JsonSerializationContext.java

package com.google.gson;

import java.lang.reflect.Type;

/**
 * Context for serialization that is passed to a custom serializer during invocation of its
 * {@link JsonSerializer#serialize(Object, Type, JsonSerializationContext)} method.
 *
 * @author Inderjeet Singh
 * @author Joel Leitch
 */
public interface JsonSerializationContext {

    /**
     * Invokes default serialization on the specified object.
     *
     * @param src the object that needs to be serialized.
     * @return a tree of {@link JsonElement}s corresponding to the serialized form of {@code src}.
     */
    public JsonElement serialize(Object src);

    /**
     * Invokes default serialization on the specified object passing the specific type information.
     * It should never be invoked on the element received as a parameter of the
     * {@link JsonSerializer#serialize(Object, Type, JsonSerializationContext)} method. Doing so
     * will result in an infinite loop since Gson will in-turn call the custom serializer again.
     *
     * @param src the object that needs to be serialized.
     * @param typeOfSrc the actual genericized type of src object.
     * @return a tree of {@link JsonElement}s corresponding to the serialized form of {@code src}.
     */
    public JsonElement serialize(Object src, Type typeOfSrc);
}