A serialization library that supports circular references and preserves identity when objects are referenced via multiple paths.

Features

Many serialization libraries do not handle circular references; this one does! Most serialization libraries do not perserve identity; this one does! That is, when a references both b and c, each of which reference d, this library installs the same d into both b and c.

  a
 / \
b   c
 \ /
  d

Consider the following code in which a list contains two references to the same object (in this case, a String):

final s = 'abc';
final list1 = [s, s];
assert(identical(list1.first, list1.last));

If we use jsonEncode() and jsonDecode(), the referenced object is duplicated (object identity is lost):

final buffer = jsonEncode(list1);
final list2 = jsonDecode(buffer) as List;
assert(identical(list2.first, list2.last));  // FAILS!

But with object_serializatiion the referenced object is the same (object identity is preserved):

final buffer = ObjectSerialization.encode(list1);
final list2 = ObjectSerialization.decode(buffer, {}) as List;
assert(identical(list2.first, list2.last));  // PASSES!

Usage

While a few simple objects are handled automatically, more complex classes should implement or extend Serializable. This requires up to four new methods:

• List<Object> get finalProperties and List<Object> get transientProperties are used to obtain a list of properties that can be used to recreate the object.
  • finalProperties are those that must be provided when the object is created.
  • transientProperties are all other properties.
• A factory function is used to recreate the object.
• set transientProperties(List<Object> properties) is used to set other properties.

The reason we can't provide all the properties during creation is that there may be circular references between objects. That is, a can reference b and b can reference a. Yet, while there can be circular references, they cannot both be final since one must exist to be used by the other.

See the test files for further examples.

Additional information

See https://github.com/jgfoster/object_serialization to contribute code or file issues.