serialize-structure

De/serialize JavaScript objects with all references preserved - even circular ones.

Purpose

This tiny module aims at addressing some of the shortcomings of JSON.stringify() / JSON.parse() for saving and restoring complex data structures in JavaScript, namely

• encoding values of NaN, Infinity, undefined,
• encoding symbols,
• preserving object reference equality,
• preserving circular references.

As far as the latter is concerned, the deserialized objects can satisfy this kind of equality: obj.obj === obj (not just having the obj member replaced with "[Circular]", as some other serializers do).

The module's existence came from the need to persist complex immutable state represented by plain JavaScript objects with structural sharing.

Example

const Ser = require("serialize-structure");

const nested = {};

const obj = {
    foo: "bar",
    nan: NaN,
    undef: undefined,
    nested1: nested,
    nested2: nested,
    sym1: Symbol(),
    sym2: Symbol.for("key")
};

obj.obj = obj; // circular reference

const sized = Ser.serialize(obj);
const dized = Ser.deserialize(sized);

//======================================

dized.foo; // "bar"

isNaN(dized.nan); // true

dized.undef === undefined; // true
dized.hasOwnProperty("undefined"); // true

obj.obj = obj; // true

obj.nested1 === obj.nested2; // true

typeof dized.sym1 === "symbol"; // true

dized.sym2 === Symbol.for("key"); // true

License

MIT