RiceBubble

Simple serialization with a sprinkling of type safety. Part of your complete breakfast.

Installation

Install the gem and add to the application's Gemfile by executing:

$ bundle add rice_bubble

If bundler is not being used to manage dependencies, install the gem by executing:

$ gem install rice_bubble

Usage

Create a subclass of RiceBubble::Serializer and add some attributes:

class CharacterSerializer < RiceBubble::Serializer
  attributes(
    name: string,
    player_name: optional(string),
    class: enum('fighter', 'wizard', 'thief'),
    stats: object(
      strength: integer,
      dexterity: integer,
      constitution: integer,
      intelligence: integer,
      wisdom: integer,
      charisma: integer,
    )
  )
end

Then you can use the new serializer to convert your data to a JSON-friendly representation:

json = CharacterSerializer.new(my_character).call # => { name: "...", ... }

Note: you can also use CharacterSerializer.call(my_character).

Attribute types

Name	Expects	Options	Example
any	any of the specified types	array of attribute types	any(string, integer)
boolean	true or false		boolean
date	Date or #to_date		date
enum	matching string	array of string values	enum('red', 'blue', 'green')
integer	Integer or #to_i	max, min	integer(min: 3, max: 20)
literal	exactly matching value	literal	literal('foo')
number	Numeric	max, min	number(min: 3, max: 20)
object	Object or Hash	hash of object names and attribute types	object(name: string, age: integer)
optional	value or nil	attribute type	optional(string)
serialized	Object or Hash	Serializer class	serialized(SkillSerializer)
string	String or #to_s	max, min, format	string(min: 3, max: 20, format: /\A[a-z]+\z/i)
time	Time or #to_time		time

In this way, you can recursively build up quite complex nested structures of attributes in your serializer.

optional

All attributes are required unless marked as optional. You can either do this with the optional attribute type, or by appending .optional to the attribute definition. That is, the following are equivalent:

optional(string(min: 3))
string(min: 3).optional

Implementing your own attribute types

The attribute types are looked up automatically in the namespace RiceBubble::Attributes. Any subclass of RiceBubble::Attributes::Base located there will automatically be found by the serializer.

class RiceBubble::Serializer::Wrap < RiceBubble::Attributes::Base
  def initialize(with: %w([ ]), &)
    super(&)
    @before, @after = with
  end

  def coerce(value)
    "#{before}#{value}#{after}"
  end
end

class WrappingSerializer < RiceBubble::Serializer
  attributes(
    name: wrap(with: %w({ }))
  )
end

WrappingSerializer.call({ name: 'Spicy Beef' }) # => { name: '{Spicy Beef}' }

Fetching values from an object

By default, attributes know how to fetch their values from the object being serialized by either (in this order):

• invoking an instance method with the same name on the serializer; or
• invoking an instance method with the same name on the object; or
• looking up a hash key on the object

class FullNameSerializer
  attributes(
    full_name: string
  )

  def full_name
    [object.first_name, object.last_name].join(' ')
  end
end

You can also change how a value is retrieved by passing a block to the attribute:

class FullNameSerializer
  attributes(
    full_name: string { |o, _| [o.first_name, o.last_name].join(' ') }
  )
end

The block takes two values: the object being serialized, and (optionally) the name of the key being retrieved.

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and the created tag, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitLab at https://gitlab.com/fauxparse/rice_bubble. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the code of conduct.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting in the RiceBubble project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.