Binser - Binary Serializer

Binser uses its own binary protocol to serialize nested object structures to binary stream. Some features:

• Primitives such as Int8, UInt8 ... Int32, UInt32;
• CompactNumber minimizes size of numbers;
• String type that takes care of string transmission by pre-pending string size;
• Custom object type for your own objects;
• Arrays;
• Unlimited mixing and nesting of all available type combinations;
• Documented protocol: look at /doc.

Stable usage is documented bellow.

Serialize/deserialize simple object using ObjectType

Require this:

// Require "types" object that contains built-in object serializers.
var types = require('binser').types;
// Require "ObjectType" that can be used to make a template for your object.
var ObjectType = require('binser').ObjectType;

Create your type serializer:

// Create your type that is composed from other types.
var MyType = new ObjectType(
    {
        name: types.String,
        age: types.UInt8
    }
);

Serialize your hash to buffer using your type serializer:

var buffer = MyType.serialize({ name: "John", age: 12 });

Deserialize it back:

var hash = MyType.deserialize(buffer);

Serialize/deserialize built-in object

Any built-in type serializer can be used the same way as ObjectType. For example, serializing and deserializing a string:

var buffer = types.String.serialize("Hello World!");
var str = types.String.deserialize(buffer);

Serialize/deserialize an array of objects using ArrayType

ArrayType can be used for serializing arrays of any type of objects, here is an example of string array:

var ArrayType = require('binser').ArrayType;

var stringArrayType = new ArrayType(types.String);

var buffer = stringArrayType.serialize([ "Hello", " ", "World!" ]);
var stringArray = stringArrayType.deserialize(buffer);

ObjectType can also be used:

var ArrayType = require('binser').ArrayType;
var ObjectType = require('binser').ObjectType;

var pointType = new ObjectType({
    x: types.CompactNumber,
    y: types.CompactNumber,
});
var pointsArrayType = new ArrayType(pointType);

var buffer = pointsArrayType.serialize([ { x: 15, y: -10 }, { x: 0, y: 62111 } ]);
var pointsArray = pointsArrayType.deserialize(buffer);

And any other nested combination.

The list of built-in serializers so far:

Value | Size ------------------- | --------- types.Int8 | 8-bit signed integer. types.UInt8 | 8-bit unsigned integer. types.Int16 | 16-bit signed integer. types.UInt16 | 16-bit unsigned integer. types.Int32 | 32-bit signed integer. types.UInt32 | 32-bit unsigned integer. types.CompactNumber | Integer takes from 1 to 5 bytes, depending on value size. types.String | Variable - length string. ObjectType(config) | A sequence of other objects. ArrayType() | A varied sequence of other objects.

No floating point numbers (yet).

Pass serialized objects over streams similar to TCP

Included Reader helper can help deserializing data transmitted over protocol such as TCP. It will automatically call onRead callback only when full object is available.

Writing to stream is easy:

// Send the buffer over your connection (for example, Node's TCP client):
client.write(buffer);

Reading is a bit more involved:

// Require "Reader" that deals with variable-length chunks in network. 
var Reader = require('binser').Reader;

// <...>

// Create one reader per connection:
var reader = new Reader();
reader.Type = types.String; // Or any other type serializer.
reader.onRead = function(obj) { // Set callback.
    console.log(obj);
};

// <...>

// On your "data" event, feed the buffer bytes into your reader:
reader.feed(buffer);