JSON

Mix.install([
  {:jason, "~> 1.4"}
])

Introduction

Note that JSON is not a particularly expressive format. It has (among others) the following restrictions:

• Both integers and floats are mapped to “numbers”.
• It can only represent tree structures.
• Elixirs atoms are mapped to “strings” and thus lost in a roundtrip. The Jason module does have mitigations for dealing with this if needed.
• It is unclear how much escaping needs to be done as JSON implementations don’t agree on the meaning of a “string”. The Jason module does have mitigations for dealing with this when needed.
• Highlevel constructs like a pid are naturally lost in a roundtrip.

Test Cases

test_plants = [
  "Tomato",
  "Chili",
  "Cucumber",
  "Golden Berry",
  "blueberry",
  "Red Pitaya"
]

test_buffy = %{
  name: "Buffy Anne Summers",
  born: "January 19, 1981",
  hair: :blonde,
  first_app: 1992,
  portrayed_by: %{
    film: "Kristy Swanson",
    series: "Sarah Michelle Gellar",
    voice: "Giselle Loren"
  },
  death_by: ["The Master", "Suicide", "Warren"],
  alive: true
}

Marshalling

{:ok, coded_plants} = Jason.encode(test_plants)
IO.puts(coded_plants)

{:ok, coded_buffy} = Jason.encode(test_buffy, pretty: true)
IO.puts(coded_buffy)

Unmarshalling

{:ok, result_plants} = Jason.decode(coded_plants)
result_plants

{:ok, result_buffy} = Jason.decode(coded_buffy)
result_buffy