bevy/crates/bevy_reflect/Cargo.toml
Gino Valente 90bb1adeb2
bevy_reflect: Contextual serialization error messages (#13888)
# Objective

Reflection serialization can be difficult to debug. A lot of times a
type fails to be serialized and the user is left wondering where that
type came from.

This is most often encountered with Bevy's scenes. Attempting to
serialize all resources in the world will fail because some resources
can't be serialized.

For example, users will often get complaints about `bevy_utils::Instant`
not registering `ReflectSerialize`. Well, `Instant` can't be serialized,
so the only other option is to exclude the resource that contains it.
But what resource contains it? This is where reflection serialization
can get a little tricky (it's `Time<Real>` btw).

## Solution

Add the `debug_stack` feature to `bevy_reflect`. When enabled, the
reflection serializers and deserializers will keep track of the current
type stack. And this stack will be used in error messages to help with
debugging.

Now, if we unknowingly try to serialize `Time<Real>`, we'll get the
following error:

```
type `bevy_utils::Instant` did not register the `ReflectSerialize` type data. For certain types, this may need to be registered manually using `register_type_data` (stack: `bevy_time::time::Time<bevy_time::real::Real>` -> `bevy_time::real::Real` -> `bevy_utils::Instant`)
```

### Implementation

This makes use of `thread_local!` to manage an internal `TypeInfoStack`
which holds a stack of `&'static TypeInfo`. We push to the stack before
a type is (de)serialized and pop from the stack afterwards.

Using a thread-local should be fine since we know two (de)serializers
can't be running at the same time (and if they're running on separate
threads, then we're still good).

The only potential issue would be if a user went through one of the
sub-serializers, like `StructSerializer`. However, I don't think many
users are going through these types (I don't even know if we necessarily
want to keep those public either, but we'll save that for a different
PR). Additionally, this is just a debug feature that only affects error
messages, so it wouldn't have any drastically negative effect. It would
just result in the stack not being cleared properly if there were any
errors.

Lastly, this is not the most performant implementation since we now
fetch the `TypeInfo` an extra time. But I figured that for a debug tool,
it wouldn't matter too much.

### Feature

This also adds a `debug` feature, which enables the `debug_stack`
feature.

I added it because I think we may want to potentially add more debug
tools in the future, and this gives us a good framework for adding
those. Users who want all debug features, present and future, can just
set `debug`. If they only want this feature, then they can just use
`debug_stack`.

I also made the `debug` feature default to help capture the widest
audience (i.e. the users who want this feature but don't know they do).
However, if we think it's better as a non-default feature, I can change
it!

And if there's any bikeshedding around the name `debug_stack`, let me
know!

## Testing

Run the following command:

```
cargo test --package bevy_reflect --features debug_stack
```

---

## Changelog

- Added the `debug` and `debug_stack` features to `bevy_reflect`
- Updated the error messages returned by the reflection serializers and
deserializers to include more contextual information when the
`debug_stack` or `debug` feature is enabled
2024-09-09 17:52:40 +00:00

65 lines
1.9 KiB
TOML

[package]
name = "bevy_reflect"
version = "0.15.0-dev"
edition = "2021"
description = "Dynamically interact with rust types"
homepage = "https://bevyengine.org"
repository = "https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy"
license = "MIT OR Apache-2.0"
keywords = ["bevy"]
rust-version = "1.76.0"
[features]
default = ["smallvec", "debug"]
# When enabled, provides Bevy-related reflection implementations
bevy = ["smallvec", "smol_str"]
glam = ["dep:glam"]
petgraph = ["dep:petgraph"]
smallvec = ["dep:smallvec"]
uuid = ["dep:uuid"]
# Enables features useful for debugging reflection
debug = ["debug_stack"]
# When enabled, keeps track of the current serialization/deserialization context for better error messages
debug_stack = []
# When enabled, allows documentation comments to be accessed via reflection
documentation = ["bevy_reflect_derive/documentation"]
# Enables function reflection
functions = ["bevy_reflect_derive/functions"]
[dependencies]
# bevy
bevy_reflect_derive = { path = "derive", version = "0.15.0-dev" }
bevy_utils = { path = "../bevy_utils", version = "0.15.0-dev" }
bevy_ptr = { path = "../bevy_ptr", version = "0.15.0-dev" }
# other
erased-serde = "0.4"
downcast-rs = "1.2"
thiserror = "1.0"
serde = "1"
smallvec = { version = "1.11", optional = true }
glam = { version = "0.28", features = ["serde"], optional = true }
petgraph = { version = "0.6", features = ["serde-1"], optional = true }
smol_str = { version = "0.2.0", features = ["serde"], optional = true }
uuid = { version = "1.0", optional = true, features = ["v4", "serde"] }
[dev-dependencies]
ron = "0.8.0"
rmp-serde = "1.1"
bincode = "1.3"
serde_json = "1.0"
serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
static_assertions = "1.1.0"
[[example]]
name = "reflect_docs"
path = "examples/reflect_docs.rs"
required-features = ["documentation"]
[lints]
workspace = true
[package.metadata.docs.rs]
rustdoc-args = ["-Zunstable-options", "--generate-link-to-definition"]
all-features = true