How can I create subclasses using Argo and Swift?

Question

I'm using Argo in a Swift app to decode JSON into objects. I have JSON like this:

"activities": [
  {
    "id": "intro-to-the-program",
    "type": "session",
    "audio": "intro-to-the-program.mp3"
  },
  {
    "id": "goal-setting",
    "type": "session",
    "audio": "goal-setting.mp3"
  },
  {
    "id": "onboarding-quiz",
    "type": "quiz"
  }
]

Based on the 'type', I actually want to instantiate a subclass of the Activity class (ActivitySession, ActivityQuiz etc) and have the subclass do its own decoding.

How can I do this? The top-level decode() function expects a return type of Decoded<Activity>, and none of my approaches so far seem able to defeat it.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 19 '16 at 14:53

Here's one way you can do this by switching on the type to conditionally decode it and get a nice error message when an invalid type is given.

struct ThingWithActivities: Decodable {
  let activities: [Activity]

  static func decode(json: JSON) -> Decoded<ThingWithActivities> {
    return curry(ThingWithActivities.init)
      <^> json <|| "activities"
  }
}

class Activity: Decodable {
  let id: String

  init(id: String) {
    self.id = id
  }

  class func decode(json: JSON) -> Decoded<Activity> {
    let decodedType: Decoded<String> = json <| "type"
    return decodedType.flatMap { type in
      switch type {
        case "session": return ActivitySession.decode(json)
        case "quiz": return ActivityQuiz.decode(json)
      default:
        return .Failure(.Custom("Expected valid type, found: \(type)"))
      }
    }
  }
}

class ActivitySession: Activity {
  let audio: String

  init(id: String, audio: String) {
    self.audio = audio
    super.init(id: id)
  }

  override static func decode(json: JSON) -> Decoded<Activity> {
    return curry(ActivitySession.init)
      <^> json <| "id"
      <*> json <| "audio"
  }

}

class ActivityQuiz: Activity {
  override static func decode(json: JSON) -> Decoded<Activity> {
    return curry(ActivityQuiz.init)
      <^> json <| "id"
  }
}

let activities: Decoded<ThingWithActivities>? = JSONFromFile("activities").flatMap(decode)
print(activities) 
// => Optional(Success(ThingWithActivities(activities: [ActivitySession, ActivitySession, ActivityQuiz])))

The key part is pulling out the type and .flatMaping over it to conditionally decode into the type it should be.

You sir are a genius - it works. Wow this Swift malarkey certainly takes some getting used to! — Tim Closs, Jul 19 '16 at 15:24

How can I create subclasses using Argo and Swift?

1 Answers1