EJSON

EJSON is an extension of JSON to support more types. It supports all JSON-safe types, as well as:

• Date (JavaScript Date)
• Binary (JavaScript Uint8Array or the result of EJSON.newBinary)
• Special numbers (JavaScript NaN, Infinity, and -Infinity)
• Regular expressions (JavaScript RegExp)
• User-defined types (see EJSON.addType. For example, Mongo.ObjectID is implemented this way.)

All EJSON serializations are also valid JSON. For example an object with a date and a binary buffer would be serialized in EJSON as:

{
  "d": { "$date": 1358205756553 },
  "b": { "$binary": "c3VyZS4=" }
}

Meteor supports all built-in EJSON data types in publishers, method arguments and results, Mongo databases, and Session variables.

import { EJSON } from "meteor/ejson";

EJSON.stringify(
  { num: 42, someProp: "foo" },
  options // this param is optional
);

Buffers of binary data are represented by Uint8Array instances on JavaScript platforms that support them. On implementations of JavaScript that do not support Uint8Array, binary data buffers are represented by standard arrays containing numbers ranging from 0 to 255, and the $Uint8ArrayPolyfill key set to true.

The factory function passed to the EJSON.addType method should create an instance of our custom type and initialize it with values from an object passed as the first argument of the factory function. Here is an example:

class Distance {
  constructor(value, unit) {
    this.value = value;
    this.unit = unit;
  }

  // Convert our type to JSON.
  toJSONValue() {
    return {
      value: this.value,
      unit: this.unit,
    };
  }

  // Unique type name.
  typeName() {
    return "Distance";
  }
}

EJSON.addType("Distance", function fromJSONValue(json) {
  return new Distance(json.value, json.unit);
});

EJSON.stringify(new Distance(10, "m"));
// Returns '{"$type":"Distance","$value":{"value":10,"unit":"m"}}'

When you add a type to EJSON, Meteor will be able to use that type in:

• publishing objects of your type if you pass them to publish handlers.
• allowing your type in the return values or arguments to methods.
• storing your type client-side in Minimongo.
• allowing your type in Session variables.

Instances of your type must implement typeName and toJSONValue methods, and may implement clone and equals methods if the default implementations are not sufficient.

For example, the toJSONValue method for Mongo.ObjectID could be:

function () {
  return this.toHexString();
}

If your type does not have a clone method, EJSON.clone will use toJSONValue and the factory instead.

The equals method should define an equivalence relation. It should have the following properties:

• Reflexivity - for any instance a: a.equals(a) must be true.
• Symmetry - for any two instances a and b: a.equals(b) if and only if b.equals(a).
• Transitivity - for any three instances a, b, and c: a.equals(b) and b.equals(c) implies a.equals(c).

If your type does not have an equals method, EJSON.equals will compare the result of calling toJSONValue instead.