README

pigeonmark-arbitrary

This package provides a codec to transform JsonML in to arbitrary data structures composed of javascript objects, arrays, sets, maps, numbers, bigints, strings, buffers, booleans, nulls, and undefined. The resulting JsonML structure can be serialized as xml using pigeonmark-xml or any other JsonML codec.

This encoding allows arbitrary non-recursive data structures to processed through XML tooling.

123 becomes <number>123</number>
true becomes <true/>
false becomes <false/>
null becomes <null/>
undefined becomes <undefined/>
"text" becomes <string>text</string>
[true, false, 123] becomes <array><true/><false/><number>123</number></array>
{ handshape: 5 } becomes <object><number name="handshape">5</number></object>
Buffer.from('Hello') becomes <buffer encoding="utf-8">Hello</buffer> (or possibly base64 or hex encoding)
new Set([1,2]) becomes <set><number>1</number><number>2</number></set>
new Map([['a', 'b']]) becomes <map><two><string>a</string><string>b</string></two></map>
123n becomes <bigint>123</bigint>
new Date() becomes <date>2021-04-26T03:21:14.350Z</date>
Symbol('foo') becomes <symbol id="0">foo</symbol>

The root node of a pigeonmark:arbitrary document must always have the xmlns attribute set to "pigeonmark:arbitrary". For example:

{
  "name": "Henry",
  "age": 45,
}

encodes to the JsonML/PigeonMark structure:

["object", { "xmlns": "pigeonmark:arbitrary" },
  ["string", { "name": "name" }, "Henry"],
  ["number", { "name": "age" }, "45"]
]

which serializes to XML:

<object xmlns="pigeonmark:arbitrary"><string name="name">Henry</string><number name="age">45</number></object>

Updates:

1.0.0 - Initial release 1.0.1 - Add .isArbitraryEncoded() function

API

const arbitrary = require('pigeonmark-arbitrary')

arbitrary.encode([1,2,3])
//=> ['array', { xmlns: 'pigeonmark:arbitrary' }, ['number', 1], ['number', 2], ['number', 3]]

arbitrary.decode(['string', { xmlns: 'pigeonmark:arbitrary' }, 'Hello World'])
//=> 'Hello World'

arbitrary.isArbitraryEncoded(node)

Test if a given JsonML structure is in pigeonmark-arbitrary format

Returns boolean

arbitrary.encode(any)

Encode any supported data format in to JsonML structure.

Returns a JsonML node, which is an array whose first element is a string tag name

arbitrary.decode(node)

Decode a JsonML representation of an arbitrary encoded document. Returns any supported type

Usage no npm install needed!