Serializability

Why must task and workflow parameters and return values be serializable?

• when a client dispatches a task/workflow, it serializes parameters before sending them (along with class name and method name)
• when a service worker receives a task to execute, it deserializes those parameters
• when a workflow worker uses a task output in a workflow, it deserializes it

Primitives (number, string, etc...) being natively serializable, this requirement must be checked only for objects contained in task parameters or return values.

Checking Serializability In Java

For Java, Infinitic uses FasterXML/jackson to serialize/deserialize into/from JSON.

If o1 is a CarRentalCart object used in the parameters of a task (or as a return value), we should be able to run this:

import io.infinitic.serDe.java.Json;
...
ObjectMapper objectMapper = Json.getMapper();
String json = objectMapper.writeValueAsString(o1);
String o2 = objectMapper.readValue(json, o1.getClass());
assert o1.equals(o2);

It's also possible to use a custom object mapper before using an Infinitic client or starting an Infinitic worker:

import io.infinitic.serDe.java.Json;
...
// introduce a custom object mapper for current client or worker
ObjectMapper updatedMapper = Json.getMapper().configure(MapperFeature.ACCEPT_CASE_INSENSITIVE_PROPERTIES, true);
Json.setMapper(updatedMapper);

Checking Serializability In Kotlin

For Kotlin, we recommend using kotlinx-serialization-json in our models.

An easy way is to use data classes with a kotlinx.serialization.Serializable annotation. For example :

@Serializable
data class CarRentalCart(
    val cartId: String
)

If o1 is a CarRentalCart object used in the parameters of a task (or as a return value), we should be able to run this:

import io.infinitic.serDe.kotlin.json
...
val jsonData = json.encodeToString(CarRentalCart.serializer(), o1)
val o2 = json.decodeFromString(CarRentalCart.serializer(), jsonData)
require(o1 == o2)

It's also possible to use a custom object mapper before using an Infinitic client or starting an Infinitic worker:

import io.infinitic.serDe.kotlin.json
import kotlinx.serialization.json.Json
...
// introduce a custom object mapper for current client or worker
json = Json {
  classDiscriminator = "#klass"
  ignoreUnknownKeys = true
}