B4J Tutorial [BANano] Serializing & De-Serializing Objects - "Type" to Json/Map and back

Ola

M sitting here and thinking if I can work with a "type" object as a "map" object and vise versa and or even "type to json". For example, I can define my stuff as a type variable, serialize it as JSON, save to a db and then get it back and JSON and then convert to Type, update it and save it back etc etc.

This is possible because of BANano.FromJSON and BANano.ToJSON

1. Define a type object.

Type Order(ProductKey As String, Amount As Double, Comment As String)

2. Initialize an instance and convert to JSON i.e. Serialize

Dim myorder As Order
    myorder.Initialize
    myorder.Amount = 10.00
    myorder.Comment = "This is a test..."
    myorder.ProductKey = "123456"
    '
    Dim toJSON As String = BANano.ToJson(myorder)

Output (NB: note the _ prefix)

You can save this serialized object to a db or something.

3. Convert the JSON back to the type i.e. Deserialize

Dim fromJSON As Order = BANano.FromJson(toJSON)
    Log("JSON to Type")
    Log(fromJSON.Amount)
    Log(fromJSON.Comment)
    Log(fromJSON.ProductKey)
    Log(fromJSON)

Q. What if you want to use the type as a MAP object?

Convert the JSON string to a map and update the amount (Note the prefix _)

'comvert the serialized JSON to Map
Dim orderMap As Map = BANano.FromJson(toJSON)
    Log("Type to Map")
    Log(orderMap)
    orderMap.put("_amount", 1000.00)

Convert the MAP back to the Type

'convert a map to a type
Dim m2j As String = BANano.ToJson(orderMap)
    Dim ut As Order = BANano.FromJson(m2j)
    Log("Map to Type")
    Log(ut)
    Log(ut.Amount)

The Type to Map functionality is not necessarily needed as you can just update, serialize and de-serialize the type object using ToJSON and FromJSON, but has been added for brevity.

Ta!