Typescript objects serialization?

Question

Are there any means for JSON serialization/deserialization of Typescript objects so that they don\'t loose type information? Simple JSON.parse(JSON.stringify) has t

Answer 1

I think a better way to handle this is to use Object.assign (which however requires ECMAScript 2015).

Given a class

class Pet {
    name: string;
    age: number;
    constructor(name?: string, age?: number) {
        this.name = name;
        this.age = age;
    }
    getDescription(): string {
        return "My pet " + this.name + " is " + this.age + " years old.";
    }
    static fromJSON(d: Object): Pet {
        return Object.assign(new Pet(), d);
    }
}

Serialize and deserialize like this...

var p0 = new Pet("Fido", 5);
var s = JSON.stringify(p0);
var p1 = Pet.fromJSON(JSON.parse(s));
console.log(p1.getDescription());

To take this example to the next level, consider nested objects...

class Type {
    kind: string;
    breed: string;
    constructor(kind?: string, breed?: string) {
        this.kind = kind;
        this.breed = breed;
    }
    static fromJSON(d: Object) {
        return Object.assign(new Type(), d);
    }
}
class Pet {
    name: string;
    age: number;
    type: Type;
    constructor(name?: string, age?: number) {
        this.name = name;
        this.age = age;
    }
    getDescription(): string {
        return "My pet " + this.name + " is " + this.age + " years old.";
    }
    getFullDescription(): string {
        return "My " + this.type.kind + ", a " + this.type.breed + ", is " + this.age + " years old.";
    }
    static fromJSON(d: Object): Pet {
        var o = Object.assign(new Pet(), d);
        o.type = Type.fromJSON(o['type']);
        return o;
    }
}

Serialize and deserialize like this...

var q0 = new Pet("Fido", 5);
q0.type = new Type("dog", "Pomeranian");
var t = JSON.stringify(q0);
var q1 = Pet.fromJSON(JSON.parse(t));
console.log(q1.getFullDescription());

So unlike using an interface, this approach preserves methods.