natelkins / fleece

JSON mapper based on System.Json for F#

Fleece

Fleece is a JSON mapper for F#. It simplifies mapping from System.Json's JsonValue onto your types, and mapping from your types onto JsonValue. It's also available for FSharp.Data's JSON types if you prefer it over System.Json. Its design is strongly influenced by Haskell's Aeson. Like Aeson, Fleece is designed around two typeclasses (in FsControl style) ToJson and OfJson.

Download binaries

• For FSharp.Data
• For System.Json

###Example

For example, given this data type:

type Person = {
    Name: string
    Age: int
    Children: Person list
}

You can map it to JSON like this:

open System.Json
open Fleece
open Fleece.Operators

type Person with
    static member ToJson (x: Person) =
        jobj [ 
            "name" .= x.Name
            "age" .= x.Age
            "children" .= x.Children
        ]

let p = 
    { Person.Name = "John"
      Age = 44
      Children = 
      [
        { Person.Name = "Katy"
          Age = 5
          Children = [] }
        { Person.Name = "Johnny"
          Age = 7
          Children = [] }
      ] }

printfn "%s" ((toJson p).ToString())

And you can map it from JSON like this:

type Person with
    static member OfJson json =
        match json with
        | JObject o ->
            let name = o .@ "name"
            let age = o .@ "age"
            let children = o .@ "children"
            match name, age, children with
            | Success name, Success age, Success children -> 
                Success {
                    Person.Name = name
                    Age = age
                    Children = children
                }
            | x -> Failure (sprintf "Error parsing person: %A" x)
        | x -> Failure (sprintf "Expected person, found %A" x)
        
let john : Person ParseResult = parseJson """{"name": "John", "age": 44, "children": [{"name": "Katy", "age": 5, "children": []}, {"name": "Johnny", "age": 7, "children": []}]}"""        

Though it's much easier to do this in a monadic or applicative way. For example, using FSharpPlus (which is already a dependency of Fleece):

open FSharpPlus

type Person with
    static member Create name age children = { Person.Name = name; Age = age; Children = children }

    static member OfJson json =
        match json with
        | JObject o -> Person.Create <!> (o .@ "name") <*> (o .@ "age") <*> (o .@ "children")
        | x -> Failure (sprintf "Expected person, found %A" x)

Or monadically:

type Person with
    static member OfJson json =
        match json with
        | JObject o -> 
            monad {
                let! name = o .@ "name"
                let! age = o .@ "age"
                let! children = o .@ "children"
                return {
                    Person.Name = name
                    Age = age
                    Children = children
                }
            }
        | x -> Failure (sprintf "Expected person, found %A" x)

Or you can use the Choice monad/applicative in FSharpx.Extras instead, if you prefer.

You can see more examples in the EdmundsNet project.