bevy/crates
Gino Valente d30d3e752a bevy_reflect: Improve serialization format even more (#5723)
> Note: This is rebased off #4561 and can be viewed as a competitor to that PR. See `Comparison with #4561` section for details.

# Objective

The current serialization format used by `bevy_reflect` is both verbose and error-prone. Taking the following structs[^1] for example:

```rust
// -- src/inventory.rs

#[derive(Reflect)]
struct Inventory {
  id: String,
  max_storage: usize,
  items: Vec<Item>
}

#[derive(Reflect)]
struct Item {
  name: String
}
```

Given an inventory of a single item, this would serialize to something like:

```rust
// -- assets/inventory.ron

{
  "type": "my_game::inventory::Inventory",
  "struct": {
    "id": {
      "type": "alloc::string::String",
      "value": "inv001",
    },
    "max_storage": {
      "type": "usize",
      "value": 10
    },
    "items": {
      "type": "alloc::vec::Vec<alloc::string::String>",
      "list": [
        {
          "type": "my_game::inventory::Item",
          "struct": {
            "name": {
              "type": "alloc::string::String",
              "value": "Pickaxe"
            },
          },
        },
      ],
    },
  },
}
```

Aside from being really long and difficult to read, it also has a few "gotchas" that users need to be aware of if they want to edit the file manually. A major one is the requirement that you use the proper keys for a given type. For structs, you need `"struct"`. For lists, `"list"`. For tuple structs, `"tuple_struct"`. And so on.

It also ***requires*** that the `"type"` entry come before the actual data. Despite being a map— which in programming is almost always orderless by default— the entries need to be in a particular order. Failure to follow the ordering convention results in a failure to deserialize the data.

This makes it very prone to errors and annoyances.


## Solution

Using #4042, we can remove a lot of the boilerplate and metadata needed by this older system. Since we now have static access to type information, we can simplify our serialized data to look like:

```rust
// -- assets/inventory.ron

{
  "my_game::inventory::Inventory": (
    id: "inv001",
    max_storage: 10,
    items: [
      (
        name: "Pickaxe"
      ),
    ],
  ),
}
```

This is much more digestible and a lot less error-prone (no more key requirements and no more extra type names).

Additionally, it is a lot more familiar to users as it follows conventional serde mechanics. For example, the struct is represented with `(...)` when serialized to RON.

#### Custom Serialization

Additionally, this PR adds the opt-in ability to specify a custom serde implementation to be used rather than the one created via reflection. For example[^1]:

```rust
// -- src/inventory.rs

#[derive(Reflect, Serialize)]
#[reflect(Serialize)]
struct Item {
  #[serde(alias = "id")]
  name: String
}
```

```rust
// -- assets/inventory.ron

{
  "my_game::inventory::Inventory": (
    id: "inv001",
    max_storage: 10,
    items: [
      (
        id: "Pickaxe"
      ),
    ],
  ),
},
```

By allowing users to define their own serialization methods, we do two things:

1. We give more control over how data is serialized/deserialized to the end user
2. We avoid having to re-define serde's attributes and forcing users to apply both (e.g. we don't need a `#[reflect(alias)]` attribute).

### Improved Formats

One of the improvements this PR provides is the ability to represent data in ways that are more conventional and/or familiar to users. Many users are familiar with RON so here are some of the ways we can now represent data in RON:

###### Structs

```js
{
  "my_crate::Foo": (
    bar: 123
  )
}
// OR
{
  "my_crate::Foo": Foo(
    bar: 123
  )
}
```

<details>
<summary>Old Format</summary>

```js
{
  "type": "my_crate::Foo",
  "struct": {
    "bar": {
      "type": "usize",
      "value": 123
    }
  }
}
```

</details>

###### Tuples

```js
{
  "(f32, f32)": (1.0, 2.0)
}
```

<details>
<summary>Old Format</summary>

```js
{
  "type": "(f32, f32)",
  "tuple": [
    {
      "type": "f32",
      "value": 1.0
    },
    {
      "type": "f32",
      "value": 2.0
    }
  ]
}
```

