zwilias / json-decode-exploration / Json.Decode.Exploration.Pipeline

Json.Decode.Pipeline

Use the (|>) operator to build JSON decoders.

Decoding fields

required : String -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder (a -> b) -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b

Decode a required field.

import Json.Decode.Exploration exposing (..)

type alias User =
    { id : Int
    , name : String
    , email : String
    }

userDecoder : Decoder User
userDecoder =
    decode User
        |> required "id" int
        |> required "name" string
        |> required "email" string

""" {"id": 123, "email": "sam@example.com", "name": "Sam"} """
    |> decodeString userDecoder
--> Success { id = 123, name = "Sam", email = "sam@example.com" }

requiredAt : List String -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder (a -> b) -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b

Decode a required nested field.

import Json.Decode.Exploration exposing (..)

type alias User =
    { id : Int
    , name : String
    , email : String
    }

userDecoder : Decoder User
userDecoder =
    decode User
        |> required "id" int
        |> requiredAt [ "profile", "name" ] string
        |> required "email" string

"""
{
    "id": 123,
    "email": "sam@example.com",
    "profile": { "name": "Sam" }
}
"""
    |> decodeString userDecoder
--> Success { id = 123, name = "Sam", email = "sam@example.com" }

optional : String -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a -> a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder (a -> b) -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b

Decode a field that may be missing or have a null value. If the field is missing, then it decodes as the fallback value. If the field is present, then valDecoder is used to decode its value. If valDecoder fails on a null value, then the fallback is used as if the field were missing entirely.

import Json.Decode.Exploration exposing (..)

type alias User =
    { id : Int
    , name : String
    , email : String
    }

userDecoder : Decoder User
userDecoder =
    decode User
        |> required "id" int
        |> optional "name" string "blah"
        |> required "email" string

""" { "id": 123, "email": "sam@example.com" } """
    |> decodeString userDecoder
--> Success { id = 123, name = "blah", email = "sam@example.com" }

Because valDecoder is given an opportunity to decode null values before resorting to the fallback, you can distinguish between missing and null values if you need to:

userDecoder2 =
    decode User
        |> required "id" int
        |> optional "name" (oneOf [ string, null "NULL" ]) "MISSING"
        |> required "email" string

Note also that this behaves slightly different than the stock pipeline package.

In the stock pipeline package, running the following decoder with an array as the input would succeed.

fooDecoder =
    decode identity
        |> optional "foo" (maybe string) Nothing

In this package, such a decoder will error out instead, saying that it expected the input to be an object. The key "foo" is optional, but it really does have to be an object before we even consider trying your decoder or returning the fallback.

optionalAt : List String -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a -> a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder (a -> b) -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b

Decode an optional nested field.

hardcoded : a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder (a -> b) -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b

Rather than decoding anything, use a fixed value for the next step in the pipeline. harcoded does not look at the JSON at all.

import Json.Decode.Exploration exposing (..)


type alias User =
    { id : Int
    , name : String
    , email : String
    }

userDecoder : Decoder User
userDecoder =
    decode User
        |> required "id" int
        |> hardcoded "Alex"
        |> required "email" string

""" { "id": 123, "email": "sam@example.com" } """
    |> decodeString userDecoder
--> Success { id = 123, name = "Alex", email = "sam@example.com" }

custom : Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder (a -> b) -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b

Run the given decoder and feed its result into the pipeline at this point.

