I'm using the 'bson' npm package in the browser for converting / serializing a JSON object to BSON. The documentation says that it returns a Node.js buffer. The documentation of Node.js says that a buffer is of type 'Uint8Array'. Now I want to send this Uint8Array in another JSON object (infoJSON) but JSON does not support Uint8Array. I tried to convert the buffer (Uint8Array) to a simple array, inserting it in the JSON object (infoJSON) and then I convert it back to Uint8Array directly out of the JSON object. But this new Uint8Array can not be deserialized back to the original person object (see the result). It is broken.
Why I'm using BSON? I want to split the original object into multiple chunks to send it through a WebRTC data channel which has a limitation of data size. I need to be able to identify each chunk (type). It is the reason why I am using nested objects.
var personJSON = { 'name': 'sarah' } // JSON
var personBuffer = Bson.serialize(personJSON) // Uint8Array
var personArray = Array.from(personBuffer) // Simple array
var infoJSON = { 'count': 1, 'person': personArray } // Inserting array into JSON
var personUint8Array = Uint8Array.from(infoJSON.person) // Converting array back to Uint8Array
console.log('deserializedObj:')
console.log(Bson.deserialize(personUint8Array))
Result:
This is because Bson.serialize
and Bson.deserialize
use a Node.js like Buffer
object.
You can correct this by using the underlying ArrayBuffer
to create a Uint8Array
(test online) and use then use Buffer.from
:
var personJSON = { 'name': 'sarah' } // JSON
var personBuffer = new Uint8Array(Bson.serialize(personJSON).buffer) // Uint8Array
var personArray = Array.from(personBuffer) // Simple array
var infoJSON = { 'count': 1, 'person': personArray } // Inserting array into JSON
var personUint8Array = Uint8Array.from(infoJSON.person) // Converting array back to Uint8Array
console.log('deserializedObj:')
console.log(Bson.deserialize(Buffer.from(personBuffer)))