This module provides a configurable alternative to circe built-in type hinting strategy. As an example given the following ADT and data:
sealed trait Pet
case class Cat(breed: String, weight: Double) extends Pet
case class Dog(breed: String, weight: Double) extends Pet
val pinkyCat = Cat("Tabby", 6.5)
val pinkyPet: Pet = pinkyCat
The built-in circe strategy to deriving a codec for Pet would work as follows:
import io.circe.Encoder
import io.circe.generic.semiauto._
import io.circe.syntax._
implicit val catEncoder: Encoder[Cat] = deriveEncoder
implicit val dogEncoder: Encoder[Dog] = deriveEncoder
implicit val petEncoder: Encoder[Pet] = deriveEncoder
println(pinkyCat.asJson)
// Relies on `catEncoder`, produces: { "breed": "Tabby", "weight": 6.5 }
println(pinkyPet.asJson)
// Relies on `petEncoder`, Produces: { "Cat": { "breed": "Tabby", "weight": 6.5 } }
Using the adt function from this library instead it is possible to do the following:
import com.drivetribe.circe.hinting._
import io.circe.syntax._
implicit val hintingConfiguration = HintingConfiguration.default
implicit val catEncoder = HintedEncoder[Cat].derive("pet.cat")
implicit val dogEncoder = HintedEncoder[Dog].derive("pet.dog")
implicit val petEncoder = HintedEncoder[Pet].adt
println(pinkyCat.asJson)
// Relies on `catEncoder`, produces: { "_type": "pet.cat", "breed": "Tabby", "weight": 6.5 }
println(pinkyPet.asJson)
// Relies on `petEncoder`, Produces: { "_type": "pet.cat", "breed": "Tabby", "weight": 6.5 }
libraryDependencies += "com.drivetribe" %% "circe-field-hints" % "<latest version>"
The library relies on finding an implicit HintingConfiguration in scope to decide which field to use for type hinting. As you can see in the previous example the dafault is _type.
The HintedCodec module is an utility that exposes the same API and allows the creation of encoder/decoder pairs as in:
implicit val (catEncoder, catDecoder) = HintedCodec[Cat].derive("pet.cat")
The HintedDecoder, HintedEncoder and HintedCodec modules provide the same API which exposes the following functions:
upgrade- upgrades an existing codec with type hintsderive- uses circe semiauto derivation to create an hinted codec for a product type (e.g. case classes)adt- defines a codec for a sealed hierarchy whose cases each have an implicitly available hinted codec; if any is missing it won't compile.coproduct- defines a codec for a shapelessCoproductwhose types each have an implicitly available hinted codec; if any is missing it won't compile.
For more examples of usage of these functions please refer to HintingSpec.
It is also possible to access type hints for some value of a type for whose we have an HintedEncoder instance as follows:
// Both return the string "pet.cat"
HintedEncoder.hintFor(someCat)
HintedEncoder.hintFor(someCat: Pet)
