📦 json-4-ts

json-4-ts is a TypeScript serialization library for encoding and decoding complex JavaScript/TypeScript data structures—including objects, strings, numbers, functions, and symbols—into a structured and deserializable format.

🚀 Features

• Serialize and deserialize:
  • Objects
  • Strings
  • Numbers
  • Functions (native and user-defined)
  • Symbols
• Custom format with type tagging
• Preserves structure and re-creates function bodies
• Handles unknown and invalid data gracefully

📦 Installation

Since this is a namespace-based library, simply include it in your TypeScript code:

/// <reference path="path/to/json-4-ts.ts" />

Or manually import the Serializer namespace if modularized.

📘 Usage

Serialize

const obj = {
  name: "Alice",
  greet: (msg: string) => `Hello, ${msg}`,
  id: Symbol("unique")
};

const serialized = Serializer.serialize(obj);
console.log(JSON.stringify(serialized, null, 2));

Deserialize

const restored = Serializer.deserialize(serialized);
console.log(restored.name);         // "Alice"
console.log(restored.greet("Bob")); // "Hello, Bob"

🧩 API Reference

Serializer.serialize(data: SerializableDataType): SerializedBlock

Serializes supported JavaScript/TypeScript types into a structured block.

Serializer.deserialize(block: SerializedBlock): SerializableDataType

Restores serialized blocks to live runtime objects, functions, or primitives.

🔧 Type Definitions

SerializableDataType

type SerializableDataType =
  | Serializable
  | Record<string | number | symbol, any>
  | string | String
  | number | Number
  | Function
  | symbol | Symbol;

Serializable

type Serializable = {
  value: SerializableDataType;
};

SerializedBlock

type SerializedBlock = {
  type: string;
  value: SerializedBlockType;
};

SerializedBlockType

type SerializedBlockType =
  | ContextBlock
  | StringBlock
  | NumberBlock
  | ObjectBlock
  | FunctionBlock
  | SymbolBlock
  | null;

Specialized Block Types

StringBlock

type StringBlock = {
  string: string;
};

NumberBlock

type NumberBlock = {
  number: number;
};

ObjectBlock

type ObjectBlock = {
  object: Record<string | number | symbol, SerializedBlock>;
};

FunctionBlock

type FunctionBlock = {
  function: string;
  context: ContextBlock;
};

SymbolBlock

type SymbolBlock = {
  symbol: string;
};

ContextBlock

type ContextBlock = {
  context: {
    this: any;
  };
};

🧠 Symbols

The following symbols are used for fallback states:

Serializer.unknown // Symbol("Unknown data")
Serializer.invalid // Symbol("Invalid data")

• unknown: Used when a function cannot be serialized
• invalid: Returned if deserialization fails

🧪 Example

const data = {
  n: 42,
  message: "Hello",
  run: (x: number) => x + 1,
  flag: Symbol("secret")
};

const s = Serializer.serialize(data);
console.log(s);

const restored = Serializer.deserialize(s);
console.log(restored.run(5)); // 6

⚠️ Limitations

• Function serialization is based on toString() and may not preserve closure scope
• Native functions may only serialize by name (if they can be resolved with eval)
• The "this" context is stored as null during serialization
• Symbols are stored as strings (description only)

📄 License

MIT License