bitserializer_json.md

BitSerializer / JSON (built-in)

Supported load/save JSON from:

• std::string: UTF-8
• std::stream: UTF-8, UTF-16LE, UTF-16BE, UTF-32LE, UTF-32BE (auto-detection encoding with/without BOM)

This is the built-in JSON archive implementation with no external dependencies. It is about 40% faster than the RapidJSON-based implementation and offers the same functionality.

How to install

The recommended way is to use one of supported package managers, but you can do it manually just via CMake commands.

VCPKG

Add BitSerializer to manifest file (vcpkg.json) with json-archive feature:

{
    "dependencies": [
        {
            "name": "bitserializer",
            "features": [ "json-archive" ]
        }
    ]
}

The latest available version:

If your project is based on VS solution you can just include next header files for start use:

#include "bitserializer/bit_serializer.h"
#include "bitserializer/json_archive.h"

If you are using CMake, you need to link the library:

find_package(bitserializer CONFIG REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE BitSerializer::json-archive)

Conan 2

Add the BitSerializer recipe to conanfile.txt in your project and enable with_json option:

[requires]
bitserializer/x.xx

[options]
bitserializer/*:with_json=True

Replace x.xx with the latest available version:

No external dependencies required.

Implementation detail

The JSON specification allows storing not only objects and arrays in the root, but also more primitive types such as string, number, and boolean. This is also not a problem for BitSerializer:

int main()
{
    std::string expected = "Hello world!";
    auto json = BitSerializer::SaveObject<JsonArchive>(expected);

    std::string result;
    BitSerializer::LoadObject<JsonArchive>(result, json);

    assert(result == expected);
    std::cout << result << std::endl;

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Pretty format

The built-in JSON archive supports output to human readable format:

#include <iostream>
#include "bitserializer/bit_serializer.h"
#include "bitserializer/types/std/vector.h"
#include "bitserializer/json_archive.h"

using namespace BitSerializer;
using JsonArchive = BitSerializer::Json::JsonArchive;

class CPoint
{
public:
    CPoint(const int x, const int y) : X(x), Y(y) { }

    template <class TArchive>
    void Serialize(TArchive& archive)
    {
        archive << KeyValue("x", X);
        archive << KeyValue("y", Y);
    }

    int X, Y;
};

int main()
{
    std::vector<CPoint> points = { CPoint(10, 20), CPoint(30, 40) };

    SerializationOptions serializationOptions;
    serializationOptions.formatOptions.enableFormat = true;
    serializationOptions.formatOptions.paddingChar = ' ';
    serializationOptions.formatOptions.paddingCharNum = 2;

    std::string result;
    BitSerializer::SaveObject<JsonArchive>(points, result, serializationOptions);
    std::cout << result << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

This code outputs to the console:

[
  {
    "x": 10,
    "y": 20
  },
  {
    "x": 30,
    "y": 40
  }
]