Serialization Package

Flexible, type-safe serialization/deserialization with validation support for GoDoxy configuration.

Overview

Purpose

This package provides robust YAML/JSON serialization with:

• Case-insensitive field matching using FNV-1a hashing
• Environment variable substitution (${VAR} syntax)
• Field-level validation with go-playground/validator tags
• Custom type conversion with pluggable format handlers

Primary Consumers

• internal/config/ - Configuration file loading
• internal/autocert/ - ACME provider configuration
• internal/route/ - Route configuration

Non-goals

• Binary serialization (MsgPack, etc.)
• Schema evolution/migration
• Partial deserialization (unknown fields error)

Stability

Internal package with stable public APIs. Exported functions are production-ready.

Public API

Core Types

// Intermediate representation during deserialization
type SerializedObject = map[string]any

Interfaces

// For custom map unmarshaling logic
type MapUnmarshaller interface {
    UnmarshalMap(m map[string]any) error
}

// For custom validation logic
type CustomValidator interface {
    Validate() error
}

Deserialization Functions

// Generic unmarshal with pluggable format handler
func UnmarshalValidate[T any](data []byte, target *T, unmarshaler unmarshalFunc, interceptFns ...interceptFunc) error

// Read from io.Reader with format decoder
func UnmarshalValidateReader[T any](reader io.Reader, target *T, newDecoder newDecoderFunc, interceptFns ...interceptFunc) error

// Direct map deserialization
func MapUnmarshalValidate(src SerializedObject, dst any) error

// To xsync.Map with pluggable format handler
func UnmarshalValidateXSync[V any](data []byte, unmarshaler unmarshalFunc, interceptFns ...interceptFunc) (*xsync.Map[string, V], error)

File I/O Functions

// Write marshaled data to file
func SaveFile[T any](path string, src *T, perm os.FileMode, marshaler marshalFunc) error

// Read and unmarshal file if it exists
func LoadFileIfExist[T any](path string, dst *T, unmarshaler unmarshalFunc) error

Conversion Functions

// Convert any value to target reflect.Value
func Convert(src reflect.Value, dst reflect.Value, checkValidateTag bool) error

// String to target type conversion
func ConvertString(src string, dst reflect.Value) (convertible bool, convErr error)

Validation Functions

// Validate using struct tags
func ValidateWithFieldTags(s any) error

// Register custom validator
func MustRegisterValidation(tag string, fn validator.Func)

// Validate using CustomValidator interface
func ValidateWithCustomValidator(v reflect.Value) error

// Get underlying validator
func Validator() *validator.Validate

Utility Functions

// Register default value factory
func RegisterDefaultValueFactory[T any](factory func() *T)

// Convert map to SerializedObject
func ToSerializedObject[VT any](m map[string]VT) SerializedObject

Architecture

Data Flow

Component Interactions

Field Tag Reference

Tag	Purpose	Example
json	Field name for serialization	json:"auth_token"
deserialize	Exclude field from deserialization	deserialize:"-"
validate	go-playground/validator tags	validate:"required,email"
aliases	Alternative field names	aliases:"key,api_key"

Configuration Surface

Supported Field Types

• Primitives (string, int, bool, float)
• Pointers to primitives
• Slices of primitives
• Maps with string keys
• Nested structs
• Time.Duration (with extended units: d, w, M)

Environment Variable Substitution

autocert:
  auth_token: ${CLOUDFLARE_AUTH_TOKEN}
  # Lookup order: GODOXY_VAR, GOPROXY_VAR, VAR

String Conversion Formats

Type	Format Examples
Duration	1h30m, 2d, 1w, 3M
Numeric	123, 0xFF, -42
Slice	a,b,c or YAML list format
Map/Struct	YAML key: value format

Dependency and Integration Map

External Dependencies

• github.com/goccy/go-yaml - YAML parsing
• github.com/go-playground/validator/v10 - Validation
• github.com/puzpuzpuz/xsync/v4 - Type cache
• github.com/bytedance/sonic - JSON operations

Internal Dependencies

• github.com/yusing/goutils/errs - Error handling
• github.com/yusing/gointernals - Reflection utilities

Observability

Errors

All errors use gperr with structured subjects:

ErrUnknownField.Subject("field_name").With(gperr.DoYouMeanField("field_name", ["fieldName"]))
ErrValidationError.Subject("Namespace").Withf("required")
ErrUnsupportedConversion.Subjectf("string to int")

Performance Characteristics

Operation	Complexity	Notes
Type info lookup	O(1)	Cached in xsync.Map
Field matching	O(1)	FNV-1a hash lookup
Conversion	O(n)	n = number of fields
Validation	O(n)	n = number of validatable fields

Failure Modes and Recovery

Failure Mode	Result	Recovery
Unknown field	Error with suggestions	Fix config field name
Validation failure	Structured error	Fix field value
Type mismatch	Error	Check field type
Missing env var	Error	Set environment variable
Invalid format	Error	Fix YAML/JSON syntax

Usage Examples

YAML Deserialization

type ServerConfig struct {
    Host        string `json:"host" validate:"required,hostname_port"`
    Port        int    `json:"port" validate:"required,min=1,max=65535"`
    MaxConns    int    `json:"max_conns"`
    TLSEnabled  bool   `json:"tls_enabled"`
}

yamlData := []byte(`
host: localhost
port: 8080
max_conns: 100
tls_enabled: true
`)

var config ServerConfig
if err := serialization.UnmarshalValidate(yamlData, &config, yaml.Unmarshal); err != nil {
    panic(err)
}

JSON Deserialization

var config ServerConfig
if err := serialization.UnmarshalValidate(jsonData, &config, json.Unmarshal); err != nil {
    panic(err)
}

Custom Validator

type Config struct {
    URL string `json:"url" validate:"required"`
}

func (c *Config) Validate() error {
    if !strings.HasPrefix(c.URL, "https://") {
        return errors.New("url must use https")
    }
    return nil
}

Custom Type with Parser Interface

type Duration struct {
    Value int
    Unit  string
}

func (d *Duration) Parse(v string) error {
    // custom parsing logic
    return nil
}

Reading from File

var config ServerConfig
if err := serialization.LoadFileIfExist("config.yml", &config, yaml.Unmarshal); err != nil {
    panic(err)
}

// Save back to file
if err := serialization.SaveFile("config.yml", &config, 0644, yaml.Marshal); err != nil {
    panic(err)
}

Reading from io.Reader

var config ServerConfig
file, _ := os.Open("config.yml")
defer file.Close()
if err := serialization.UnmarshalValidateReader(file, &config, yaml.NewDecoder); err != nil {
    panic(err)
}

Testing Notes

• serialization_test.go - Core functionality tests
• validation_*_test.go - Tag validation tests
• Golden files for complex configurations
• Tests cover:
  • Case-insensitive field matching
  • Anonymous struct handling
  • Pointer primitives
  • String conversions
  • Environment substitution
  • Custom validators
  • Multiple format handlers (YAML/JSON)