Adding custom serialization/deserialization for certain classes

[pjfanning]

I'm experimenting writing a serialization module that can be used with Apache Pekko. Pekko's main serialization module is Jackson based. That Jackson based implementation has a few custom serializers/deserializers for some important classes.
I need to be able to serialize/deserialize a class that looks like
class Command(T payload, ActorRef ref)

The existing ActorRef serializer/deserializer serializes an address value as a String instead trying to serialize all the state of the ActorRef.

Would it be possible to consider Fory support for registering custom serializer/deserializer combos for some classes and that these classes can be embedded in classes? In the Command class above, I would want to get Fory to serialize the full Command but when it gets to handling the ActorRef field that it uses the custom serializer that I have registered with Fory for the ActorRef class.

One idea would be on ForyBuilder to support
registerCustomSerialization<T, S>(Class<T> clazz, Function<T, S> serializeFn, Function<S, T> deserializeFn, boolean supportSubclasses)

So when we run into an object instance in structured data that has a Class that matches T then we use the serializeFn to convert to class S, and on deserialization, we use the equivalent deserializeFn that converts from type T to type S.
If supportSubclasses is set to true, T and any subclass of T is supported. Otherwise, the T check is an exact match.

[chaokunyang]

Fory do have custimized serializer support, you can refer to https://fory.apache.org/docs/docs/guide/java_object_graph_guide#register-custom-serializers

class Foo {
  public long f1;

  private void writeObject(ObjectOutputStream s) throws IOException {
    System.out.println(f1);
    s.defaultWriteObject();
  }
}

class FooSerializer extends Serializer<Foo> {
  public FooSerializer(Fory fory) {
    super(fory, Foo.class);
  }

  @Override
  public void write(MemoryBuffer buffer, Foo value) {
    buffer.writeInt64(value.f1);
  }

  @Override
  public Foo read(MemoryBuffer buffer) {
    Foo foo = new Foo();
    foo.f1 = buffer.readInt64();
    return foo;
  }
}

Fory fory = getFory();
fory.registerSerializer(Foo.class, new FooSerializer(fory));

[pjfanning]

Thanks @chaokunyang - the URLSerializer works in a similar way to what I need. The idea of using a single string value to represent the serialized state of an object instance.

[chaokunyang]

When you register serializer for an abstract classes, that serializer will be applied to all subclasses. But we do not have such support for non-abstract classes.