</details>

###### Tuple Structs

```js
{
  "my_crate::Bar": ("Hello World!")
}
// OR
{
  "my_crate::Bar": Bar("Hello World!")
}
```

<details>
<summary>Old Format</summary>

```js
{
  "type": "my_crate::Bar",
  "tuple_struct": [
    {
      "type": "alloc::string::String",
      "value": "Hello World!"
    }
  ]
}
```

</details>

###### Arrays

It may be a bit surprising to some, but arrays now also use the tuple format. This is because they essentially _are_ tuples (a sequence of values with a fixed size), but only allow for homogenous types. Additionally, this is how RON handles them and is probably a result of the 32-capacity limit imposed on them (both by [serde](https://docs.rs/serde/latest/serde/trait.Serialize.html#impl-Serialize-for-%5BT%3B%2032%5D) and by [bevy_reflect](https://docs.rs/bevy/latest/bevy/reflect/trait.GetTypeRegistration.html#impl-GetTypeRegistration-for-%5BT%3B%2032%5D)).

```js
{
  "[i32; 3]": (1, 2, 3)
}
```

<details>
<summary>Old Format</summary>

```js
{
  "type": "[i32; 3]",
  "array": [
    {
      "type": "i32",
      "value": 1
    },
    {
      "type": "i32",
      "value": 2
    },
    {
      "type": "i32",
      "value": 3
    }
  ]
}
```

</details>

###### Enums

To make things simple, I'll just put a struct variant here, but the style applies to all variant types:

```js
{
  "my_crate::ItemType": Consumable(
    name: "Healing potion"
  )
}
```

<details>
<summary>Old Format</summary>

```js
{
  "type": "my_crate::ItemType",
  "enum": {
    "variant": "Consumable",
    "struct": {
      "name": {
        "type": "alloc::string::String",
        "value": "Healing potion"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

</details>

### Comparison with #4561

This PR is a rebased version of #4561. The reason for the split between the two is because this PR creates a _very_ different scene format. You may notice that the PR descriptions for either PR are pretty similar. This was done to better convey the changes depending on which (if any) gets merged first. If #4561 makes it in first, I will update this PR description accordingly.

---

## Changelog

* Re-worked serialization/deserialization for reflected types
* Added `TypedReflectDeserializer` for deserializing data with known `TypeInfo`
* Renamed `ReflectDeserializer` to `UntypedReflectDeserializer` 
* ~~Replaced usages of `deserialize_any` with `deserialize_map` for non-self-describing formats~~ Reverted this change since there are still some issues that need to be sorted out (in a separate PR). By reverting this, crates like `bincode` can throw an error when attempting to deserialize non-self-describing formats (`bincode` results in `DeserializeAnyNotSupported`)
* Structs, tuples, tuple structs, arrays, and enums are now all de/serialized using conventional serde methods

## Migration Guide

* This PR reduces the verbosity of the scene format. Scenes will need to be updated accordingly:

```js
// Old format
{
  "type": "my_game::item::Item",
  "struct": {
    "id": {
      "type": "alloc::string::String",
      "value": "bevycraft:stone",
    },
    "tags": {
      "type": "alloc::vec::Vec<alloc::string::String>",
      "list": [
        {
          "type": "alloc::string::String",
          "value": "material"
        },
      ],
    },
}

