nativeson

Nativeson

Nativeson provides methods to generate JSON from database records faster and with a smaller memory footprint on your web server by using database-native functions.

Nativeson generates the SQL query needed to make the database directly construct a JSON string ready to be sent to your front-end.

Nativeson doesn't replace other serializers completely, given that serializers use ActiveRecord objects that you can process through some business logic before you generate JSON from them. Nativeson fits when a SQL query (WHERE/SORT/ORDER/etc.) is sufficient for constructing the needed data.

Requirements

PostgreSQL 9.2 or higher.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'nativeson'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install nativeson

Usage

Given models defined like so:

class User < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :items
  has_one :user_profile
  has_many :widgets
end

class Item < ApplicationRecord
  has_one :item_description
  has_many :item_prices
end

class UserProfile < ApplicationRecord
  has_one :user_profile_pic
end

class UserProfilePic < ApplicationRecord
end

class Widget < ApplicationRecord
  has_many :sub_widgets
end

class SubWidget < ApplicationRecord
end

you can call Nativeson as follows:

nativeson_hash = Nativeson.fetch_json_by_query_hash(
  { klass: 'User',
    where: 'created_at > CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL \'10 day\' ',
    order: 'created_at desc',
    limit: 10,
    associations: {
      items: {
        klass: 'Item',
        associations: {
          item_description: {
            klass: 'ItemDescription'
          },
          item_prices: {
            klass: 'ItemPrice'
          }
        }
      },
      user_profile: {
        klass: 'UserProfile',
        associations: {
          user_profile_pic: {
            klass: 'UserProfilePic'
          }
        }
      },
      widgets: {
        klass: 'Widget',
        associations: {
          sub_widgets: {
            klass: 'SubWidget'
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
)

where

• nativeson_hash[:query_hash] is the query hash supplied as input
• nativeson_hash[:container] is the underlying Nativeson query tree structure
• nativeson_hash[:sql] is the SQL query used to generate the JSON string
• nativeson_hash[:json] is the JSON string, ready to be sent to the front-end

Nativeson also supports two other calling interfaces:

1. Pass an ActiveRecord query object to Nativeson.fetch_json_by_rails_query. The query you're passing must respond_to?(:to_sql) by producing a String containing a SQL query.

   nativeson_hash = Nativeson.fetch_json_by_rails_query(User.where('id > ?', 1).order(:created_at => :desc))
   

2. Pass a raw SQL query string to Nativeson.fetch_json_by_string.

   nativeson_hash = Nativeson.fetch_json_by_string('select id, created_at from users limit 2')
   

   where

   • nativeson_hash[:sql] is the SQL query used to generate the JSON string
   • nativeson_hash[:json] is the JSON string, ready to be sent to the front-end

Here is a short example of the JSON output for a single User model instance with some associations and nested associations:

[{"id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:16.59672","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:16.59672","name":"ayankfjpxlfjo","email":"[e-mail]","col_int":918,"col_float":70.8228834313906,"col_string":"ygsvwobjiadfw","klass":"User","items":[{"id":1,"user_id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:16.847055","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:16.847055","name":"ayankfjpxlfjo","col_int":111,"col_float":826.58466863469,"col_string":"ehbautrrelysd","klass":"Item","item_description":[{"id":1,"item_id":1,"description":"ayankfjpxlfjo","created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.40971","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.40971","col_int":70,"col_float":586.497122020896,"col_string":"vixbltiopskxy","klass":"ItemDescription"}],"item_prices":[{"id":1,"item_id":1,"current_price":55.834605139059,"previous_price":57.4058337411023,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.514948","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.514948","klass":"ItemPrice"}]},
 {"id":2,"user_id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:16.847055","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:16.847055","name":"ayankfjpxlfjo","col_int":136,"col_float":631.548964229925,"col_string":"watxmnafzzmeu","klass":"Item","item_description":[{"id":2,"item_id":2,"description":"ayankfjpxlfjo","created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.40971","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.40971","col_int":878,"col_float":511.772295898348,"col_string":"khzoaziqopnkl","klass":"ItemDescription"}],"item_prices":[{"id":2,"item_id":2,"current_price":33.8844481909688,"previous_price":97.403522117916,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.514948","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.514948","klass":"ItemPrice"}]}],"user_profile":[{"id":1,"user_id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.204195","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.204195","name":"ayankfjpxlfjo","col_int":null,"col_float":null,"col_string":null,"klass":"UserProfile","user_profile_pic":[{"id":1,"user_profile_id":1,"image_url":"wljyqyzyxqfsn","image_width":104,"image_height":228,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.235248","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.235248","klass":"UserProfilePic"}]}],"widgets":[{"id":1,"user_id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.100901","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.100901","name":"ayankfjpxlfjo","col_int":242,"col_float":223.65750025762,"col_string":"cxaqmdnmufnvt","klass":"Widget","sub_widgets":[{"id":3,"name":"ayankfjpxlfjo_5.92774893856709","widget_id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","col_int":687,"col_float":851.650101581247,"col_string":"toozdtwuyaesn","klass":"SubWidget"},
 {"id":2,"name":"ayankfjpxlfjo_4.07599669367832","widget_id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","col_int":943,"col_float":257.325888075186,"col_string":"rscziazmauagm","klass":"SubWidget"},
 {"id":1,"name":"ayankfjpxlfjo_2.9579304830078375","widget_id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","col_int":896,"col_float":38.2691573106148,"col_string":"fmetacimdbjnv","klass":"SubWidget"}]},
 {"id":2,"user_id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.100901","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.100901","name":"ayankfjpxlfjo","col_int":956,"col_float":949.173224865556,"col_string":"oeoybsrtkjnfb","klass":"Widget","sub_widgets":[{"id":6,"name":"ayankfjpxlfjo_5.943535906853784","widget_id":2,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","col_int":601,"col_float":218.619706269916,"col_string":"qvslwrgieoidv","klass":"SubWidget"},
 {"id":5,"name":"ayankfjpxlfjo_2.003554122744414","widget_id":2,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","col_int":220,"col_float":583.631142121848,"col_string":"yerhhrsmsyydc","klass":"SubWidget"},
 {"id":4,"name":"ayankfjpxlfjo_4.047681099308994","widget_id":2,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","col_int":668,"col_float":839.024125756382,"col_string":"oegjbumatstvp","klass":"SubWidget"}]},
 {"id":3,"user_id":1,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.100901","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.100901","name":"ayankfjpxlfjo","col_int":391,"col_float":99.9364653444063,"col_string":"incqzwrenmrxh","klass":"Widget","sub_widgets":[{"id":9,"name":"ayankfjpxlfjo_0.37354840663121935","widget_id":3,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","col_int":558,"col_float":991.578355632946,"col_string":"ihqoxbanvsqfn","klass":"SubWidget"},
 {"id":8,"name":"ayankfjpxlfjo_1.8483953654699228","widget_id":3,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","col_int":21,"col_float":203.657249239792,"col_string":"khmzcemxpkvub","klass":"SubWidget"},
 {"id":7,"name":"ayankfjpxlfjo_1.1359488386694","widget_id":3,"created_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","updated_at":"2018-10-13T20:37:17.912943","col_int":335,"col_float":144.911845441697,"col_string":"gpbpeniemwpdk","klass":"SubWidget"}]}]}]

