Serializing a `Vec` as aJSON array without `serde_json`

[naive sand]

serde alone only really describes the API, you need a crate to actually implement it. Why don't you want to include serde_json?

[shy igloo]

if you assume some things you can probably get away with not using serde at all

[shell cargo]

it feels very weird to have a single crate for this one functionality in my opinion.

[shell cargo]

what do you mean?

[shy igloo]

you have a vec of strings right

[shell cargo]

yes

[shy igloo]

debug print it then percent escape it

[shy igloo]

serde doesnt give you ser/deserialisers

[sturdy snow]

Yeah serde is way overkill here

[shell cargo]

but for the /search endpoint's facets parameter has this as its example:

[["categories:forge"],["versions:1.17.1"],["project_type:mod"],["license:mit"]]

[shy igloo]

format!("{:?}",vec).replace('"',"%22"), very naively

[shell cargo]

so its not always going to be a vec of strings, as seen in this case

[shy igloo]

how many enpoints do you need to call

[sturdy snow]

It's either use serde and a format crate or don't use serde, pick your poison

[shy igloo]

is this always a list of one item string lists

[sturdy snow]

Like sure you could reimplement serde_json's logic yourself, but don't

[shell cargo]

no it can be of any size. this is also valid:

[["versions:1.16.5", "versions:1.17.1"]] 

[shy igloo]

they are just search criteria right

[shell cargo]

could you give me a crate? i havent heard of a thing existing

[shy igloo]

do you need to support all of the search criteria

[shell cargo]

yes they are just search criteria

[shy igloo]

serde and serde_json

serde_json is the format crate

[shell cargo]

ohhhhhh i see

[sturdy snow]

serde is the glue

serde_json is the thing that understands Json

serde is basically useless by itself

[shell cargo]

not everything, but some of the criteria

[shy igloo]

which ones

and are they controlled by a user

or by your binary

[sturdy snow]

See the formats section for a big list of crates https://serde.rs/

[shell cargo]

these ones:

• project_type
• categories (loaders are lumped in with categories in search)
• versions
• client_side
• server_side
  and yes they are controlled by the user

[shy igloo]

are they always all included

maybe create a structure that can represent every possible criteria

[shell cargo]

like an enum of the criteria?

[shy igloo]

or a struct

depending on what criteria is possible

[shell cargo]

so at the end i have to use serde_json, right?

[shy igloo]

no just make a method which converts that struct into a string

[shell cargo]

ive resorted to this impl

impl<T> Debug for ModrinthVec<T>
where
    T: Debug,
{
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "{:?}", self.inner)
    }
}

though i can probably just do something like this:

impl<T> Serialize for ModrinthVec<T>
where
    Vec<T>: Debug,
{
    fn serialize<S>(&self, serializer: S) -> Result<S::Ok, S::Error>
    where
        S: serde::Serializer,
    {
        serializer.serialize_str(&format!("{:?}", self.inner))
    }
}

and remove the Debug impl, im getting this error from my tests:

tried to serialize a value before serializing key

[crisp epoch]

this won't do what you want. this will format! to something like "[[\"versions:1.16.5\"]]" and then serialize that string into json as "\"[[\\\\"versions:1.16.5\\\"]]\""

[shy igloo]

but why use serde if you dont use serde_json

what does your ModrinthVec look like