, 1, 2)
        ..students = [student2, student3],
      course3 = new Course()
        ..id = 3
        ..beginDate = new DateTime.utc(2015, 1, 3)
        ..students = [student1, student3];

  student1.courses = [course1, course3];
  student2.courses = [course1, course2];
  student3.courses = [course2, course3];

  var students = [student1, student2, student3];

  print(toJson(students));
  /*
   will print:
    '['
      '{"id":1,"name":"student1","courses":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]},'
      '{"id":2,"name":"student2","courses":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]},'
      '{"id":3,"name":"student3","courses":[{"id":2},{"id":3}]}'
    ']'
  */
  print(toJson(student1)); // will print: '{"id":1,"name":"student1","courses":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]}'

  print(toJson(student1, depth: 'courses', exclude: 'name'));
  /* will print:
      '{'
        '"id":1,'
        '"courses":['
          '{"id":1,"beginDate":"2015-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","students":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]},'
          '{"id":3,"beginDate":"2015-01-03T00:00:00.000Z","students":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]}'
        ']'
      '}');
   */

  print(toJson(student1.courses, exclude: 'beginDate'));
  /* will print:
      '['
        '{"id":1,"students":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]},'
        '{"id":3,"students":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]}'
      ']');
  */

  print(toJson(student2.courses, depth: 'students', exclude: {'students': 'name'}));
  /* will print:
      '['
        '{"id":1,"beginDate":"2015-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","students":['
          '{"id":1,"courses":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]},'
          '{"id":2,"courses":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]}'
        ']},'
        '{"id":2,"beginDate":"2015-01-02T00:00:00.000Z","students":['
          '{"id":2,"courses":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]},'
          '{"id":3,"courses":[{"id":2},{"id":3}]}'
        ']}'
      ']'
   */

  print(toJson(student2.courses, depth: 'students', exclude: ['beginDate', {'students': 'name'}]));
  /* will print:
      '['
        '{"id":1,"students":['
          '{"id":1,"courses":[{"id":1},{"id":3}]},'
          '{"id":2,"courses":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]}'
        ']},'
        '{"id":2,"students":['
          '{"id":2,"name":"student2","courses":[{"id":1},{"id":2}]},'
          '{"id":3,"name":"student3","courses":[{"id":2},{"id":3}]}'
        ']}'
      ']'
   */
}

Convert JSON strings to objects

To convert JSON strings to objects you only need to use the fromJson and fromJsonList functions and pass the json string to deserialize and the Type of the object as parameters:

// replace `example` for the name you want to give to your library
library example.json_to_object; // this line is needed for the generator

import 'package:dson/dson.dart';

// replace `main` for the name of your file
part 'json_to_object.g.dart';  // this line is needed for the generator

@serializable
class EntityClass extends _$EntityClassSerializable {
  String name;
  String _setted;

  @SerializedName("renamed")
  bool otherName;

  @ignore
  String notVisible;

  List<EntityClass> children;

  set setted(String s) => _setted = s;
  String get setted => _setted;
}

void main() {
  // by the moment is needed to initialize the mirrors manually
  _initMirrors();

  EntityClass object = fromJson('{"name":"test","renamed":true,"notVisible":"it is", "setted": "awesome"}', EntityClass);

  print(object.name); // > test
  print(object.otherName); // > blub
  print(object.notVisible); // > it is
  print(object.setted); // > awesome

  // to deserialize a list of items use [fromJsonList]
  List<EntityClass> list = fromJson('[{"name":"test", "children": [{"name":"child1"},{"name":"child2"}]},{"name":"test2"}]', [List, EntityClass]);
  print(list.length); // > 2
  print(list[0].name); // > test
  print(list[0].children[0].name); // > child1
}

Converting Maps and Lists<Map> to dart objects

Frameworks like Angular.dart come with several HTTP services which already transform the HTTP response to a map using JSON.encode. To use those encoded Maps or Lists use fromMap and fromMapList functions.

library example.map_to_object; // this line is needed for the generator

import 'package:dson/dson.dart';

// replace `main` for the name of your file
part 'map_to_object.g.dart'; // this line is needed for the generator

@serializable
class EntityClass extends _$EntityClassSerializable {
  String name;
  String _setted;

  @SerializedName("renamed")
  bool otherName;

  @ignore
  String notVisible;

  List<EntityClass> children;

  set setted(String s) => _setted = s;

  String get setted => _setted;
}

void main() {
  _initMirrors();

  EntityClass object = fromMap({
    "name": "test",
    "renamed": "blub",
    "notVisible": "it is",
    "setted": "awesome"
  }, EntityClass);
  print(object.name); // > test
  print(object.otherName); // > blub
  print(object.notVisible); // > it is
  print(object.setted); // > awesome

// to deserialize a list of items use [fromJsonList]
  List<EntityClass> list = fromMapList([
    {"name": "test",
      "children": [
        {"name": "child1"},
        {"name": "child2"}
      ]
    },
    {"name": "test2"}
  ], EntityClass);
  print(list.length); // > 2
  print(list[0].name); // > test
  print(list[0].children[0].name); // > child1
}