serialize-anything

A universal serializer and de-serializer for JavaScript data
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Overview

serialize-anything serializes and de-serializes virtually all JavaScript standard and custom data types, with no data modification.

Compared to commonly used serialize/deserialze methods which convert only a subset of JavaScript data types — serialize-anything converts more without loss of any data.

#### Exceptions
1. There are two JavaScript types that serialize-anything does not support: WeakMap and WeakSet. Since there is no known way to enumerate their values, they can't be serialized.

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Data Types Supported

Comparing support for data types in the most popular methods.

Legend:     ❌ - Error     🗑 - data loss     ✅ - correct

Data Type | JSON.* | s-javascript | s-to-js | s-anything
---------------------- | ------ | ------------ | ------- | ----------
Date | 🗑 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅
RegExp | 🗑 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅
Buffer | 🗑 | 🗑 | ✅ | ✅
Error | 🗑 | 🗑 | ✅ | ✅
BigInt | ❌ | ❌ | 🗑 | ✅
undefined | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅
{prop: undefined} | 🗑 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅
TypedArray | 🗑 | 🗑 | ✅ | ✅
Map | 🗑 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅
Set | 🗑 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅
Custom Object | 🗑 | 🗑 | 🗑 | ✅
Custom Array | 🗑 | 🗑 | 🗑 | ✅
BigInt64Array | ❌ | ❌ | 🗑 | ✅
BigUint64Array | ❌ | ❌ | 🗑 | ✅
Function | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅
ArrayBuffer | 🗑 | ✅ | ❌ | ✅
WeakSet | 🗑 | 🗑 | ❌ | ❌
WeakMap | 🗑 | 🗑 | ❌ | ❌
Circular reference | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅

      JSON.* — JSON.stringify/parse

      s-javascript — serialize-javascript

      s-to-js — serialize-to-js

      s-anything — serialize-anything

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Installation

Install as a Node.js module:
``
$ npm install serialize-anything
`
Or download a package from github.

Usage

Node.js:
`javascript
const SerAny = require('serialize-anything');

// copied from custom-objects.js to handle custom objects (optional)
SerAny._custom = function (name) {
let typeExists = eval('typeof ' + name + '!== "undefined"' );
return typeExists ? eval('new ' + name + '()') : null;
};
SerAny._ds = SerAny.deserialize;
SerAny.deserialize = source => SerAny._ds(source, SerAny._custom);
`
From HTML file:
`HTML


``
To serialize:
`javascript
// serialize
serialized = SerAny.serialize(source);
`
To deserialize:
`javascript
// deserialize
deserialized = SerAny.deserialize(serialized);
`

---


$3


Serialize some challenging data:
`javascript
const custom = new CustomObj();
custom.foo = 'bar';
custom.baz = custom; // circular reference
let source = {
undef: undefined,
regexp: /abc/gi,
bignum: 4000000000000000000n,
map: new Map([[1, 'one'], [2, 'two']]),
custom,
buffer: Buffer.from("hello world")
};

/* source:
{
undef: undefined,
regexp: /abc/gi,
bignum: 4000000000000000000n,
map: Map(2) { 1 => 'one', 2 => 'two' },
custom: CustomObj 1> { foo: 'bar', baz: [Circular 1] },
buffer:
}
*/

const ser = SerAny.serialize(source);
`
Serialized result (JSON):
`json
{
"_Serialize_Any_Encoded": true,
"_SA_Content": {
"undef": { "_SAType": "undef" },
"regexp": {
"_SAType": "RegExp",
"_SAId": 1,
"_SAsource": "abc",
"_SAflags": "gi"
},
"bignum": {
"_SAType": "BigInt",
"_SAnum": "4000000000000000000"
},
"map": {
"_SAType": "Map",
"_SAId": 2,
"_SAkvPairs": [ [1, "one"], [2,"two"] ]
},
"custom": {
"_SAType": "_SACustomObject",
"_SAId": 3,
"_SAconstructorName": "CustomObj",
"_SAobject": { "foo": "bar", "baz": { "_SAType": "_SACustomObjectRef", "_SAId": 3 } }
},
"buffer": {
"_SAType": "Buffer",
"_SAutf8String": "hello world"
}
}
}
`
Deserialized:
`javascript
const deser = SerAny.deserialize(ser);

/* deser:
{
undef: undefined,
regexp: /abc/gi,
bignum: 4000000000000000000n,
map: Map(2) { 1 => 'one', 2 => 'two' },
custom: CustomObj 1> { foo: 'bar', baz: CustomObj [Circular 1] },
buffer:
}
*/
`

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Functions

$3


Serialize JavaScript data
#### Syntax
`javascript
SerAny.serialize(source [, options])
`
#### Parameters
source

    The JavaScript data to serialize

options

    (Object) [optional] - Control the serializer's behavior.

options properties:

    maxDepth

       (number) [optional] - Limit the number of levels

       into the source data. Throws an error if source's

       depth is greater than maxDepth. Default is 20 levels.

    pretty

       (boolean) [optional] - Return serialized data in

       pretty format if true. Default is false - not pretty.

#### Return value
(string) - The serialized data.

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$3


Restore serialized data created by SerAny.serialize().
#### Syntax
`javascript
SerAny.deserialize(source)
`
#### Parameters
source

    (string) - Serialized data that was created by SerAny.serialize()`

#### Return value
(any type) - The de-serialized data, matching the type of the original source.

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