BERT-JS

For Other Languages

• Swift
• Android
• JavaScript

What is BERT?

BERT (Binary Erlang Term) is a format created by the Erlang development team for serializing Erlang terms, and promoted by Tom Preston-Werner as a way for different languages to communicate in a simple and efficient manner.

Erlang External Term Format

What is BERT JS?

BERT-JS is a first cut Javascript implementation of the BERT protocol. In other words, using BERT-JS, you can serialize data into a binary format that can then be de-serialized by Erlang directly into an Erlang term.

Limitations

• Decoding floats is not yet supported.

Usage With WebSockets

SetUp Bert

 function setUpBert() {
bert = new BertClass();
bert.encodeObjectKeysAsNumber = true;
bert.encodeStringAsBinary = true;
//decodes erlang map binary value as String for 'key'
bert.markDecodeBinaryAsStringForKey(key);
}

 var WS = false;
if (window.WebSocket) WS = WebSocket;
if (!WS && window.MozWebSocket) WS = MozWebSocket;
if (!WS) { return; }
var websocket = new WS(serverUrl);
websocket.binaryType = "arraybuffer";
websocket.onmessage = onMessage;

Receive Json

 function onMessage(msg) {
if (typeof msg.data == "string") {
console.log("received data: ", msg.data);
return;
}
var array = new Uint8Array(msg.data);
var charData = bert.bytes_to_string(array);
var json = bert.decode(charData);
console.log("decoded", json);
}

Send Json

 //json = {}; //json is object
function send(json) {
var encoded = bert.encode(Obj);
var byteArray = bert.binary_to_list(encoded);
websocket.send(new Uint8Array(byteArray));
}