Consider this example.

import Json.Decode.Exploration exposing (..)


type alias User =
    { id : Int
    , name : String
    , email : String
    }

userDecoder : Decoder User
userDecoder =
    decode User
        |> required "id" int
        |> custom (at [ "profile", "name" ] string)
        |> required "email" string

"""
{
    "id": 123,
    "email": "sam@example.com",
    "profile": {"name": "Sam"}
}
"""
    |> decodeString userDecoder
--> Success { id = 123, name = "Sam", email = "sam@example.com" }

Validating the JSON without using the values

checked : String -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a -> a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b

check a field in the JSON to ensure it has a certain value before allowing the decoder to succeed.

import List.Nonempty as Nonempty
import Json.Decode.Exploration exposing (..)
import Json.Decode.Exploration.Located exposing (Located(..))
import Json.Encode as Encode


type alias User =
    { id : Int
    , name : String
    , email : String
    }

userDecoder : Decoder User
userDecoder =
    decode User
        |> required "id" int
        |> required "name" string
        |> required "email" string
        |> checked "enabled" bool True

"""
{
    "id": 123,
    "email": "sam@example.com",
    "name": "Sam",
    "enabled": true
}
"""
    |> decodeString userDecoder
--> Success { id = 123, name = "Sam", email = "sam@example.com" }

"""
{
    "id": 123,
    "email": "sam@example.com",
    "name": "Sam",
    "enabled": false
}
"""
    |> decodeString userDecoder
--> Errors expectedErrors

expectedErrors : Errors
expectedErrors =
    Failure "Verification failed"  (Just <| Encode.bool False)
        |> Here
        |> Nonempty.fromElement
        |> InField "enabled"
        |> Nonempty.fromElement

checkedAt : List String -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a -> a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder b

Check a field at a certain path and validate its content before allowing decoding to succeed.

ignored : String -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a

Ignore a field from decoding. By using ignored, you acknowledge that it is in the JSON so warnings don't show up.

import Json.Decode.Exploration exposing (..)


type alias User =
    { id : Int
    , name : String
    , email : String
    }

userDecoder : Decoder User
userDecoder =
    decode User
        |> required "id" int
        |> required "name" string
        |> required "email" string
        |> ignored "enabled"

"""
{
    "id": 123,
    "email": "sam@example.com",
    "name": "Sam",
    "enabled": "No one cares, it's ignored."
}
"""
    |> decodeString userDecoder
--> Success { id = 123, name = "Sam", email = "sam@example.com" }

ignoredAt : List String -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a

Ignore a value at a certain path from decoding. By using ignoredAt, you acknowledge that it is in the JSON so warnings don't show up.

Beginning and ending pipelines

decode : a -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a

Begin a decoding pipeline. This is a synonym for Json.Decode.succeed, intended to make things read more clearly.

type alias User =
    { id : Int
    , email : String
    , name : String
    }

userDecoder : Decoder User
userDecoder =
    decode User
        |> required "id" int
        |> required "email" string
        |> optional "name" string ""

resolve : Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder (Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a) -> Json.Decode.Exploration.Decoder a

Convert a Decoder (Result x a) into a Decoder a. Useful when you want to perform some custom processing just before completing the decoding operation.

import Json.Decode.Exploration exposing (..)

type alias User =
    { id : Int
    , name : String
    , email : String
    }

userDecoder : Decoder User
userDecoder =
    let
        -- toDecoder gets run *after* all the
        -- (|> required ...) steps are done.
        toDecoder : Int -> String -> String -> Int -> Decoder User
        toDecoder id name email version =
            if version >= 2 then
                succeed (User id name email)
            else
                fail "This JSON is from a deprecated source. Please upgrade!"
    in
    decode toDecoder
        |> required "id" int
        |> required "name" string
        |> required "email" string
        |> required "version" int
        -- version is part of toDecoder,
        -- but it is not a part of User
        |> resolve

"""
{
    "id": 123,
    "name": "Sam",
    "email": "sam@example.com",
    "version": 3
}
"""
    |> decodeString userDecoder
--> Success { id = 123, name = "Sam", email = "sam@example.com" }

Verified docs

The examples all expect imports set up like this:

import Json.Decode.Exploration exposing (..)
import Json.Decode.Exploration.Pipeline exposing (..)
import Json.Decode.Exploration.Located exposing (Located(..))
import Json.Encode as Encode
import List.Nonempty as Nonempty

For automated verification of these examples, this import is also required. Please ignore it.

import DocVerificationHelpers exposing (User)