using MsgPack with Servicestack: how do I do KnownType?

Question

I'm attempting to support the MessagePack protocol in my current Servicestack implementation. I need it to support (de)serializing a list of ISegment defined like this:

[KnownType(typeof(ArcSegment)), KnownType(typeof(LineSegment))]
public class PathRequest
{
  public List<ISegment> Segments {get;set;}
}

public interface ISegment
{
  Point StartPoint {get;set;}
  Point EndPoint {get;set;}
}

public class ArcSegment: ISegment {...}
public class LineSegment: ISegment {...}

Out of the box it told me that

Type 'Asi.Geometry.ISegment' does not have both of default (parameterless) public constructor and public constructor with an Int32 parameter.

That's very true. Apparently it does not use the KnownType attribute. After reading around online I discovered that I can make my own serializer. Hence I tried this:

class ArcLineSerializer: MessagePackSerializer<ISegment>
{
    private readonly MessagePackSerializer<ArcSegment> _arcSerializer = MessagePackSerializer.Create<ArcSegment>();
    private readonly MessagePackSerializer<LineSegment> _lineSerializer = MessagePackSerializer.Create<LineSegment>();

    protected override void PackToCore(Packer packer, ISegment objectTree)
    {
        if(objectTree is ArcSegment)
            _arcSerializer.PackTo(packer, (ArcSegment)objectTree);
        else if (objectTree is LineSegment)
            _lineSerializer.PackTo(packer, (LineSegment)objectTree);
        else
            throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    protected override ISegment UnpackFromCore(Unpacker unpacker)
    {
        var data = unpacker.Data;
        if (data != null)
        {
            if (data.Value.IsTypeOf<ArcSegment>().GetValueOrDefault())
                return _arcSerializer.UnpackFrom(unpacker);
            if (data.Value.IsTypeOf<LineSegment>().GetValueOrDefault())
                return _lineSerializer.UnpackFrom(unpacker);
            throw new NotSupportedException();
        }
        return null;
    }
}

Alas, that gives me the same error trying to construct the _arcSerializer. How's it done?

Answer 1

You cannot just get type of packed class from message, but you can pass some type identifier along with serialized data.

This is how it can be done in generic way for interface serialization.

class InterfaceSerializer<T> : MessagePackSerializer<T>
{
    private Dictionary<string, IMessagePackSerializer> _serializers;

    public InterfaceSerializer()
        : this(SerializationContext.Default)
    {
    }

    public InterfaceSerializer(SerializationContext context)
    {
        _serializers = new Dictionary<string, IMessagePackSerializer>();

        // Get all types that implement T interface
        var implementingTypes = System.Reflection.Assembly
            .GetExecutingAssembly()
            .DefinedTypes
            .Where(t => t.ImplementedInterfaces.Contains(typeof(T)));

        // Create serializer for each type and store it in dictionary
        foreach (var type in implementingTypes)
        {
            var key = type.Name;
            var value = MessagePackSerializer.Create(type, context);
            _serializers.Add(key, value);
        }
    }

    protected override void PackToCore(Packer packer, T objectTree)
    {
        IMessagePackSerializer serializer;
        string typeName = objectTree.GetType().Name;

        // Find matching serializer
        if (!_serializers.TryGetValue(typeName, out serializer))
        {
            throw SerializationExceptions.NewTypeCannotSerialize(typeof(T));
        }

        packer.PackArrayHeader(2);             // Two-element array:
        packer.PackString(typeName);           //  0: Type name
        serializer.PackTo(packer, objectTree); //  1: Packed object
    }

    protected override T UnpackFromCore(Unpacker unpacker)
    {
        IMessagePackSerializer serializer;
        string typeName;

        // Read type name and packed object
        if (!(unpacker.ReadString(out typeName) && unpacker.Read()))
        {
            throw SerializationExceptions.NewUnexpectedEndOfStream();
        }

        // Find matching serializer
        if (!_serializers.TryGetValue(typeName, out serializer))
        {
            throw SerializationExceptions.NewTypeCannotDeserialize(typeof(T));
        }

        // Unpack and return
        return (T)serializer.UnpackFrom(unpacker);
    }
}

You need to register custom serializers for interfaces you want. For example, with default serialization context you do:

SerializationContext.Default.Serializers
    .Register<ISegment>(new InterfaceSerializer<ISegment>());

Since the serialzer was registered, objects containing ISegment can be packed and unpacked as usual.

var packer = MessagePackSerializer.Create<PathRequest>();
packer.Pack(stream, somePathRequest);
stream.Position = 0;
var unpackedPathRequest = packer.Unpack(stream);