borsh

What is borsh?

The borsh npm package is a JavaScript implementation of the Binary Object Representation Serializer for Hashing (BORSH) serialization format. It is used to serialize and deserialize complex data structures in a compact binary format, which is particularly useful in blockchain and other performance-critical applications.

What are borsh's main functionalities?

Serialization

This feature allows you to serialize JavaScript objects into a binary format. The code sample demonstrates how to define a schema for a class and serialize an instance of that class.

const borsh = require('borsh');

class Greeting {
  constructor({ message }) {
    this.message = message;
  }
}

const schema = new Map([
  [Greeting, { kind: 'struct', fields: [['message', 'string']] }]
]);

const greeting = new Greeting({ message: 'Hello, world!' });
const serialized = borsh.serialize(schema, greeting);
console.log(serialized);

Deserialization

This feature allows you to deserialize binary data back into JavaScript objects. The code sample shows how to deserialize a binary array into an instance of a class using a predefined schema.

const borsh = require('borsh');

class Greeting {
  constructor({ message }) {
    this.message = message;
  }
}

const schema = new Map([
  [Greeting, { kind: 'struct', fields: [['message', 'string']] }]
]);

const serialized = new Uint8Array([10, 0, 0, 0, 72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 44, 32, 119, 111, 114, 108, 100, 33]);
const deserialized = borsh.deserialize(schema, Greeting, serialized);
console.log(deserialized);

Other packages similar to borsh

protobufjs

protobufjs is a JavaScript implementation of Protocol Buffers, a language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data. It is similar to borsh in that it provides efficient serialization and deserialization of complex data structures, but it uses a different format and is more widely adopted in various industries.

msgpack-lite

msgpack-lite is a JavaScript implementation of the MessagePack serialization format. Like borsh, it provides a compact binary format for serializing and deserializing data. However, MessagePack is a more general-purpose format and is used in a variety of applications beyond blockchain.

avsc

avsc is a JavaScript library for working with Avro, a data serialization system. Avro is similar to borsh in that it provides a compact binary format for data serialization, but it also includes features for schema evolution and is widely used in big data applications.

README

Borsh JS

Borsh JS is an implementation of the Borsh binary serialization format for JavaScript and TypeScript projects.

Borsh stands for Binary Object Representation Serializer for Hashing. It is meant to be used in security-critical projects as it prioritizes consistency, safety, speed, and comes with a strict specification.

Examples

Serializing an object

const value = new Test({ x: 255, y: 20, z: '123', q: [1, 2, 3] });
const schema = new Map([[Test, { kind: 'struct', fields: [['x', 'u8'], ['y', 'u64'], ['z', 'string'], ['q', [3]]] }]]);
const buffer = borsh.serialize(schema, value);

Deserializing an object

const newValue = borsh.deserialize(schema, Test, buffer);

Type Mappings

Borsh	TypeScript
u8 integer	number
u16 integer	number
u32 integer	number
u64 integer	BN
u128 integer	BN
u256 integer	BN
u512 integer	BN
f32 float	N/A
f64 float	N/A
fixed-size byte array	Uint8Array
UTF-8 string	string
option	null or type
map	N/A
set	N/A
structs	any

Contributing

Install dependencies:

yarn install

Continuously build with:

yarn dev

Run tests:

yarn test

Run linter

yarn lint

Publish

Prepare dist version by running:

yarn build

When publishing to npm use np.

License

This repository is distributed under the terms of both the MIT license and the Apache License (Version 2.0). See LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-APACHE for details.