Ppx_yojson_conv plugin silently ignores custom serialization/deserialization functions

Learning
,
1

Edit : I have re-framed my question since it received no answer (meaning it might be unintelligible) and I have made some progress.

Objective

Overriding the serialization/deserialization functions of a string record member using ppx_yojson_conv deriving plugin.

type otp = {
  secret : string ; (* <= need a custom serialization/deserialization function here *)
  date   : string ;
}

Why

Because this member is made of random characters. I want an hexadecimal representation in my json file, instead of random bytes.

\u0017q\u001az vX\u0002py\u001ccۨE\u0015    => ugly
96e5a017711a7a20765802b78                  => nice

How

For this I first tried record member derivation overriding as described in the ppx_deriving_yojson deriving plugin.

This is the code below :

let tohex byte = 
  `String (Cryptokit.transform_string (Cryptokit.Hexa.encode ()) byte)

let fromhex hex = match hex with 
  | `String h -> Ok (Cryptokit.transform_string (Cryptokit.Hexa.decode ()) h)
  | _         -> Error ("error")

type otp = { 
  secret  : string [@to_yojson tohex][@of_yojson fromhex];
  date    : string; 
} [@@deriving yojson] 

let input = {|{"secret":"4162436445664768496a4b6c4d6e4f70","date":"01/01/2025"}|}
let otp = match (otp_of_yojson (Yojson.Safe.from_string input)) with 
  | Ok o -> o 
  | Error e -> print_endline e;{secret="unknown"; date="1/1/1970"} 
let () = Printf.printf "%s\n" (Yojson.Safe.to_string (otp_to_yojson otp))
let () = Printf.printf " \"secret\":%s\n" (otp.secret)

output :

{"secret":"4162436445664768496a4b6c4d6e4f70","date":"01/01/2025"}
 "secret":AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOp

OK but…

the documentation invites us to move from ppx_deriving_yojson to ppx_yojson_conv in its introduction. So I want to use that modern (?) plugin instead, and also because that’s the one I use for other parts of this piece of code (which has been removed in this post). I initially thought one could specialize record member serialization/deserialization functions as in the ppx_deriving_yojson plugin but it seams we cannot. At least this is not mentioned in the documentation and all my attempts to do so failed so far.

Question

Is it possible to override record member’s serialization/deserialization functions using the ppx_yojson_conv plugin, as in its father’s plugin ?

If this is not possible, what are my options ?

2

So far, the workaround I have found is aliasing the member’s type and provide the conversion functions. But it is not a property of the ppx_yojson_conv plugin.

type sec = string (* type aliasing *)

let sec_of_yojson s = match s with 
  | `String h -> Cryptokit.transform_string (Cryptokit.Hexa.decode ()) h
  | _         -> "none"

let yojson_of_sec s = `String (Cryptokit.transform_string (Cryptokit.Hexa.encode()) s) 

type otp = { 
  secret  : sec; 
  date    : string; 
} [@@deriving yojson] 

let input = {|{"secret":"4162436445664768496a4b6c4d6e4f70","date":"01/01/2025"}|}
let otp = otp_of_yojson (Yojson.Safe.from_string input)  
let () = Printf.printf "%s\n" (Yojson.Safe.to_string (yojson_of_otp otp))
let () = Printf.printf " \"secret\":%s\n" (otp.secret)
3

I think the approach of defining a custom type is the most idiomatic one.
It may be slightly more safe to have something like

module Sec : sig
  type t [@@deriving yojson]
  val of_string : string -> t
  val to_string : t -> string
end

just to prevent accidental type conversion, and maybe provide extra documentation around the intentions you have with the type

1 Like
4

Personally, I find ppx_deriving_yojson perfectly fine to use. I’m not sure what “technical foundation” that note in the README is referring to, but nowadays ppx_deriving_yojson is built on ppxlib directly (Port to ppxlib registration and attributes by sim642 · Pull Request #149 · ocaml-ppx/ppx_deriving_yojson · GitHub), just like ppx_yojson_conv.
It’s a reasonable choice if you don’t want to drag in a bunch of the Jane Street ecosystem.

2 Likes
5

No, ppx_yojson_conv doesn’t support per-field custom (de)serialization. Use ppx_deriving_yojson instead, or write a wrapper type with manual conversion logic.