In libraries like akka-http or http4s there is always a pattern where you define objects doing the marshalling from/to JSON. When you later need to use the serialization you import the implicits so they are used in function methods.
For a project unrelated to REST apis, I want to implement the same design pattern for serializing case classes into RDF.
What is the name of the design pattern? Where could I find a concise description of the pattern so I don't have to reverse engineer those libraries?
It's done using type class (for serialization logic) and implicit class (to extend method syntax).
Create type class - it's a generic trait:
trait XmlSerializer[T] { //type class
type Xml = String
def asXml(element: T, name: String): Xml
}
Create companion object:
object XmlSerializer {
//easy access to instance by XmlSerializer[User]
def apply[T](implicit serializer: XmlSerializer[T]): XmlSerializer[T] = serializer
//implicit class for myUser.asXml("myName") syntax
//serializer will be injected in compile time
implicit class RichXmlSerializer[T](val element: T) extends AnyVal {
def asXml(name: String)(implicit serializer: XmlSerializer[T]) = serializer.asXml(element, name)
}
//type class instance
implicit val stringXmlSerializer: XmlSerializer[String] = new XmlSerializer[String] {
override def asXml(element: String, name: String) = s"<$name>$element</$name>"
}
}
Create type classes instances for your model:
case class User(id: Int, name: String)
object User {
implicit val xmlSerializer: XmlSerializer[User] = new XmlSerializer[User] {
override def asXml(element: User, name: String) = s"<$name><id>${element.id}</id><name>${element.name}</name></$name>"
}
}
case class Comment(user: User, content: String)
object Comment {
implicit val xmlSerializer: XmlSerializer[Comment] = new XmlSerializer[Comment] {
import example.XmlSerializer._ //import fot implicit class syntax
override def asXml(element: Comment, name: String) = {
//user serializer is taken from User companion object
val userXml = element.user.asXml("user")
val contentXml = element.content.asXml("content")
s"<$name>$userXml$contentXml</$name>"
}
}
}
Use it: object MyApp extends App {
import example.XmlSerializer._ //import fot implicit class syntax
val user = User(1, "John")
val comment = Comment(user, "Hello!")
println(XmlSerializer[User].asXml(user, "user"))
println(comment.asXml("comment"))
}
Output:
<user><id>1</id><name>John</name></user>
<comment><user><id>1</id><name>John</name></user><content>Hello!</content></comment>
Logic is implemented poorly, but it's not the point.