Loading a pseudo-class instance from JSON

Question

Is there a better way to do this?

function Person(name)
{
    this._type='Person';
    this.name=name;

    this.hello = function(){
        alert('Hello '+this.name);
    };
}

function object_to_instance(key, value)
{
    if (!value.hasOwnProperty('_type'))
        return value;

    var obj= eval('new '+value._type+'()');

    for (var property in value)
        obj[property]=value[property];
    return obj;
}

var people = [new Person('Harry'), new Person('Sally')];

var people_json = JSON.stringify(people);

var new_people = JSON.parse(people_json, object_to_instance);
new_people[0].hello();

instead of eval you could do: var obj = new window[value._type](value.name); (I think you could at least; I don't use classes in js). — Bill Barry
– Bill Barry, Commented May 5, 2012 at 1:32

Matt Ball · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-05 04:09:04Z

Instead of eval, you could create a Person constructor that accepts an object:

function Person(arg)
{
    if (typeof arg === 'string')
    {
        var name = arg;
        this._type='Person';
        this.name=name;
    }
    else if (typeof arg === 'object')
    {
        var value = arg;
        for (var prop in value)
        {
            if (value.hasOwnProperty(prop))
            {
                this[prop] = value[prop];
            }
        }
    }
}

// Move Person.hello() into the prototype
Person.prototype.hello = function()
{
    alert('Hello '+this.name);
};

Then use the _type to choose a constructor based on a predefined set of classes, rather than a (potentially) unsafe eval:

var classes =
{
    Person: Person
    /* other potential classes to deserialize from here as well */
};

function object_to_instance(key, value)
{
    if (!value._type) return value;
    return new classes[value._type](value);
}

var people = [new Person('Harry'), new Person('Sally')];
var people_json = JSON.stringify(people);
var new_people = JSON.parse(people_json, object_to_instance);
new_people[0].hello();

Basic demo: http://jsfiddle.net/mattball/VfRJn
Using multiple classes: http://jsfiddle.net/mattball/VfwRv

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