variant-encodings

Alternative runtime encodings for Variant types.

Description

Variant types are great to FFI JavaScript tagged union types. But the encoding on the JavaScript side does not always match exactly the one from Variant ({ type: ..., value: ...})

This library provides types that describe variants with custom encodings: Tag and value keys can be configured. Also a flat encoding is available.

The types are merely meant as an intermediate step. There will be no utility functions provided. However, there are functions available that convert to and from Variant.

Installation

spago install variant-encodings

Example

Flat encoding

On the JS side you have the following flat encoded tagged union types:

export const valSamples = [
  { kind: "loading", progress: 0, id: "abc" },
  { kind: "loading", progress: 20, id: "abc" },
  { kind: "loading", progress: 71, id: "abc" },
  { kind: "loading", progress: 98, id: "abc" },
  { kind: "success", result: "xyz" },
];

On the PureScript side you can FFI it like so:

import Data.Variant.Encodings.Flat (normalizeEncodingFlat, VariantEncodedFlat)

type SampleVarEnc =
  VariantEncodedFlat "kind"
    ( loading :: { progress :: Int, id :: String }
    , success :: { result :: String }
    )

foreign import valSamples :: Array SampleVarEnc

And then convert it into a more usable Variant type:

type SampleVar = Variant
  ( loading :: { progress :: Int, id :: String }
  , success :: { result :: String }
  )

valSamplesVariant :: Array SampleVar
valSamplesVariant = map normalizeEncodingFlat valSamples

Nested encoding

On the JS side you have the following nested encoded tagged union types:

export const valSamples = [
  { kind: "loading", payload: 0 },
  { kind: "loading", payload: 20 },
  { kind: "loading", payload: 71 },
  { kind: "loading", payload: 98 } },
  { kind: "success", payload: "done!" },
];