Godot Version
4.5.1 stable
Question
I’m trying to create a clean reusable serialization system for my custom data classes
My goal is to have a base class SerializableObject, that handles the logic of serializing and deserializing itself. Any class that inherits from it should automatically gain this functionality without needing to write any boilerplate code
Here is the ideal structure I want to achieve:
# serializable_object.gd
extends RefCounted
class_name SerializableObject
func serialize() → Dictionary:
# I need to pass ‘MatchData’ to the serializer.
return Libs.Seriafy.serialize(self, ???) # <— THE PROBLEM
static func deserialize(data: Dictionary) → RefCounted:
return Libs.Seriafy.deserialize(data, ???) # <— THE PROBLEM
Seriafy lib:
static func serialize(object: Object, default_class: Object = null) → Dictionary[String, Variant]:
var data: Dictionary[String, Variant] = {}
if default_class != null:
default_class = default_class.new()
var instance_dict: Dictionary = inst_to_dict(object)
instance_dict.erase('@subpath')
instance_dict.erase('@path')
for v: StringName in instance_dict:
if v.begins_with('_'):
continue
if typeof(instance_dict[v]) == TYPE_DICTIONARY or typeof(instance_dict[v]) == TYPE_ARRAY:
data[str(v)] = instance_dict[v].duplicate(true)
else:
data[str(v)] = instance_dict[v]
return data
static func deserialize(data: Dictionary, default_class: Object) → Object:
if default_class != null:
default_class = default_class.new()
for v: Variant in data:
var value: Variant = data[v]
default_class[v] = value
return default_class
And then
# all classes script
class MatchData extends SerializableObject:
var gamemode_name: String = ''
var map_name: String = ''
var ct_score: int = 0
var t_score: int = 0
var timer: int = 0
# I want to avoid writing serialize/deserialize methods here.
# They should be inherited and work automatically.
class MessageData extends extends SerializableObject:
var peer_id: int = -1
var text: String = ''
var date_time: int = -1
And I know that ideally there should be types to avoid unnecessary serialization, but so far there are no types in GDScript 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!