SeCo 0.2.0

Python data serialization and compression made easy.

README中文文档 | JSON Specs | MsgPack Specs | Python Docs: Pickle

About the SeCo Library

This is a library to serialize+compress and deserialize+decompress data. It is very easy to utilize, and can be used under various environments.

By using this library, the user/developer can easily serialize+compress data in Python, like dict, list etc, save the end result as blob to databases, save them to redis or memcached servers, or exchange them between python processes. It can save quite some space.

Choose Serializer and Compressor

The best combination is msgpack and zlib for it is fast and space conservative. The default is json and zlib because in most cases it is sufficient.

However, each combination has its strengths and weaknesses, choose according to your needs.

For example, json cannot serialize bytes or bytearray objects; both json and msgpack cannot serialize set, frozenset instances. For the broadest possible serialization support, the user can use pickle as the serializer as it can serialize almost all Python objects. But remember that pickle is not compatible with other languages, and its result bloats quite a bit, so if you are limited by space, use the other two serializers.

Another example, zlib is faster, or much faster, than bz2, but the compressed result is not as space efficient as that of bz2’s. There is also lzma compression library available to Python 3 environment, but it is somewhat not as efficient or fast and it is not available under Python 2, so it is not included. You can absolutely change the compressor to lzma if you want.

SeCo Class API References

SeCo is the only class provided in this module, its instance is responsible for serializing + compressing and de-serializing + decompressing functionality. It provides loads, dumps, load, dump methods to conform Python conventions, and it also provides __call__ magic method for quick operations.

Signature: SeCo(serialize = None, compress = None)

To construct an instance, simply provide the constructor with two optional, desired parameters.

1. serialize = None: the first parameter, can be anything in (None, ‘json’, ‘msgpack’, ‘pickle’).

2. compress = None: the second parameter, can be anything in (None, ‘zlib’, ‘bz2’).

from seco import SeCo
import json, lzma

# use defaults serializer and compressor
seco = SeCo() # `json` and `zlib`
# use different serializer or compressor
seco = SeCo('msgpack', 'bz2')
seco = SeCo('pickle', 'zlib')

# serialize and compress data payload
#   uses __call__ method, the second parameter is the `switch`
seco({'test': 'case'}) # `bytes` object returned
seco({'test': 'case'}, True) # `bytes` object returned, the same
seco(seco({'test': 'case'}), False) # decompress, {'test': 'case'}

# Python conventions
seco.dumps(100) # `bytes` object
seco.loads(seco.dumps(100)) # 100 returned
seco.dump([1,2,3,4,5], open('test', 'wb'))
seco.load(open('test', 'rb')) # [1,2,3,4,5]

# access and change the serializer and compressor
ser = seco.serializer # access the serializer
seco.serializer = json # change to json
com = seco.compressor # access the compressor
seco.compressor = lzma # change to lzma