Introduction:
Welcome to Episode 1 of JSON for Engineers! In this first episode, Miki Tebeka dives into the fundamentals of serialization, with a special focus on JSON, one of the most widely-used data formats in software engineering. Miki draws from his extensive development experience to explain how JSON fits into the bigger picture of data interchange and serialization, laying the groundwork for engineers to use it effectively in real-world applications.
Serialization Overview: Understanding the process of converting data structures to byte sequences.
JSON Best Practices: Optimizing how to handle JSON at the API and storage layers.
Data Validation: Ensuring that valid JSON also means valid data with proper checks.
Miki kicks off this episode by explaining why serialization is crucial for converting complex data structures into a byte format that hardware understands. He introduces JSON as a versatile and widely-adopted serialization format, breaking down how data gets converted into a sequence of bytes and back again. He also discusses the need to perform serialization efficiently, highlighting common mistakes developers make, such as needlessly passing serialized data between layers inside a system. Instead, he emphasizes focusing serialization at the system’s boundaries, like the API layer and storage layer, while keeping data in native types internally to enhance performance and maintain type safety.
As the episode progresses, Miki expands on the importance of separating data models across different system layers to avoid tightly coupling components. He explains how keeping separate data structures for the API, business logic, and storage layers can prevent development issues down the road, particularly as each layer evolves at its own pace. Miki also discusses a critical yet frequently overlooked step in working with JSON: data validation. He stresses that even valid JSON strings might not contain logically valid data, illustrating how improper validation can lead to serious issues. By the end of the episode, Miki provides a solid foundation for engineers looking to handle JSON more effectively, while avoiding common pitfalls like poor performance and unreliable data.
Things you will learn in this video:
Common Serialization Mistakes: Understanding typical pitfalls developers face when dealing with serialization across different layers of an application, and how to avoid them.
Layer Separation in Software Architecture: The importance of separating concerns across API, business, and storage layers, and why each should handle data differently.
Custom Validation Techniques: Practical advice on writing custom validation functions for JSON data to ensure robustness, especially when dealing with complex or interdependent fields.
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