1BSON(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation BSON(3)
2
6 BSON - BSON serialization and deserialization (EOL)
7
9 version v1.12.2
10
12 Version v1.12.0 was the final feature release of the MongoDB BSON
13 library and version v1.12.2 is the final patch release.
14 As of August 13, 2020, the MongoDB Perl driver and related libraries
16 have reached end of life and are no longer supported by MongoDB. See
17 the August 2019 deprecation notice
18 <https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/the-mongodb-perl-driver-is-being-
19 deprecated> for rationale.
20 If members of the community wish to continue development, they are
22 welcome to fork the code under the terms of the Apache 2 license and
23 release it under a new namespace. Specifications and test files for
24 MongoDB drivers and libraries are published in an open repository:
25 mongodb/specifications
26 <https://github.com/mongodb/specifications/tree/master/source>.
27
29 use BSON;
30 use BSON::Types ':all';
31 use boolean;
32 my $codec = BSON->new;
34 my $document = {
36 _id => bson_oid(),
37 creation_time => bson_time(), # now
38 zip_code => bson_string("08544"),
39 hidden => false,
40 };
41 my $bson = $codec->encode_one( $document );
43 my $doc = $codec->decode_one( $bson );
44
46 This class implements a BSON encoder/decoder ("codec"). It consumes
47 "documents" (typically hash references) and emits BSON strings and vice
48 versa in accordance with the BSON Specification <http://bsonspec.org>.
49 BSON is the primary data representation for MongoDB. While this module
51 has several features that support MongoDB-specific needs and
52 conventions, it can be used as a standalone serialization format.
53 The codec may be customized through attributes on the codec option as
55 well as encode/decode specific options on methods:
56 my $codec = BSON->new( \%global_attributes );
58 my $bson = $codec->encode_one( $document, \%encode_options );
60 my $doc = $codec->decode_one( $bson , \%decode_options );
61 Because BSON is strongly-typed and Perl is not, this module supports a
63 number of "type wrappers" – classes that wrap Perl data to indicate how
64 they should serialize. The BSON::Types module describes these and
65 provides associated helper functions. See "PERL-BSON TYPE MAPPING" for
66 more details.
67 When decoding, type wrappers are used for any data that has no native
69 Perl representation. Optionally, all data may be wrapped for precise
70 control of round-trip encoding.
71 Please read the configuration attributes carefully to understand more
73 about how to control encoding and decoding.
74 At compile time, this module will select an implementation backend. It
76 will prefer "BSON::XS" (released separately) if available, or will fall
77 back to BSON::PP (bundled with this module). See "ENVIRONMENT" for a
78 way to control the selection of the backend.
79
81 error_callback
82 This attribute specifies a function reference that will be called with
83 three positional arguments:
84 • an error string argument describing the error condition
86 • a reference to the problematic document or byte-string
88 • the method in which the error occurred (e.g. "encode_one" or
90 "decode_one")
91 Note: for decoding errors, the byte-string is passed as a reference to
93 avoid copying possibly large strings.
94 If not provided, errors messages will be thrown with "Carp::croak".
96 invalid_chars
98 A string containing ASCII characters that must not appear in keys. The
99 default is the empty string, meaning there are no invalid characters.
100 max_length
102 This attribute defines the maximum document size. The default is 0,
103 which disables any maximum.
104 If set to a positive number, it applies to both encoding and decoding
106 (the latter is necessary for prevention of resource consumption
107 attacks).
108 op_char
110 This is a single character to use for special MongoDB-specific query
111 operators. If a key starts with "op_char", the "op_char" character
112 will be replaced with "$".
113 The default is "$", meaning that no replacement is necessary.
115 ordered
117 If set to a true value, then decoding will return a reference to a tied
118 hash that preserves key order. Otherwise, a regular (unordered) hash
119 reference will be returned.
120 IMPORTANT CAVEATS:
122 • When 'ordered' is true, users must not rely on the return value
124 being any particular tied hash implementation. It may change in
125 the future for efficiency.
126 • Turning this option on entails a significant speed penalty as tied
128 hashes are slower than regular Perl hashes.
129 The default is false.
131 prefer_numeric
133 When false, scalar values will be encoded as a number if they were
134 originally a number or were ever used in a numeric context. However, a
135 string that looks like a number but was never used in a numeric context
136 (e.g. "42") will be encoded as a string.
137 If "prefer_numeric" is set to true, the encoder will attempt to coerce
139 strings that look like a number into a numeric value. If the string
140 doesn't look like a double or integer, it will be encoded as a string.
