Nuqleon.DataModel.Serialization.Json

JSON serialization for Nuqleon data model entity values.

DataSerializer

To serialize objects that are data model compliant (see DataType.Check), one can use the DataSerializer in this library. For historical reasons including earlier support for a BSON format in addition to JSON support, the DataSerializer is an abstract base class with various factory methods on it. Alternatively, the JsonDataSerializer class can be used directly.

public abstract class DataSerializer
{
    public static DataSerializer Create() => new JsonDataSerializer();
    public static DataSerializer Create(IExpressionSerializer expressionSerializer);
    public static DataSerializer Create(IExpressionSerializer expressionSerializer, params DataConverter[] converters);

    public void Serialize<T>(T value, Stream serialized);
    public T Deserialize<T>(Stream serialized);
}

If values may include expression trees, an IExpressionSerializer has to be provided as well. Data and expression serializers are typically defined in a mutually recursive way, because data values may contain properties whose type is an expression tree, and expression trees may contain constant nodes that contain a data value. The IExpressionSerializer interface is defined in Nuqleon.Linq.Expressions.Bonsai and looks like this:

public interface IExpressionSerializer
{
    ExpressionSlim Lift(Expression expression);
    Expression Reduce(ExpressionSlim expression);

    string Serialize(ExpressionSlim expression);
    ExpressionSlim Deserialize(string expression);
}

The Lift and Reduce methods support conversion between Expression and ExpressionSlim because Bonsai serialization is only supported on ExpressionSlim instances. Because the interface is defined in the Bonsai assembly and a textual format is used, the Serialize and Deserialize methods operate on string values.

Additionally, during creation of serializers, custom DataConverters can be registered as well. Under the hood, the serializer uses Newtonsoft JSON. Once a serializer is created, serialization and deserialization operations are straightforward through the Serialize<T> and Deserialize<T> methods:

var ser = DataSerializer.Create();

var ms = new MemoryStream();

ser.Serialize(new Person { Name = "Bart", Age = 21 }, ms);

ms.Position = 0;

var persoon = ser.Deserialize<Persoon>(ms);

where Person and Persoon (in Dutch) are structurally compatible types (with the same values for Mapping attributes on properties).