term_to_json - Convert (m)any terms to JSON

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TermToJson - Convert Elixir Terms to Human-Readable JSON

Hi everyone! I’d like to share a small library that helps serialize Elixir terms to JSON while preserving their structure and types.

Do not use with untrusted input!

What does it do?

TermToJson converts Elixir data types like structs, tuples, and atoms to JSON and back. It’s particularly useful when you need to:

  • Store Elixir terms in databases or log files while keeping them human-readable
  • Make your serialized data queryable by external tools
  • Preserve type information when serializing complex structures

Quick Examples

# Structs work out of the box
uri = URI.parse("https://elixir-lang.org/")
json = TermToJson.encode(uri)
TermToJson.decode(json)  # Returns the original URI struct

# Tuples are preserved
TermToJson.encode({:ok, ~U[2022-01-11 12:00:12Z]})
# => ["__tuple__",":ok","2022-01-11T12:00:12Z"]

# Regex
TermToJson.encode(~r/foo/uiU)
# => ["__regex__","foo",[":ungreedy",":caseless",":unicode",":ucp"]]

Key Features

  • Built on top of Erlang’s native :json module
  • Handles structs, atoms, DateTime and other types
  • Readable JSON output
  • No dependencies

Links

4 Likes
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Interesting, thanks for working on this. Actually, by coincidence, half an hour ago I asked this related question:

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Interesting! You should be able to use my library, or (assuming you are using the LangChain library) add a Jason.Encoder impl for %LangChain{}. Either can be stored in the Postgres JSON type.

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