141 IMPORTANT CAVEAT: the heuristics for determining whether something is a
143 string or number are less accurate on older Perls. See BSON::Types for
144 wrapper classes that specify exact serialization types.
145 The default is false.
147 wrap_dbrefs
149 If set to true, during decoding, documents with the fields '$id' and
150 '$ref' (literal dollar signs, not variables) will be wrapped as
151 BSON::DBRef objects. If false, they are decoded into ordinary hash
152 references (or ordered hashes, if "ordered" is true).
153 The default is true.
155 wrap_numbers
157 If set to true, during decoding, numeric values will be wrapped into
158 BSON type-wrappers: BSON::Double, BSON::Int64 or BSON::Int32. While
159 very slow, this can help ensure fields can round-trip if unmodified.
160 The default is false.
162 wrap_strings
164 If set to true, during decoding, string values will be wrapped into a
165 BSON type-wrappers, BSON::String. While very slow, this can help
166 ensure fields can round-trip if unmodified.
167 The default is false.
169 dt_type (Discouraged)
171 Sets the type of object which is returned for BSON DateTime fields. The
172 default is "undef", which returns objects of type BSON::Time. This is
173 overloaded to be the integer epoch value when used as a number or
174 string, so is somewhat backwards compatible with "dt_type" in the
175 MongoDB driver.
176 Other acceptable values are BSON::Time (explicitly), DateTime,
178 Time::Moment, DateTime::Tiny, Mango::BSON::Time.
179 Because BSON::Time objects have methods to convert to DateTime,
181 Time::Moment or DateTime::Tiny, use of this field is discouraged.
182 Users should use these methods on demand. This option is provided for
183 backwards compatibility only.
184
186 encode_one
187 $byte_string = $codec->encode_one( $doc );
188 $byte_string = $codec->encode_one( $doc, \%options );
189 Takes a "document", typically a hash reference, an array reference, or
191 a Tie::IxHash object and returns a byte string with the BSON
192 representation of the document.
193 An optional hash reference of options may be provided. Valid options
195 include:
196 • first_key – if "first_key" is defined, it and "first_value" will be
198 encoded first in the output BSON; any matching key found in the
199 document will be ignored.
200 • first_value - value to assign to "first_key"; will encode as Null
202 if omitted
203 • error_callback – overrides codec default
205 • invalid_chars – overrides codec default
207 • max_length – overrides codec default
209 • op_char – overrides codec default
211 • prefer_numeric – overrides codec default
213 decode_one
215 $doc = $codec->decode_one( $byte_string );
216 $doc = $codec->decode_one( $byte_string, \%options );
217 Takes a byte string with a BSON-encoded document and returns a hash
219 reference representing the decoded document.
220 An optional hash reference of options may be provided. Valid options
222 include:
223 • dt_type – overrides codec default
225 • error_callback – overrides codec default
227 • max_length – overrides codec default
229 • ordered - overrides codec default
231 • wrap_dbrefs - overrides codec default
233 • wrap_numbers - overrides codec default
235 • wrap_strings - overrides codec default
237 clone
239 $copy = $codec->clone( ordered => 1 );
240 Constructs a copy of the original codec, but allows changing attributes
242 in the copy.
243 create_oid
245 $oid = BSON->create_oid;
246 This class method returns a new BSON::OID. This abstracts OID
248 generation away from any specific Object ID class and makes it an
249 interface on a BSON codec. Alternative BSON codecs should define a
250 similar class method that returns an Object ID of whatever type is
251 appropriate.
252 inflate_extjson (DEPRECATED)
254 This legacy method does not follow the MongoDB Extended JSON
255 <https://github.com/mongodb/specifications/blob/master/source/extended-
256 json.rst> specification.
257 Use "extjson_to_perl" instead.
259 perl_to_extjson
261 use JSON::MaybeXS;
262 my $ext = BSON->perl_to_extjson($data, \%options);
263 my $json = encode_json($ext);
264 Takes a perl data structure (i.e. hashref) and turns it into an MongoDB
266 Extended JSON
267 <https://github.com/mongodb/specifications/blob/master/source/extended-
268 json.rst> structure. Note that the structure will still have to be
269 serialized.
270 Possible options are:
272 • "relaxed" A boolean indicating if "relaxed extended JSON" should
274 be generated. If not set, the default value is taken from the
276 "BSON_EXTJSON_RELAXED" environment variable.
