NAME Object::Serializer - General Purpose Object Serializer VERSION version 0.000004 SYNOPSIS package Point; use Moo; use parent 'Object::Serializer'; has 'x' => (is => 'rw'); has 'y' => (is => 'rw'); package main; my $p = Point->new(x => 10, y => 10); # serialize the class into a hash my $p1 = $p->serialize; # returns { __CLASS__ => 'Point', x => 10, y => 10 } # deserialize the hash into a class my $p2 = $p->deserialize($p1); DESCRIPTION Getting objects into an ideal format for passing representations in and out of applications can be a real pain. Object::Serializer is a fast and simple pure-perl framework-agnostic type-less none-opinionated light-weight primitive general purpose object serializer which tries to help make object serialization easier. Note, this module should be considered experimental though I don't anticipate the interface changing much. METHODS serialize The serialize method expects an object and returns a serialized (hashified) version of that object. my $hash = $self->serialize($object); deserialize The deserialize method expects an object, preferably a pre-serialized one, and returns a serialized version of that object. my $object = $self->deserialize($object); serialization_strategy_for The serialization_strategy_for method expects a reftype and a list of key/value pairs having the keys expand and/or collapse. This method registers a custom serialization strategy to be used during the expansion and/or collapsing of specific reference types. CLASS->serialization_strategy_for( REFTYPE => ( expand => sub { ... }, collapse => sub { ... } ) ); EXTENSION Object::Serializer can be used as a serializer independently, however, it is primarily designed to be used as a base class for your classes or roles. By default, Object::Serializer doesn't do anything special for you in the way of serialization, however, you can easily hook into the serialization process by defining your serialization strategy using your own custom serialization routines which will be executed whenever a specific reference type is encountered. The following syntax is what you might use to register your own custom serialization strategy: Object::Serializer->serialization_strategy_for( DateTime => ( collapse => sub { pop->iso8601 } ) ); This aforementioned example registers a custom serializer that is executed globally whenever a DateTime object is found. The expand and collapse coderefs suggest what will happen on deserialization and serialization respectively, additionally, you can register a serialization strategy to be used only when invoked by a specific class. The following syntax is what you might use to register a serialization strategy for a specific class: Point->serialization_strategy_for( DateTime => ( collapse => sub { pop->iso8601 } ) ); CAVEATS Circular references are problematic and should be avoided, you can weaken or otherwise handle them yourself then re-assemble them later as a means toward getting around this. Custom serializers must match the object's reftype exactly to be enacted. Extending the serialization process with a custom serialization strategy usually means losing the ability to recreate (deserialize) the serialized objects, i.e. custom serializers will usually be designed to either expand or collapse but probably not both. AUTHOR Al Newkirk COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 2013 by Al Newkirk. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.