Serializer

Serializer is a tiny utility that allows you to de/serialize object from/to JSON blob. This in a way allows you to save the JSON blob as a string in a SharedPreference or in a database.

By default, Serializer comes with Gson and Moshi as the underlining serialization engines. Gson is used by default with Serializer but can easily be overwritten to make use of either Moshi or any other serialization engine. Eg. Jackson or custom made one.

You can use it with tools like Tray, which is a SharedPreferences with multi-process support. This issue inspired this library.

How to integrate into your app?

To integrate the library into your app, you need to make a few changes in the build.gradle file as follows:

Step 1. Add the JitPack repository to your build file. Add it to your root build.gradle in the repositories block:

allprojects {
    repositories {
        maven { url "https://jitpack.io" }
    }
}

Step 2. Add the dependency

dependencies {
    compile 'com.github.eyedol:serializer:1.0.0'
}

How to use the library

Let's say you want to use the default Gson to serialize a model named Cinema then save it into a SharedPreference.

// Build default serializer object
Serializer mSerializer = new Serializer.Builder().build();
Cinema cinema = new Cinema("addhen cinemas", "accra");

// Serialize into a JSON string
String cinemaJson = mSerializer.strategy(Cinema.class).serialze(cinema);

// Get the shared preferences
final SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = context.getSharedPreferences("android-shared-prefs", MODE_PRIVATE);

// Save the object into it as a json string
sharedPreferences.edit().putString("cinema", cinemaJson).apply();

// Now retrieve it and deserialize it back into the object.
cinemaJson = sharedPreferences.getString("cinema", null);
cinema = mSerializer.strategy(Cinema.class).deserialize(cinemaJson);

Let's say you're familiar with Moshi and wants to use that instead.

// Build serializer object with moshi
MoshiSerializationStrategyFactory factory = MoshiSerializationStrategyFactory.create();

Serializer mSerializer = new Serializer.Builder()
                .setSerializationStrategyFactory(factory)
                .build();

Cinema cinema = new Cinema("addhen cinemas", "accra");
List<Cinema> cinemas = new ArrayList<>();
cinemas.add(cinema);
        
// Serialize into a JSON string
String cinemasJson = mSerializer.strategy(List.class).serialize(cinemas);

// Get the shared preferences
final SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = context.getSharedPreferences("android-shared-prefs", MODE_PRIVATE);

// Save the list into it as a json string
sharedPreferences.edit().putString("cinemas", cinemasJson).apply();

// Now retrieve it and deserialize it back into a list object.
cinemasJson = sharedPreferences.getString("cinemas", null);
cinemas = Arrays.asList(mSerializer.strategy(Cinema[].class).deserialize(cinemasJson));

For more usage examples, look inside the test package.

License

Copyright 2016 Addhen Limited

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.