277 extjson_to_perl
279 use JSON::MaybeXS;
280 my $ext = decode_json($json);
281 my $data = $bson->extjson_to_perl($ext);
282 Takes an MongoDB Extended JSON
284 <https://github.com/mongodb/specifications/blob/master/source/extended-
285 json.rst> data structure and inflates it into a Perl data structure.
286 Note that you have to decode the JSON string manually beforehand.
287 Canonically specified numerical values like "{"$numberInt":"23"}" will
289 be inflated into their respective "BSON::*" wrapper types. Plain
290 numeric values will be left as-is.
291
293 encode
294 my $bson = encode({ bar => 'foo' }, \%options);
295 This is the legacy, functional interface and is only exported on
297 demand. It takes a hashref and returns a BSON string. It uses an
298 internal codec singleton with default attributes.
299 decode
301 my $hash = decode( $bson, \%options );
302 This is the legacy, functional interface and is only exported on
304 demand. It takes a BSON string and returns a hashref. It uses an
305 internal codec singleton with default attributes.
306
308 BSON has numerous data types and Perl does not.
309 When decoding, each BSON type should result in a single, predictable
311 Perl type. Where no native Perl type is appropriate, BSON decodes to
312 an object of a particular class (a "type wrapper").
313 When encoding, for historical reasons, there may be many Perl
315 representations that should encode to a particular BSON type. For
316 example, all the popular "boolean" type modules on CPAN should encode
317 to the BSON boolean type. Likewise, as this module is intended to
318 supersede the type wrappers that have shipped with the MongoDB module,
319 those type wrapper are supported by this codec.
320 The table below describes the BSON/Perl mapping for both encoding and
322 decoding.
323 On the left are all the Perl types or classes this BSON codec knows how
325 to serialize to BSON. The middle column is the BSON type for each
326 class. The right-most column is the Perl type or class that the BSON
327 type deserializes to. Footnotes indicate variations or special
328 behaviors.
329 Perl type/class -> BSON type -> Perl type/class
331 -------------------------------------------------------------------
332 float[1] 0x01 DOUBLE float[2]
333 BSON::Double
334 -------------------------------------------------------------------
335 string[3] 0x02 UTF8 string[2]
336 BSON::String
337 -------------------------------------------------------------------
338 hashref 0x03 DOCUMENT hashref[4][5]
339 BSON::Doc
340 BSON::Raw
341 MongoDB::BSON::Raw[d]
342 Tie::IxHash
343 -------------------------------------------------------------------
344 arrayref 0x04 ARRAY arrayref
345 -------------------------------------------------------------------
346 BSON::Bytes 0x05 BINARY BSON::Bytes
347 scalarref
348 BSON::Binary[d]
349 MongoDB::BSON::Binary[d]
350 -------------------------------------------------------------------
351 n/a 0x06 UNDEFINED[d] undef
352 -------------------------------------------------------------------
353 BSON::OID 0x07 OID BSON::OID
354 BSON::ObjectId[d]
355 MongoDB::OID[d]
356 -------------------------------------------------------------------
357 boolean 0x08 BOOL boolean
358 BSON::Bool[d]
359 JSON::XS::Boolean
360 JSON::PP::Boolean
361 JSON::Tiny::_Bool
362 Mojo::JSON::_Bool
363 Cpanel::JSON::XS::Boolean
364 Types::Serialiser::Boolean
365 -------------------------------------------------------------------
366 BSON::Time 0x09 DATE_TIME BSON::Time
367 DateTime
368 DateTime::Tiny
369 Time::Moment
370 Mango::BSON::Time
371 -------------------------------------------------------------------
372 undef 0x0a NULL undef
373 -------------------------------------------------------------------
374 BSON::Regex 0x0b REGEX BSON::Regex
375 qr// reference
376 MongoDB::BSON::Regexp[d]
377 -------------------------------------------------------------------
378 n/a 0x0c DBPOINTER[d] BSON::DBRef
379 -------------------------------------------------------------------
380 BSON::Code[6] 0x0d CODE BSON::Code
381 MongoDB::Code[6]
382 -------------------------------------------------------------------
383 n/a 0x0e SYMBOL[d] string
384 -------------------------------------------------------------------
385 BSON::Code[6] 0x0f CODEWSCOPE BSON::Code
386 MongoDB::Code[6]
387 -------------------------------------------------------------------
388 integer[7][8] 0x10 INT32 integer[2]
389 BSON::Int32
390 -------------------------------------------------------------------
391 BSON::Timestamp 0x11 TIMESTAMP BSON::Timestamp
392 MongoDB::Timestamp[d]
393 -------------------------------------------------------------------
394 integer[7] 0x12 INT64 integer[2][9]
395 BSON::Int64
396 Math::BigInt
397 Math::Int64
398 -------------------------------------------------------------------
399 BSON::MaxKey 0x7F MAXKEY BSON::MaxKey
400 MongoDB::MaxKey[d]
401 -------------------------------------------------------------------
402 BSON::MinKey 0xFF MINKEY BSON::MinKey
403 MongoDB::MinKey[d]
404 [d] Deprecated or soon to be deprecated.
