How to pass an array of objects to WebAssembly and convert it to a vector of structs with wasm-bindgen?

Question

It's possible to pass an array of integers like this:

const js = import("./webassembly_rust");
let array_nums = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9];

js.then(js => {
  js.test( array_nums );
}); 

to WebAssembly and save it in a vector like this:

extern crate serde_json;
extern crate wasm_bindgen;

use wasm_bindgen::prelude::*;

#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;

#[wasm_bindgen]
pub fn test(array: JsValue) {
    let elements: Vec<u32> = array.into_serde().unwrap();
}

It's also possible to pass a single object like this:

const js = import("./webassembly_rust");
let jsObject = {name: "hello world", id: "99", parent_id: "11"};

js.then(js => {
  js.test( jsObject );
}); 

to WebAssembly and save it as a Element struct like this:

extern crate serde_json;
extern crate wasm_bindgen;

use wasm_bindgen::prelude::*;

#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct Element {
    name: String,
    id: String,
    parent_id: String,
}

#[wasm_bindgen]
pub fn test(js_object: &JsValue) {
    let element: Element = js_object.into_serde().unwrap();
}

The next thing I tried is to pass an array of objects like this:

const js = import("./webassembly_rust");
let arrayOfObjects = [
  {name: "hello world", id: "99", parent_id: "88"},
  {name: "hello world2", id: "88", parent_id: "12"},
  {name: "hello world3", id: "77", parent_id: "88"}
]

js.then(js => {
  js.test( arrayOfObjects );
}); 

to WebAssembly and save it as a vector of Element structs like this:

extern crate serde_json;
extern crate wasm_bindgen;

use wasm_bindgen::prelude::*;

#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct Element {
    name: String,
    id: String,
    parent_id: String,
}

#[wasm_bindgen]
pub fn test(js_objects: &JsValue) {
    let elements: Vec<Element> = js_objects.into_serde().unwrap();
}

This compiles, but when I run this code I get the error:

func $__rust_start_panic (param i32) (result i32)
  unreachable
  unreachable
end

Passing an array of objects filled with numbers like this:

const js = import("./webassembly_rust");
let arrayOfNumObjects = [
    {name: 1, id: 2, parent_id: 3 },
    {name: 1, id: 2, parent_id: 3 },
    {name: 1, id: 2, parent_id: 3 }
]

js.then(js => {
  js.test( arrayOfNumObjects );
}); 

to WebAssembly is possible when the Element struct contains only u32 values.

extern crate serde_json;
extern crate wasm_bindgen;

use wasm_bindgen::prelude::*;

#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct Element {
    name: u32,
    id: u32,
    parent_id: u32,
}

#[wasm_bindgen]
pub fn test(js_objects: &JsValue) {
    let elements: Vec<Element> = js_objects.into_serde().unwrap();
}

It seems like the problem is caused by the String type in the Element struct.

What did I do wrong?

I found the following articles, but I can't find a solution for my problem in them:

• Serializing and Deserializing Arbitrary Data Into and From JsValue with Serde

  This explains how to convert a JavaScript object to a struct, but not how to convert an array of objects to a vector of structs.

• js_sys crate

  This crate allows to use JavaScript types like arrays or objects in Rust, but this is not what I want. I want to convert JavaScript values into their Rust counterparts. This crate only allows to use JavaScript inline in Rust, as far as I understand... and this isn't as fast as using just Rust.

• github issue

Answer 1

Follow the instructions to get a basic Rust / WASM setup, then add support for arbitrary data via Serde.

I've changed your code to return a number and print out that number, just to see that it's working.

Cargo.toml

[package]
name = "ww"
version = "0.1.0"
authors = ["An Devloper <an.devloper@example.com>"]
edition = "2018"

[lib]
crate-type = ["cdylib"]

[dependencies]
wasm-bindgen = { version = "0.2", features = ["serde-serialize"] }
serde_json = "1.0.32"
serde_derive = "1.0.80"
serde = "1.0.80"

src/lib.rs

extern crate serde_json;
extern crate wasm_bindgen;

use wasm_bindgen::prelude::*;

#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct Element {
    name: String,
    id: String,
    parent_id: String,
}

#[wasm_bindgen]
pub fn test(js_objects: &JsValue) -> i32 {
    let elements: Vec<Element> = js_objects.into_serde().unwrap();
    elements
        .iter()
        .map(|e| {
            let id = e.id.parse::<i32>().unwrap_or(0);
            let parent_id = e.parent_id.parse::<i32>().unwrap_or(0);
            id + parent_id
        })
        .sum()
}

index.js

const js = import("./ww");

let arrayOfObjects = [
  { name: "hello world", id: "99", parent_id: "88" },
  { name: "hello world2", id: "88", parent_id: "12" },
  { name: "hello world3", id: "77", parent_id: "88" },
]

js.then(js => {
  const sum = js.test(arrayOfObjects);
  console.log(sum);
});

package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "serve": "webpack-dev-server"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "html-webpack-plugin": "^3.2.0",
    "webpack": "^4.0.1",
    "webpack-cli": "^3.1.1",
    "webpack-dev-server": "^3.1.0"
  }
}

webpack.config.js

const path = require('path');
const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require('html-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
  entry: "./index.js",
  output: {
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, "dist"),
    filename: "index.js",
  },
  plugins: [
    new HtmlWebpackPlugin({
      title: "Getting started with WASM"
    })
  ],
  mode: "development"
};

Then run:

# once
npm install
# every time the code changes
cargo +nightly build --target wasm32-unknown-unknown
wasm-bindgen target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/debug/*.wasm --out-dir .
npm run serve

Visit the page in your WASM-enabled browser.

---

Observant readers will note that I didn't do anything different from the OP. That's because this code already worked as-is. Every time you change your Rust code, make sure that you:

1. Build your Rust code
2. Re-run wasm-bindgen