Benchmarks

We compared Nativeson to ActiveModel::Serializer as a Rails standard and to Panko, which according to https://yosiat.github.io/panko_serializer/performance.html is 5-10x as fast as AMS in microbenchmarking and ~3x as fast as AMS in an end-to-end Web page load test. It's important to note that both rely on ActiveRecord to fetch the data for them, which makes a huge difference in the benchmark comparisons to Nativeson.

In a "standard" flow, such as Panko and ActiveModel::Serializer, the lifecycle is:

1. HTTP request received
2. database query
3. ActiveRecord model object instantiation
4. Panko or ActiveModel::Serializer serialization
5. JSON response

With Nativeson the lifecycle is shorter:

1. HTTP request received
2. database query
3. JSON response

Because of the above, there are a few important items to take into account:

• Nativeson should be used when a SQL query is sufficient to retrieve/calculate all the data needed to create your response. If you need to query the database and then do complex postprocessing of the data in Ruby, then Nativeson may not fit your needs.
• We compared performance with/without the ActiveRecord database query stage. We believe this stage should be included in any decision to use one or another of these gems, because in real world use, the lifecycle will usually include it.

The fastest result for each row is shown in bold in the table below. Note that, like in Panko's own published benchmark results, Panko's speedup relative to ActiveModel::Serializer is partly obscured in real-world usage by the large fraction of time spent just querying the database and constructing ActiveRecord object instances; Nativeson sidesteps that work entirely, calling upon the database's native JSON generation functions to produce a JSON string directly.

Benchmark results table:

Model	Data Size (number of database records)	Includes time spent in ActiveRecord?	Includes association queries/data?	AMS ips	Panko ips	Nativeson ips	Comments	Link
User	1	No	No	4813	47718	2429		benchmark
User	202	No	No	44	728	510		benchmark
User	403	No	No	26	359	349		benchmark
User	1	Yes	No	989	1584	2341		benchmark
User	202	Yes	No	21	189	550		benchmark
User	403	Yes	No	11	112	295		benchmark
User	1	No	Yes	126	621	237		benchmark
User	202	No	Yes	3	33	14		benchmark
User	403	No	Yes	2	32	13		benchmark
User	1	Yes	Yes	31	50	238		benchmark
User	202	Yes	Yes	1.1	3.4	15.2		benchmark
User	403	Yes	Yes	1.0	3.0	12.6		benchmark

More benchmarks

Contributing

Set up steps for development:

1. Fork the project.
2. git clone your forked repository to your development machine.
3. pushd nativeson
4. brew install imagemagick if you're going to use gruff (see next step for more details)
5. bundle (you can comment out the gruff gem if you don't need to generate graphs of performance tests)
6. pushd test/dummy
7. bundle exec rake db:create db:setup
8. popd
9. Run the tests: ./bin/test
10. If the tests run and pass, you are in good shape to develop on Nativeson.

• Then make your feature addition or bug fix.
• Add tests for it.
• Run ./bin/test and make sure all tests still run and pass. Contributions with failing tests or tests that fail to run will not be accepted.
• Commit. Do not mess with version.rb or commit history other than on your own branches. If you want to have your own version number in version.rb, that is fine, but change that in a commit by itself in another branch so it can be ignored when the pull request is merged.
• Submit a pull request to this repository. Bonus points for topic branches.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the Apache License Version 2.0.