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SCALE Codecs for JavaScript and TypeScript

A TypeScript implementation of SCALE (Simple Concatenated Aggregate Little-Endian) transcoding (see Rust implementation here), which emphasizes JS-land representations and e2e type-safety. These types are described below.

Setup

If you’re using Deno, simply import via the denoland/x specifier.

import * as $ from "https://deno.land/x/scale/mod.ts";

If you’re using Node, install as follows.

npm install parity-scale-codec

Then import as follows.

import * as $ from "parity-scale-codec";

Usage

  1. Import the library
  2. Define a codec via the library’s functions, whose names correspond to types
  3. Utilize the codec you’ve defined

Example

import * as $ from "https://deno.land/x/scale/mod.ts";

const $person = $.object(
  ["name", $.str],
  ["nickName", $.str],
  ["superPower", $.option($.str)],
);

const valueToEncode = {
  name: "Magdalena",
  nickName: "Magz",
  superPower: "Hydrokinesis",
};

const encodedBytes: Uint8Array = $person.encode(valueToEncode);
const decodedValue: Person = $person.decode(encodedBytes);

assertEquals(decodedValue, valueToEncode);

To extract the JS-native TypeScript type from a given codec, use the Native utility type.

type Person = $.Native<typeof $person>;
/* {
  name: string;
  nickName: string;
  superPower: string | undefined;
} */

In cases where codecs are exceptionally large, we may want to spare the TS checker of extra work.

interface Person {
  name: string;
  nickName: string;
  superPower: string | undefined;
}

const $person: Codec<Person> = $.object(
  ["name", $.str],
  ["nickName", $.str],
  ["superPower", $.option($.str)],
);

This has the added benefit of producing type errors if the codec does not directly mirror the TS type.

const $person: Codec<Person> = $.object(
  //  ~~~~~~~
  //  ^ error (message below)
  ["nickName", $.str],
  ["superPower", $.option($.str)],
);

Hovering over the error squigglies will reveal the following diagnostic.

Type 'Codec<{ nickName: string; superPower: string | undefined; }>' is not assignable to type 'Codec<Person>'.
  The types returned by 'decode(...)' are incompatible between these types.
    Type '{ nickName: string; superPower: string | undefined; }' is not assignable to type 'Person'.

Codec Naming

This library adopts a convention of denoting codecs with a $ – $.foo for built-in codec, and $foo for user-defined codecs. This makes codecs easily distinguishable from other values, and makes it easier to have codecs in scope with other variables:

interface Person { ... }
const $person = $.object(...)
const person = { ... }

Here, the type, codec, and a value can all coexist without clashing, without having to resort to wordy workarounds like personCodec.

The main other library this could possibly clash with is jQuery, and its usage has waned enough that this is not a serious problem.

While we recommend following this convention for consistency, you can, of course, adopt an alternative convention if the $ is problematic – $.foo can easily become s.foo or scale.foo with an alternate import name.

Types

Primitives

$.bool; // Codec<boolean>

$.u8; // Codec<number>
$.i8; // Codec<number>
$.u16; // Codec<number>
$.i16; // Codec<number>
$.u32; // Codec<number>
$.i32; // Codec<number>

$.u64; // Codec<bigint>
$.i64; // Codec<bigint>
$.u128; // Codec<bigint>
$.i128; // Codec<bigint>
$.u256; // Codec<bigint>
$.i256; // Codec<bigint>

// https://docs.substrate.io/reference/scale-codec/#fnref-1
$.compact($.u8); // Codec<number>
$.compact($.u16); // Codec<number>
$.compact($.u32); // Codec<number>
$.compact($.u64); // Codec<bigint>
$.compact($.u128); // Codec<bigint>
$.compact($.u256); // Codec<bigint>

$.str; // Codec<string>

$.dummy(foo); // Codec<typeof foo> // (encodes 0 bytes)

$.never; // Codec<never> // (throws if reached)

Arrays

$.array($.u8); // Codec<number[]>

$.sizedArray($.u8, 2); // Codec<[number, number]>

$.uint8Array; // Codec<Uint8Array>

$.sizedUint8Array(12); // Codec<Uint8Array>

$.tuple($.bool, $.u8, $.str); // Codec<[boolean, number, string]>

$.bitSequence; // Codec<BitSequence> // (like boolean[] but backed by an ArrayBuffer)

Objects

const $person = $.object(
  ["name", $.str],
  ["nickName", $.str],
  ["superPower", $.option($.str)],
);

$person; /* Codec<{
  name: string;
  nickName: string;
  superPower: string | undefined;
}> */

Combined Objects

const $foo = $.taggedUnion("_tag", [
  ["a"],
  ["b", ["x", $.u8]],
]);

const $bar = $.object(["bar", $.u8]);

const $foobar = $.spread($foo, $bar);

$foobar; /* Codec<
  | { _tag: "a"; bar: number }
  | { _tag: "b"; x: number; bar: number }
> */

Collections

$.set($.u8); // Codec<Set<number>>

$.map($.str, $.u8); // Codec<Map<string, number>>

Options

$.option($.u8); // Codec<number | undefined>
$.optionBool; // Codec<boolean | undefined> (stores as single byte; see OptionBool in Rust impl)

Unions

const $strOrNum = $.union(
  (value) => { // Discriminate
    if (typeof value === "string") {
      return 0;
    } else if (typeof value === "number") {
      return 1;
    } else {
      throw new Error("Unreachable");
    }
  },
  [
    $.str, // Member 0
    $.u8, // Member 1
  ],
);

