After a few (successful?) attempts at creating DSLs to get structured data from users, I realized that Elixir structs’ syntax fits perfectly what we’re looking for.

My idea is to allow users to type in text that’s valid Elixir for given structs (atom keys) and then read/parse that into internal data structures.

I’ve considered using Code.eval_string/3, a thin layer on Poison’s custom decoders, and building a parser combinator from scratch with NimbleParsec.

How would you suggest I proceed (and why, please)?

These are the factors I’m evaluating to choose what approach to take

• The security of the approach
• The time and effort required to implement the approach
• The work required for future maintenance and extensibility

Any help is greatly appreciated.