Serializer fails on recursive objects

[lxsmnsyc]

I was writing my own serializer when I learned that DX has its own serializer, so I tried it out since I thought it was sophisticatedly written. Turns out, DX's serializer fails at some scenarios. For example:

Case A (using Maps):

const a = new Map();
const b = new Map();

a.set('b', b);
b.set('a', a);
a.set('a', a);
b.set('b', b);

console.log(mySerialize({ a, b }));
console.log(dxSerialize({ a, b }));

My serializer:

((h,j,k)=>(k={a:h=new Map([["b",j=new Map]]),b:j},j.set("a",h).set("b",j),h.set("a",h),k))()

{
  a: <ref *1> Map(2) {
    'b' => <ref *2> Map(2) {
      'a' => [Circular *1],
      'b' => [Circular *2]
    },
    'a' => [Circular *1]
  },
  b: <ref *2> Map(2) {
    'a' => <ref *1> Map(2) {
      'b' => [Circular *2],
      'a' => [Circular *1]
    },
    'b' => [Circular *2]
  }
}

DX:

(function(h,j){return {a:h=new Map([["b",j=new Map([["a",h],["b",j]])],["a",h]]),b:j}}())

{
  a: Map(2) {
    'b' => Map(2) { 'a' => undefined, 'b' => undefined },
    'a' => undefined
  },
  b: Map(2) { 'a' => undefined, 'b' => undefined }
}

Case B (using Sets):

const a = new Set();
const b = new Set();

a.add(b);
b.add(a);
a.add(a);
b.add(b);

console.log(mySerialize({ a, b }));
console.log(dxSerialize({ a, b }));

My serializer:

((h,j,k)=>(k={a:h=new Set([j=new Set]),b:j},j.add(h).add(j),h.add(h),k))()

{
  a: <ref *1> Set(2) {
    <ref *2> Set(2) { [Circular *1], [Circular *2] },
    [Circular *1]
  },
  b: <ref *2> Set(2) {
    <ref *1> Set(2) { [Circular *2], [Circular *1] },
    [Circular *2]
  }
}

DX serializer:

(function(h,j){return {a:h=new Set([j=new Set([h,j]),h]),b:j}}())

{
  a: Set(2) { Set(1) { undefined }, undefined },
  b: Set(1) { undefined }
}

Link to my serializer: https://github.com/lxsmnsyc/seroval

[lxsmnsyc]

Other known issues:

• Fails at basic recursion:

  const data = {};
  data.self = data;

  DX Output:

  (function(h){{};h.self=h;return h}())

My serializer:

(h=>(h={},h.self=h,h))()

[ryansolid]

The second issue definitely looks like a small mistake in building. Like h just didn't assigned. The first one looks like a miss though. If you managed to find a good solution I'd be interested. I picked up a older version of valav that probably needs some love.

[lxsmnsyc]

@ryansolid I talked to @DylanPiercey and it seems that he has acknowledged the issues, not sure if he plans on fixing them, which I hope he would because I cannot really figure out the flow of valav.

There's also another issue which is the existence of undefined values in objects. The serializer skips them for some reason, which causes key in object tests to fail

[DylanPiercey]

To be clear the lack of recursive support for custom constructors (Map/Set) isn't there, so good to add. However avoiding serialization of undefined values is intentional to reduce the size of the serialized string (same choice JSON.stringify makes). That one is more of a trade off you have to weigh.

[lxsmnsyc]

Updated links and outputs for my serializer

[lxsmnsyc]

Since DX now already uses seroval which has the parity output with valav, this issue has been fixed.