serializer/README.md

# typescript/serializer

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## About

This library offers a generic serialization system for Javascript.

Deep objects state may be serialized to a string, and reconstructed back.

Supported data types include:

- Primitive types (number, bool, string...)
- Set and Map standard objects
- Class instances, as long as the class list is exhaustively provided to the
  serializer

Be warned that the resulting serialized value may be quite large and
uncompressed.

## Import

In deno:

```typescript
import { Serializer } from "https://js.thunderk.net/serializer/mod.ts";
```

In browser:

```html
<script type="module">
import { Serializer } from "https://js.thunderk.net/serializer/mod.js";
</script>
```

## Use

Suppose you have 2 classes Class1 and Class2, whose instances you want to
serialize:

```typescript
Class1 { /* [...] */ }
Class2 { /* [...] */ }

// Here is the example object we want to serialize to a string
const obj = {
  a: [1, "a", new Class1()],
  b: new Class2("x"),
  c: new Class3(),
};

// We prepare the serializer, providing the class namespace
const namespace = {
  Class1,
  Class2,
};
const serializer = new Serializer(namespace);

// Optionally, some class instances may be ignored (they will be replaced by *undefined*)
serializer.addIgnoredClass(Class3);

// Serialize the object to a string
const state = serializer.serialize(obj);

// Reconstruct the object back
const nobj = serializer.unserialize(state);

console.log(nobj.a[0]);
// output: 1

console.log(nobj.b instance of Class2);
// output: true

console.log(nobj.c);
// output: undefined
```