406 [1] Scalar with "NV" internal representation or a string that looks
407 like a float if the 'prefer_numeric' option is true.
408 [2] If the 'wrap_numbers' option is true, numeric types will be wrapped
409 as BSON::Double, BSON::Int32 or BSON::Int64 as appropriate to ensure
410 round-tripping. If the 'wrap_strings' option is true, strings will
411 be wrapped as BSON::String, likewise.
412 [3] Scalar without "NV" or "IV" representation and not identified as a
413 number by notes [1] or [7].
414 [4] If 'ordered' option is set, will return a tied hash that preserves
415 order (deprecated 'ixhash' option still works).
416 [5] If the document appears to contain a DBRef and a 'dbref_callback'
417 exists, that callback is executed with the deserialized document.
418 [6] Code is serialized as CODE or CODEWSCOPE depending on whether a
419 scope hashref exists in BSON::Code/MongoDB::Code.
420 [7] Scalar with "IV" internal representation or a string that looks like
421 an integer if the 'prefer_numeric' option is true.
422 [8] Only if the integer fits in 32 bits.
423 [9] On 32-bit platforms, 64-bit integers are deserialized to
424 Math::BigInt objects (even if subsequently wrapped into
425 BSON::Int64 if 'wrap_scalars' is true).
426
428 Threads are never recommended in Perl, but this module is thread safe.
429
431 • PERL_BSON_BACKEND – if set at compile time, this will be treated as
432 a module name. The module will be loaded and used as the BSON
433 backend implementation. It must implement the same API as
434 "BSON::PP".
435 • BSON_EXTJSON - if set, serializing BSON type wrappers via "TO_JSON"
437 will produce Extended JSON v2 output.
438 • BSON_EXTJSON_RELAXED - if producing Extended JSON output, if this
440 is true, values will use the "Relaxed" form of Extended JSON, which
441 sacrifices type round-tripping for improved human readability.
442
444 Starting with BSON "v0.999.0", this module is using a "tick-tock"
445 three-part version-tuple numbering scheme: "vX.Y.Z"
446 • In stable releases, "X" will be incremented for incompatible API
448 changes.
449 • Even-value increments of "Y" indicate stable releases with new
451 functionality. "Z" will be incremented for bug fixes.
452 • Odd-value increments of "Y" indicate unstable ("development")
454 releases that should not be used in production. "Z" increments
455 have no semantic meaning; they indicate only successive development
456 releases. Development releases may have API-breaking changes,
457 usually indicated by "Y" equal to "999".
458
460 This module was originally written by Stefan G. In 2014, he graciously
461 transferred ongoing maintenance to MongoDB, Inc.
462 The "bson_xxxx" helper functions in BSON::Types were inspired by
464 similar work in Mango::BSON by Sebastian Riedel.
465
467 • David Golden <david@mongodb.com>
468 • Stefan G. <minimalist@lavabit.com>
470
472 • Eric Daniels <eric.daniels@mongodb.com>
473 • Finn <toyou1995@gmail.com>
475 • Olivier Duclos <odc@cpan.org>
477 • Pat Gunn <pgunn@mongodb.com>
479 • Petr Písař <ppisar@redhat.com>
481 • Robert Sedlacek <rs@474.at>
483 • Thomas Bloor <tbsliver@shadow.cat>
485 • Tobias Leich <email@froggs.de>
487 • Wallace Reis <wallace@reis.me>
489 • Yury Zavarin <yury.zavarin@gmail.com>
491 • Oleg Kostyuk <cub@cpan.org>
493
495 This software is Copyright (c) 2020 by Stefan G. and MongoDB, Inc.
496 This is free software, licensed under:
498 The Apache License, Version 2.0, January 2004
500perl v5.34.0 2022-01-20 BSON(3)