$strOrNum; // Codec<string | number>

Tagged Unions

const $pet = $.taggedUnion("_tag", [
  ["dog", ["bark", $.str]],
  ["cat", ["purr", $.str]],
]);

$pet; /* Codec<
  | { _tag: "dog"; bark: string }
  | { _tag: "cat"; purr: string }
> */

String Unions

const $dinosaur = $.stringUnion([
  "Liopleurodon",
  "Kosmoceratops",
  "Psittacosaurus",
]);

$dinosaur; // Codec<"Liopleurodon" | "Kosmoceratops" | "Psittacosaurus">
enum Dinosaur {
  Liopleurodon = "Liopleurodon",
  Kosmoceratops = "Kosmoceratops",
  Psittacosaurus = "Psittacosaurus",
}

const $dinosaur = $.stringUnion([
  Dinosaur.Liopleurodon,
  Dinosaur.Kosmoceratops,
  Dinosaur.Psittacosaurus,
]);

$dinosaur; // Codec<Dinosaur>

Numeric Enums

enum Dinosaur {
  Liopleurodon,
  Kosmoceratops,
  Psittacosaurus,
}

const $dinosaur = $.u8 as $.Codec<Dinosaur>;

$dinosaur; // Codec<Dinosaur>

Instance

Sometimes, you may want to instantiate a class with the decoded data / encode data from a class instance. In these situations, we can leverage the instance codec factory. A common use case for instance codecs is Error subtypes.

class MyError extends Error {
  constructor(
    readonly code: number,
    readonly message: string,
    readonly payload: {
      a: string;
      b: number;
      c: boolean;
    },
  ) {
    super();
  }
}

const $myError = $.instance(
  MyError,
  ["code", $.u8],
  ["message", $.str],
  [
    "payload",
    $.object(
      ["a", $.str],
      ["b", $.u8],
      ["c", $.bool],
    ),
  ],
);

$myError; // Codec<MyError>

Results

Results are initialized with an Ok codec and an Error instance codec.

class MyError {
  constructor(readonly message: string) {}
}

const $myError = $.instance(MyError, ["message", $.str]);

const $myResult = $.result($.str, $myError);

$myResult; // Codec<string | MyError>

Recursive Codecs

You can use $.deferred to write recursive codecs:

type LinkedList = {
  value: number;
  next: LinkedList;
} | undefined;

const $linkedList: $.Codec<LinkedList> = $.option($.object(
  ["value", $.u8],
  ["next", $.option($.deferred(() => $linkedList))],
));

Note that you must explicitly type the codec, as TS cannot generally infer recursive types.

Custom Codecs

If your encoding/decoding logic is more complicated, you can create custom codecs with createCodec:

const $foo = createCodec<Foo>({
  name: "foo",
  _metadata: null, // see jsdoc

  // A static estimation of the encoded size, in bytes.
  // This can be either an under- or over- estimate.
  _staticSize: 123,
  _encode(buffer, value) {
    // Encode `value` into `buffer.array`, starting at `buffer.index`.
    // A `DataView` is also supplied as `buffer.view`.
    // At first, you may only write at most as many bytes as `_staticSize`.
    // After you write bytes, you must update `buffer.index` to be the first unwritten byte.

    // If you need to write more bytes, call `buffer.pushAlloc(size)`.
    // If you do this, you can then write at most `size` bytes,
    // and then you must call `buffer.popAlloc()`.

    // You can also call `buffer.insertArray()` to insert an array without consuming any bytes.

    // You can delegate to another codec by calling `$bar._encode(buffer, bar)`.
    // Before doing so, you must ensure that `$bar._staticSize` bytes are free,
    // either by including it in `_staticSize` or by calling `buffer.pushAlloc()`.
    // Note that you should use `_encode` and not `encode`.

    // ...
  },

  _decode(buffer) {
    // Decode `value` from `buffer.array`, starting at `buffer.index`.
    // A `DataView` is also supplied as `buffer.view`.
    // After you read bytes, you must update `buffer.index` to be the first unread byte.

    // You can delegate to another codec by calling `$bar._decode(buffer)`.
    // Note that you should use `_decode` and not `decode`.

    // ...
    return value;
  },
});

Asynchronous Encoding

Some codecs require asynchronous encoding – namely $.promise and any custom codecs created with createAsyncCodec. Calling .encode() on a codec will throw if it or another codec it calls is asynchronous – in this case, you must call .encodeAsync() instead, which returns a Promise<Uint8Array>. You can call .encodeAsync() on any codec – if it is a synchronous codec, it will simply resolve immediately.

Asynchronous decoding is not supported.

Metadata

Codecs keep metadata recording their construction. You can use a CodecVisitor to consume this metadata:

const visitor = new $.CodecVisitor<string>();

// you can pass a plain codec:
visitor.add($.u8, () => "$.u8");

// or a codec factory:
visitor.add($.int, (_codec, signed, size) => `$.int(${signed}, ${size})`);
//                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^
//          the arguments that were passed to the factory

// you can handle generic factories like so:
visitor.generic(<T>() => {
  visitor.add($.array<T>, (_, $el) => `$.array(${visitor.visit($el)})`);
});

// if none of the other visitors match:
visitor.fallback((_codec) => "?");

visitor.visit($.array($.u8)); // "$.array($.u8)"
visitor.visit($.u16); // "$.int(false, 16)"
visitor.visit($.array($.str)); // "$.array(?)"