Operation Modes

Operation modes are a relatively unique concept to the dogs serialization library. They are used to provide different ways of consuming the auto-generated structure definitions.

All converters must implement resolveOperationMode. This function is used to lookup converter specific operation modes, like the NativeSerializerMode.

To make handling the operation modes more intuitive, the OperationMapMixin<T> is provided. It is used to provide a lookup table for operation modes.

OperationMapMixin getter of the DateTimeConverter

@override
Map<Type, OperationMode<DateTime> Function()> get modes => {
  NativeSerializerMode: () => NativeSerializerMode.create(
    serializer: (value, engine) => value.toIso8601String(),
    deserializer: (value, engine) => DateTime.parse(value)),
};

Mode Registry

Operation modes are always resolved through the engine's OperationModeRegistry. This registry serves as a central cache and mapping from converters and types to operation mode entries. Child engines will always have their independent operation mode registry.

Operation modes are always first looked up in the registry. For misses, the registry will first try to resolve the operation mode through the converter itself. If the converter does not provide the requested operation mode, the registry will try to infer the operation mode using the OperationModeFactorys registered in the current engine instance.

Examples

NativeSerializerMode

The native operation mode is the most basic operation mode. It is used to serialize and deserialize objects to and from dart maps that can be directly serialized to JSON. Most of the dogs library is built around this operation mode.

ValidationMode

The validation operation mode is used to validate objects. It is used by the @validate annotation and can be used to validate objects before they are serialized, or to validate objects that have been deserialized.