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:
https://hexdocs.pm/jason/Jason.Encoder.html

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

Fl4m3Ph03n1x

Fl4m3Ph03n1x

Answer

Turns out there is nothing wrong with the code itself.

The issue here is that I was trying these examples in the iex shell. Due to Protocol Consolidation this means that the protocol will be consolidated at compile time. Therefore, because when I launch iex there is nothing regarding the Jason.Encoder protocol compiled, I loose the chance to do it runtime (and iex is runtime).

This also affects tests in an interesting way, to fix them you can either disable Protocol Consolidation wen running under Mix.env() == :test (but it will absolutely hammer your test’s performance) or you can do it at compile time with some extra options.

A very good answer was also given by the community:

And I recommend you read the full thread if you want all the juicy details that I have quickly summarized here.

Where Next?

Popular Backend topics Top

AstonJ
Just done a fresh install of macOS Big Sur and on installing Erlang I am getting: asdf install erlang 23.1.2 Configure failed. checking ...
New
ohm
Does anybody have good learning resources with regards to going into Event Driven Design, Architecture or Sourcing? I got recommended Er...
New
Fl4m3Ph03n1x
Background I am trying to up my Functional Programming (FP) skills and one of the things that newcomers first learn in FP is the Option T...
New
Fl4m3Ph03n1x
Background I am trying out polymorphic typing with dialyzer. As an example I am using the famous Option type (aka, Maybe Monad) that is n...
New
Fl4m3Ph03n1x
Background So, I am playing around with a concept named “NewType” and I am taking inspiration from languages like F# and Scala. My objec...
New
Fl4m3Ph03n1x
Background I have recently been delving into more functional code. My objective right now is to get something similar to the IO Monad (in...
New
Fl4m3Ph03n1x
Background I have an umbrella project, where I run mix test from the root. In one of the apps, I am mocking the File module using the Mo...
New
apoorv-2204
Anyone know how to get in golang? I am from elixir background?.
New
Shiny
Hey community, this is my first post here so I will try to be as concise as possible and I appreciate any feedback. I’ve been writing Ro...
New
theodor
I have this app where there are a bunch of users that cannot access their account anymore after they updated their Android device to Andr...
New

Other popular topics Top

PragmaticBookshelf
Ruby, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, Clojure, Haskell. With Seven Languages in Seven Weeks, by Bruce A. Tate, you’ll go beyond the syntax—and...
New
AstonJ
poll poll Be sure to check out @Dusty’s article posted here: An Introduction to Alternative Keyboard Layouts It’s one of the best write-...
New
New
mafinar
This is going to be a long an frequently posted thread. While talking to a friend of mine who has taken data structure and algorithm cou...
New
New
AstonJ
This is cool! DEEPSEEK-V3 ON M4 MAC: BLAZING FAST INFERENCE ON APPLE SILICON We just witnessed something incredible: the largest open-s...
New
Fl4m3Ph03n1x
Background Lately I am in a quest to find a good quality TTS ai generation tool to run locally in order to create audio for some videos I...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
This book forgoes the abstract and instead provides concrete examples to help you better leverage the unique properties of Elixir, Erlang...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
As digital systems increasingly run the world, mastery of the recurring patterns of software development risk is the key to fast and effe...
New
pragdave
Build robust LLM-powered apps, chatbots, and agents while mastering AI engineering principles that will help you outlast the tools and th...
New