observable cannot survive JSON.stringify

[lilchow]

Let's say I created this simple object:

var a={};
a.obs=blocks.observable(2);

console.log(JSON.stringify(a)) would show only an empty object, i.e. "{}";

[astoilkov]

Hi @lilchow,

Sorry for the long long wait. I actually opened the issue and then forgot to answer it. The described behavior is expected. Observable objects are functions and JSON.stringify skips functions when stringifying objects.

In order to resolve your issue you could manually extract the values in an object and then call JSON.stringify.

var observable = blocks.observable(2);
var a = {};
a.obs = observable();

[Kanaye]

You could also write a JSON.stringify replacer function, like so jsfiddle.

@astoilkov Maybe some function like this should be integrated into jsblocks?

Have a great day

[astoilkov]

Yeah. I like that idea. I am thinking of something like blocks.stringify that has a built in helper function like the one demonstrated in the jsfiddle example. What do you think?

[Kanaye]

A blocks.stringify sounds good to me.
Maybe it should stay compatible to JSON.stringify and call the replacer function after replacing the observables.

[Kanaye]

Or we implement a toJSON function which returns a string or just the plain value.
[edit:]
After playing a bit with toJSON: All browsers expect that toJSON return a 'normal' value not json (so the name is weird). If that function returns JSON it would get escaped, what's normaly not what the user wants.
[/edit]
I thought this way can't be cross browser compatible, but it works down to IE8 (I tested myself).
I think that way is better as it's not involving an function the user (or an other libary for e.g. ajax) has to call.