How to Handle JSON Serialization/Deserialization for Multiple Message Types in Go Websockets?

Generic JSON Serialization/Deserialization for Websockets in Go

When working with websockets, the need often arises to serialize and deserialize JSON data for communication between client and server. One common challenge is handling incoming messages of different types, such as structs with varying fields.

In this scenario, using gorilla websocket and JSON for serialization and deserialization, it can be cumbersome to explicitly specify the type for each message. The conn.ReadJSON() function requires the specific type to be provided, which is not always practical when dealing with multiple message types.

A Generic Solution Using JSON Control

A generic solution involves defining a struct that contains a control field indicating the message type. This control field allows the program to determine the specific data structure to use for deserialization.

type Messages struct {
    Control string `json:"control"`
    X       json.RawMessage
}

This Messages struct includes a Control field and an X field, which can hold any type of JSON data as a raw message.

Deserializing and Handling Messages

When receiving a message using conn.ReadJSON(), the data can be stored in the Messages struct. The Control field can then be used to determine the actual type of data stored in the X field.

var m Messages
err := c.ReadJSON(&m)
if err != nil {
    // handle error
}
switch m.Control {
case "Foo":
    var foo Foo
    if err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(m.X), &foo); err != nil {
        // handle error
    }
    // do something with foo
case "Bar":
    // follow the same pattern for the Bar struct
}

In this example, if the Control field is "Foo", the X field is deserialized into a Foo struct using json.Unmarshal(). This process can be repeated for other message types.

Benefits of this approach:

• Allows handling messages of multiple types generically.
• Simplifies the process of reading and processing messages.
• Improves code maintainability by decoupling message type handling from the communication logic.

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