Serialization and Deserialization

Each schema has the following methods:

/**
 * Writes the value (according to the schema's structure) to the output.
 */
write(output: ISerialOutput, value: T): void;

/**
 * Reads a value (according to the schema's structure) from the input.
 */
read(input: ISerialInput): T;

/**
 * Estimates the size of the value (according to the schema's structure)
 */
measure(value: T | MaxValue, measurer: IMeasurer): IMeasurer;

The ISerialInput/Output interfaces have a basic built-in implementation that reads/writes to a buffer:

import bin from 'typed-binary';

// Creating a fixed-length buffer of arbitrary size (64 bytes).
const buffer = Buffer.alloc(64); // Or new ArrayBuffer(64); on browsers.

// Writing four bytes into the buffer
const writer = new bin.BufferWriter(buffer); // Implements ISerialOutput
bin.byte.write(writer, 'W'.charCodeAt(0));
bin.byte.write(writer, 'o'.charCodeAt(0));
bin.byte.write(writer, 'w'.charCodeAt(0));
bin.byte.write(writer, 0);

const reader = new bin.BufferReader(buffer); // Implements ISerialInput
console.log(bin.string.read(reader)); // > Wow

Creating a buffer with the most optimal size

Schemas can measure how many bytes a particular value will take up, which can be used to create a buffer that will fit that value perfectly.

import bin from 'typed-binary';

export const PlayerUpdatePacket = bin.object({
  id: bin.u32,
  x: bin.f32,
  y: bin.f32,
});

const packet = {
  id: 0,
  x: 2.4,
  y: 1.6,
} as const;

const packetSize = PlayerUpdatePacket.measure(packet).size;
const buffer = Buffer.alloc(packetSize); // or new ArrayBuffer(packetSize) on the browser

Creating a shared buffer that fits all possible values

If a schema’s size is bounded (there is a max size that no value encodings will surpass), we can create a shared buffer of the maximum size the schema can take.

import bin from 'typed-binary';

export const PlayerUpdatePacket = bin.object({
  id: bin.u32,
  x: bin.f32,
  y: bin.f32,
});

const maxPacketSize = PlayerUpdatePacket.measure(bin.MaxValue).size;
const sharedBuffer = Buffer.alloc(maxPacketSize); // or new ArrayBuffer(maxPacketSize) on the browser