[@@deriving yojson]

deriving Yojson is a ppx_deriving plugin that generates JSON serializers and deserializes that use the Yojson library from an OCaml type definition.

Installation

deriving Yojson can be installed via OPAM:

$ opam install ppx_deriving_yojson

Usage

In order to use deriving yojson, require the package ppx_deriving_yojson.

If you are using dune, add ppx_deriving_json to the preprocess entry, and ppx_deriving_json.runtime to your requirements, like so:

...
(libraries  yojson core ppx_deriving_yojson.runtime) ;
(preprocess (pps ppx_deriving_yojson)) ;
...

Syntax

deriving yojson generates three functions per type:

# #require "ppx_deriving_yojson";;
# type ty = .. [@@deriving yojson];;
val ty_of_yojson : Yojson.Safe.json -> (ty, string) Result.result
val ty_of_yojson_exn : Yojson.Safe.json -> ty
val ty_to_yojson : ty -> Yojson.Safe.json

When the deserializing function returns `Error loc, loc points to the point in the JSON hierarchy where the error has occurred.

It is possible to generate only serializing or deserializing functions by using [@@deriving to_yojson] or [@@deriving of_yojson]. It is also possible to generate an expression for serializing or deserializing a type by using [%to_yojson:] or [%of_yojson:]; non-conflicting versions [%derive.to_yojson:] or [%derive.of_yojson:] are available as well.

If the type is called t, the functions generated are {of,to}_yojson instead of t_{of,to}_yojson.

The ty_of_yojson_exn function raises Failure err on error instead of returning an 'a or_error

Semantics

deriving yojson handles tuples, records, normal and polymorphic variants; builtin types: int, int32, int64, nativeint, float, bool, char, string, bytes, ref, list, array, option and their Mod.t aliases.

The following table summarizes the correspondence between OCaml types and JSON values:

OCaml type	JSON value	Remarks
`int`, `int32`, `float`	Number
`int64`, `nativeint`	Number	Can exceed range of `double`
`bool`	Boolean
`string`, `bytes`	String
`char`	String	Strictly one character in length
`list`, `array`	Array
`ref`	'a
`option`	Null or 'a
A record	Object
`Yojson.Safe.json`	any	Identity transformation

Variants (regular and polymorphic) are represented using arrays; the first element is a string with the name of the constructor, the rest are the arguments. Note that the implicit tuple in a polymorphic variant is flattened. For example:

# type pvs = [ `A | `B of int | `C of int * string ] list [@@deriving yojson];;
# type v = A | B of int | C of int * string [@@deriving yojson];;
# type vs = v list [@@deriving yojson];;
# print_endline (Yojson.Safe.to_string (vs_to_yojson [A; B 42; C (42, "foo")]));;
[["A"],["B",42],["C",42,"foo"]]
# print_endline (Yojson.Safe.to_string (pvs_to_yojson [`A; `B 42; `C (42, "foo")]));;
[["A"],["B",42],["C",42,"foo"]]

Record variants are represented in the same way as if the nested structure was defined separately. For example:

# type v = X of { v: int } [@@deriving yojson];;
# print_endline (Yojson.Safe.to_string (v_to_yojson (X { v = 0 })));;
["X",{"v":0}]

Record variants are currently not supported for extensible variant types.

By default, objects are deserialized strictly; that is, all keys in the object have to correspond to fields of the record. Passing strict = false as an option to the deriver (i.e. [@@deriving yojson { strict = false }]) changes the behavior to ignore any unknown fields.

Options

Option attribute names may be prefixed with yojson. to avoid conflicts with other derivers.

[@key]

If the JSON object keys differ from OCaml conventions, lexical or otherwise, it is possible to specify the corresponding JSON key implicitly using [@key "field"], e.g.:

type geo = {
  lat : float [@key "Latitude"];
  lon : float [@key "Longitude"];
}
[@@deriving yojson]

[@name]

If the JSON variant names differ from OCaml conventions, it is possible to specify the corresponding JSON string explicitly using [@name "constr"], e.g.:

type units =
| Metric   [@name "metric"]
| Imperial [@name "imperial"]
[@@deriving yojson]

[@encoding]

Very large int64 and nativeint numbers can wrap when decoded in a runtime which represents all numbers using double-precision floating point, e.g. JavaScript and Lua. It is possible to specify the [@encoding `string] attribute to encode them as strings.

[@default]

It is possible to specify a default value for fields that can be missing from the JSON object, e.g.:

type pagination = {
  pages   : int;
  current : (int [@default 0]);
} [@@deriving yojson]

Fields with default values are not required to be present in inputs and will not be emitted in outputs.

`Yojson_meta` module

The meta deriver option can be used to generate a module containing all JSON key names, e.g.

type foo = {
 fvalue : float;
 svalue : string [@key "@svalue_json"];
 ivalue : int;
} [@@deriving to_yojson { strict = false, fields = true } ]
end

defines the following module:

module Yojson_meta_foo = struct
  let keys = ["fvalue"; "@svalue_json"; "ivalue"]
  let _ = keys
end

When the type is named t, the module is named just Yojson_meta.

License

deriving yojson is distributed under the terms of MIT license.

NathanReb/ppx_deriving_yojson