Fl4m3Ph03n1x

Fl4m3Ph03n1x

How to have custom enconding for struct using Jason?

Background

I am trying to encode a structure into json format using the Jason library. However, this is not working as expected.

Code

Let’s assume I have this struct:

defmodule Test do
   defstruct [:foo, :bar, :baz]
end

And that when using Jason.enconde(%Test{foo: 1, bar: 2, baz:3 }) I want this json to be created:

%{"foo" => 1, "banana" => 5}

Error

It is my understanding that to achieve this I need to implement the Jason.Enconder protocol in my struct:

defmodule Test do
   defstruct [:foo, :bar, :baz]
   
   defimpl Jason.Encoder do
      @impl Jason.Encoder 
      def encode(value, opts) do
         Jason.Encode.map(%{foo: Map.get(value, :foo), banana: Map.get(value, :bar, 0) + Map.get(value, :baz, 0)}, opts)
      end
   end
end

However, this will not work:

Jason.encode(%Test{foo: 1, bar: 2, baz: 3})
{:error,
 %Protocol.UndefinedError{
   description: "Jason.Encoder protocol must always be explicitly implemented.\n\nIf you own the struct, you can derive the implementation specifying which fields should be encoded to JSON:\n\n    @derive {Jason.Encoder, only: [....]}\n    defstruct ...\n\nIt is also possible to encode all fields, although this should be used carefully to avoid accidentally leaking private information when new fields are added:\n\n    @derive Jason.Encoder\n    defstruct ...\n\nFinally, if you don't own the struct you want to encode to JSON, you may use Protocol.derive/3 placed outside of any module:\n\n    Protocol.derive(Jason.Encoder, NameOfTheStruct, only: [...])\n    Protocol.derive(Jason.Encoder, NameOfTheStruct)\n",
   protocol: Jason.Encoder,
   value: %Test{bar: 2, baz: 3, foo: 1}
 }}

From what I understand, it looks like I can only select/exclude keys to serialize, I cannot transform/add new keys.
Since I own the structure in question, using Protocol.derive is not necessary.

However I fail to understand how I can leverage the Jason.Encoder protocol to achieve what I want.

Questions

  1. Is my objective possible using the Jason library, or is this a limitation?
  2. Am I miss understanding the documentation and doing something incorrect?

Marked As Solved

kartheek

kartheek

Docs state advantage of protocol consolidation as below:

Consolidation directly links protocols to their implementations in a way that invoking a function from a consolidated protocol is equivalent to invoking two remote functions.

For solving the problem in original post - you have to create the module and encoder in a file say test.ex in lib folder and it will work.

Also Liked

kartheek

kartheek

You can read about Protocol Consolidation.

Protocol consolidation happens at compile time. You can disable or enable from mix config as mentioned in docs.

When it is enabled (by default) - it will link protocols with their implementations at compile time to optimise invocations. So when you are trying it in iex - it has no effect as protocol consolidation already happened.

Two solutions:

  • disable protocol consolidation using mix config (not recommended) - Section 16.6 don’t go by title read the content in linked section in this book - https://www.elixircryptobot.com/.
  • define all these encoders in files and compile the project (recommended)

No problem with the code or library or project - its working as it is supposed to be.

LostKobrakai

LostKobrakai

That’s not required if the implementation is nested within the module the implementation is for.

sneako

sneako

I stand corrected, thanks @LostKobrakai !

Fl4m3Ph03n1x

Fl4m3Ph03n1x

Thank you!

LostKobrakai

LostKobrakai

I don’t see anything wrong with what you do to cause this error, but noticed that you have @impl Jason.Encoder, which you don’t need. @impl is related to behaviours not protocols.

Where Next?

Popular in Questions Top

srinivasu
How to handle excepions in elixir? Suppose i have A, B, C ,D, E modules. and each module has get() function. A.get() method will call th...
New
yawaramin
In the Dialyzer docs ( http://erlang.org/doc/man/dialyzer.html#requesting-or-suppressing-warnings-in-source-files ), there is a way to tu...
New
tduccuong
Hi, is there any work on GUI with Elixir, that is similar to Electron/Javascript? My idea is to bundle Phoenix and BEAM into a single se...
New
Werner
Hi, I’m using Ubuntu 18.04 and after updating to OTP-24.0 yesterday i have this warning when I run “mix local.hex”: 14:57:30.512 [warn] ...
New
logicmason
Hi there, I'm working through my first release with elixir/phoenix. I've built a release with distillery and found that it crashes when I...
New
Jim
As a follow up to my earlier question: I have the code compiling and running but not getting a successful login from the rest server. ...
New
hariharasudhan94
I would like to know what is the best IDE for elixir development?
New
mcarvalho
What is the difference between System.get_env and Application.get_env? For example, what are best practices to use one versus another.
New
baxterw3b
Hi guys, i’m new in the Elixir world, and i have to say, that i love it! i’m having some problem to understand anonymous functions with ...
New
hpopp
To simplify some tasks at work, I wrote and published this package yesterday. It’s a simple macro that enables Access behaviour on struct...
New

Other popular topics Top

dotdotdotPaul
Okay, I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to best handle the validation of belongs_to associations in Ecto. I'm sure I'...
New
JorisKok
I have a server on AWS, and was running a load test using artillery. When looking at the Phoenix dashboard I see the Ports going to 100% ...
New
jerry
Good day to you all. I have been struggling to get a query involving like and ilike to work. Can anyone assist me on this, please? pro...
New
chrismccord
This release brings a number of exciting features, including integration with the new Phoenix LiveDashboard and Phoenix LiveView. There h...
New
hariharasudhan94
I would like to know what is the best IDE for elixir development?
New
stefanchrobot
What’s the safe way to decode a JSON string into a struct? I want to avoid calling String.to_atom. Jason.decode can give me a map with st...
New
minhajuddin
I have seen a lot of code which picks the first element from a list using Enum.at(0) instead of List.first. Is there a reason why people ...
New
lucidguppy
I have a super simple question about elixir - how would I take a file like this foo bar baz and output a new file that enumerates th...
New
vrod
I am using the Starship cross-shell prompt – it seems pretty nice, but I get some errors: [WARN] - (starship::utils): Executing command ...
New
lanycrost
Hi everyone! I need implement if…else if…else condition from my elixir code, and anymore of this control flow structures not work proper...
New

We're in Beta

About us Mission Statement