Effective Serialization In Go: JSON, Protocol Buffers and More

Course details

Serialization—taking data structures from the language and converting them to a sequence of bytes—is something every developer encounters at one point or another. In this course, instructor Miki Tebeka teaches you how to work effectively with serialization in Go. This course is targeted to advanced Go developers, and starts with a look at some serialization best practices. Miki then looks at some Go-specific formats as well as JSON. He also shows you how to work with protocol buffers—a powerful binary format—and finishes with a tour of some other popular serialization formats like XML, CSV, and SQL. Each chapter ends with a challenge, so you can test your serialization skills as you go.

Learning objectives
Describe why we need serialization.
Explain what to consider when picking a format.
Review common formats.
Use interfaces for serialization.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Effective serialization in Go
02 - What you should know
03 - Working with Codespaces

1. Serialization Overview

04 - Why do we need serialization
05 - Picking a format
06 - General rules
07 - Formats overview

2. Go-Specific Formats

08 - String representation
09 - encoding.TextMarshaler
10 - encoding gob
11 - Challenge - User database
12 - Solution - User database

3. Working with JSON

13 - encoding json API
14 - Custom marshaling
15 - Zero vs. missing values
16 - Handling dynamic types
17 - Streaming JSON
18 - Challenge - Marshal metrics
19 - Solution - Marshal metrics

4. Working with Protocol Buffers

20 - Protocol buffers overview
21 - Generating code
22 - Using the generated code
23 - Working with time
24 - Emitting JSON
25 - Challenge - Encode RideEnd to a file
26 - Solution - Encode a RideEnd to a file

5. Other Serialization Formats

27 - YAML and TOML
28 - XML
29 - CSV
30 - SQL
31 - Challenge - ETL
32 - Solution - ETL

Conclusion

33 - Next steps