Data::Transform::ExplicitMetadata

Transform a Perl data structure into one with basic data types and explicit metadata. This data structure can be safely JSON encoded.

Description

The JSON module can only encode Perl data structures directly representable as JSON strings: simple scalars, arrayrefs and hashrefs.

This module transforms a perl data structure into one which may safely be JSON encoded, while maintaining Perl-specific metadata that isn't directly expressable in JSON such as blessed and tied references, self-referential data, typeglobs, reference addresses, etc.

When destrializing, it recreates the original data as closely as possible.

It also includes a Javascript library to manipulate the data structure created from the JSON string.

Usage

use Data::Transform::ExplicitMetadata;
use JSON;

my $encoded = Data::Transform::ExplicitMetadata::encode($perl_data);
my $json_string = JSON::encode_json($encoded);

my $perl_copy = Data::Transform::ExplicitMetadata::decode($encoded);