// New format
{
  "my_game::item::Item": (
    id: "bevycraft:stone",
    tags: ["material"]
  )
}
```

[^1]: Some derives omitted for brevity.
2022-09-20 19:38:18 +00:00
..
bevy_animation Bump Version after Release (#5576) 2022-08-05 02:03:05 +00:00
bevy_app Remove unused dependency from bevy_app (#5894) 2022-09-06 15:06:18 +00:00
bevy_asset Remove AssetServer::watch_for_changes() (#5968) 2022-09-19 16:36:38 +00:00
bevy_audio Update rodio requirement from 0.15 to 0.16 (#6020) 2022-09-19 13:56:56 +00:00
bevy_core Swap out num_cpus for std:🧵:available_parallelism (#4970) 2022-09-19 15:46:03 +00:00
bevy_core_pipeline Implement IntoIterator for &Extract<P> (#6025) 2022-09-20 00:29:10 +00:00
bevy_derive Bump Version after Release (#5576) 2022-08-05 02:03:05 +00:00
bevy_diagnostic Make Resource trait opt-in, requiring #[derive(Resource)] V2 (#5577) 2022-08-08 21:36:35 +00:00
bevy_dylib Bump Version after Release (#5576) 2022-08-05 02:03:05 +00:00
bevy_dynamic_plugin Bump Version after Release (#5576) 2022-08-05 02:03:05 +00:00
bevy_ecs Query filter types must be ReadOnlyWorldQuery (#6008) 2022-09-18 23:52:01 +00:00
bevy_ecs_compile_fail_tests Make Resource trait opt-in, requiring #[derive(Resource)] V2 (#5577) 2022-08-08 21:36:35 +00:00
bevy_encase_derive Bump Version after Release (#5576) 2022-08-05 02:03:05 +00:00
bevy_gilrs Bump Version after Release (#5576) 2022-08-05 02:03:05 +00:00
bevy_gltf Add associated constant IDENTITY to Transform and friends. (#5340) 2022-08-30 22:10:24 +00:00
bevy_hierarchy Add warning when a hierarchy component is missing (#5590) 2022-09-19 16:12:11 +00:00
bevy_input Derived Copy trait for bevy_input events, Serialize/Deserialize for events in bevy_input and bevy_windows, PartialEq for events in both, and Eq where possible in both. (#6023) 2022-09-20 18:24:00 +00:00
bevy_internal Derived Copy trait for bevy_input events, Serialize/Deserialize for events in bevy_input and bevy_windows, PartialEq for events in both, and Eq where possible in both. (#6023) 2022-09-20 18:24:00 +00:00
bevy_log Make Resource trait opt-in, requiring #[derive(Resource)] V2 (#5577) 2022-08-08 21:36:35 +00:00
bevy_macro_utils Bump Version after Release (#5576) 2022-08-05 02:03:05 +00:00
bevy_math Expose mint feature in bevy_math/glam (#5857) 2022-09-03 03:02:04 +00:00
bevy_mikktspace Bump Version after Release (#5576) 2022-08-05 02:03:05 +00:00
bevy_pbr Implement IntoIterator for &Extract<P> (#6025) 2022-09-20 00:29:10 +00:00
bevy_ptr Bump Version after Release (#5576) 2022-08-05 02:03:05 +00:00
bevy_reflect bevy_reflect: Improve serialization format even more (#5723) 2022-09-20 19:38:18 +00:00
bevy_render Implement IntoIterator for &Extract<P> (#6025) 2022-09-20 00:29:10 +00:00
bevy_scene bevy_reflect: Improve serialization format even more (#5723) 2022-09-20 19:38:18 +00:00
bevy_sprite Implement IntoIterator for &Extract<P> (#6025) 2022-09-20 00:29:10 +00:00
bevy_tasks Swap out num_cpus for std:🧵:available_parallelism (#4970) 2022-09-19 15:46:03 +00:00
bevy_text Register missing bevy_text types (#6029) 2022-09-19 22:50:35 +00:00
bevy_time Clarify that Stopwatch.reset does not affect paused state (#6016) 2022-09-18 23:36:05 +00:00
bevy_transform Add warning when a hierarchy component is missing (#5590) 2022-09-19 16:12:11 +00:00
bevy_ui Implement IntoIterator for &Extract<P> (#6025) 2022-09-20 00:29:10 +00:00
bevy_utils Remove Sync bound from Local (#5483) 2022-09-12 04:15:55 +00:00
bevy_window Derived Copy trait for bevy_input events, Serialize/Deserialize for events in bevy_input and bevy_windows, PartialEq for events in both, and Eq where possible in both. (#6023) 2022-09-20 18:24:00 +00:00
bevy_winit disable window pre creation for ios (#5883) 2022-09-06 15:06:17 +00:00