Assets [WIP] UON : The Unity JSON

Hello folks!

I wish to share a tool recently developed which allow me to convert any object into UON text and any UON text into object.

UON is an equivalent of JSON, but it follows its own syntax and rules.
UON handles almost any types, generics, arrays, lists, dictionaries, classes, structs, interfaces and Unity Object!

Usage: Use the class UON which is in the namespace NGTools.UON.
There is 2 methods in it:

Code (CSharp):

1. string   ToUON(object o);
2. // Converts any object into UON.
3.  
4. object   FromUON(string raw, object instance = null);
5. // Converts any UON into object.
6. // If you provide the instance, UON will fill it with the given input.

This tool is still experimental.

If you stumble upon any issues or have any suggestions, please let me know.

 

Hello people!

As you might have noticed, ToUON and FromUON do not ask you a Type, because it is embedded directly into the format.

UON does not ask for any attribute or contract or any constraint.
It serializes every public and private fields.

But it provides the interface IUONDeserialization:

Code (CSharp):

1. public interface IUONDeserialization
2. {
3.    void    OnDeserialized(DeserializationData data);
4. }

Which is invoked on your object after it has been deserialized if needs be.


Here are several cases that might interest you:

Code (CSharp):

1. // Note that you can not directly serialize a Unity Object, because UON will save its fields instead of the Unity reference.
2. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new Object[] { AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath<Object>("Assets/Plugins/NGTools/UON/DeserializationData.cs") }));
3. // [["UnityEngine.Object[],UnityEngine","UnityEditor.MonoScript,UnityEditor"],[(1)"Assets/Plugins/NGTools/UON/DeserializationData.cs"]]
4.  
5. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(null));
6. // []
7.  
8. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(1));
9. // [["System.Int32"],1]
10.  
11. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(12345));
12. // [["System.Int32"],12345]
13.  
14. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(-12345));
15. // [["System.Int32"],-12345]
16.  
17. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(1.234F));
18. // [["System.Single"],1.234]
19.  
20. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(0F));
21. // [["System.Single"],0]
22.  
23. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(-1.234F));
24. // [["System.Single"],-1.234]
25.  
26. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(true));
27. // [["System.Boolean"],T]
28.  
29. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(false));
30. // [["System.Boolean"],F]
31.  
32. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(string.Empty));
33. // [["System.String"],""]
34.  
35. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON("Abcdefg"));
36. // [["System.String"],"Abcdefg"]
37.  
38. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new int[] { 1, 0, -1 }));
39. // [["System.Int32[]","System.Int32"],[(1)1,0,-1]]
40.  
41. // NOTE: Only byte and sbyte are written using hexadecimal!
42. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new byte[] { 1, 0, 255 }));
43. // [["System.Byte[]","System.Byte"],[(1)1,0,ff]]
44.  
45. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new sbyte[] { -123, 1, 0, 124 }));
46. // [["System.SByte[]","System.SByte"],[(1)85,1,0,7c]]
47.  
48. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new float[] { 1.234567F, 0.1234567F, -1.234567F }));
49. // [["System.Single[]","System.Single"],[(1)1.234567,0.1234567,-1.234567]]
50.  
51. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new string[] { "aa", "bb", "cc", string.Empty, null }));
52. // [["System.String[]","System.String"],[(1)"aa","bb","cc","",NULL]]
53.  
54. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new string[] { }));
55. // [["System.String[]"],[]]
56.  
57. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new List<int> { 1, 0, -1 });
58. // [["System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[System.Int32]]","System.Int32"],[(1)1,0,-1]]
59.  
60. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new List<string> { "aa", "bb", "cc", string.Empty, null }));
61. // [["System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[System.String]]","System.String"],[(1)"aa","bb","cc","",NULL]]
62.  
63. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new Dictionary<int, byte>()));
64. // [["System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[[System.Int32],[System.Byte]]","System.Int32[]","System.Int32","System.Collections.Generic.Link[]","System.Collections.Generic.Link","System.Byte[]","System.Byte","System.Collections.Generic.GenericEqualityComparer`1[[System.Int32]]"],{"table":(1)[(2)0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],"linkSlots":(3)[(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0},(4){"HashCode":(2)0,"Next":0}],"keySlots":(1)[(2)0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],"valueSlots":(5)[(6)00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00],"touchedSlots":(2)0,"emptySlot":-1,"count":0,"threshold":10,"hcp":(7){},"serialization_info":NULL,"generation":(2)0}]
65.  
66. Debug.Log(UON.ToUON(new List<Action<int, Action<string, Dictionary<int, LocalVariableInfo>>>>()));
67. // [["System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[System.Action`2[[System.Int32],[System.Action`2[[System.String],[System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[[System.Int32],[System.Reflection.LocalVariableInfo]]]],System.Core]],System.Core]]"],[]]

 

Seems kind of interesting, but I suppose you use reflection internally?

 

I do.

I don't know any technique that don't use Reflection when dealing with any given input.
If it is not the user who gives the data, then I guess Reflection is my only friend.

You have all the sources in the given archive if you want.

 

Not to bring this down or anything.. But why? Why not just stick with JSON? Don't fix it if it ain't broken. Not to mention JSON is widely used which makes support much easier to find.

 

You are right.

I completely forgot to add an example using Unity Object...

UON can handle Unity Object and ScriptableObject as well.

Of course, the Object must be known by the AssetDatabase.
And I am thinking about making it works while playing.


This tool is especially useful when saving/loading data in the Editor.
So... the target might be tool programmers.

 

Why not make it JSON compatible? It should be more easy if we need to handle the data outside Unity.

 

I had the JSON compatibility in mind when developing UON.
But during the development I removed that compatibility.

For a simple reason, for now I am the only one using it.
And I wanted it to have the smallest size footprint, as much as possible.
Adding the compatibility would have added too much overhead for nothing.

But if it is demanded, I will reimplement a strict JSON mode with pleasure.

 

The code has been updated. No more compile errors... Sorry for this huge mistake, that was really stupid...

 

Also, please try to make a game build with the new UON-based NGTools (0.41?). Showstopping compile error, please update.

 

Working on it...

 

I just sent you the fixed version.