The Swift Package Manager is a tool for automating the distribution of Swift code and is integrated into the swift compiler.

Once you have your Swift package set up, adding MetaCodable as a dependency is as easy as adding it to the dependencies value of your Package.swift.

.package(url: "https://github.com/SwiftyLab/MetaCodable.git", from: "1.0.0"),

Then you can add the MetaCodable module product as dependency to the targets of your choosing, by adding it to the dependencies value of your targets.

.product(name: "MetaCodable", package: "MetaCodable"),

CocoaPods is a dependency manager for Cocoa projects. For usage and installation instructions, visit their website. To integrate MetaCodable into your Xcode project using CocoaPods, specify it in your Podfile:

pod 'MetaCodable'

i.e. in the official docs, to define custom CodingKey for 2 fields of Landmark type you had to write:

struct Landmark: Codable {
    var name: String
    var foundingYear: Int
    var location: Coordinate
    var vantagePoints: [Coordinate]

    enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
        case name = "title"
        case foundingYear = "founding_date"
        case location
        case vantagePoints
    }
}

But with MetaCodable all you have to write is this:

@Codable
struct Landmark {
    @CodedAt("title")
    var name: String
    @CodedAt("founding_date")
    var foundingYear: Int

    var location: Coordinate
    var vantagePoints: [Coordinate]
}

i.e. in official docs to decode a JSON like this:

{
  "latitude": 0,
  "longitude": 0,
  "additionalInfo": {
      "elevation": 0
  }
}

You had to write all these boilerplate:

struct Coordinate {
    var latitude: Double
    var longitude: Double
    var elevation: Double

    enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
        case latitude
        case longitude
        case additionalInfo
    }

    enum AdditionalInfoKeys: String, CodingKey {
        case elevation
    }
}

extension Coordinate: Decodable {
    init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
        let values = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
        latitude = try values.decode(Double.self, forKey: .latitude)
        longitude = try values.decode(Double.self, forKey: .longitude)

        let additionalInfo = try values.nestedContainer(keyedBy: AdditionalInfoKeys.self, forKey: .additionalInfo)
        elevation = try additionalInfo.decode(Double.self, forKey: .elevation)
    }
}

extension Coordinate: Encodable {
    func encode(to encoder: Encoder) throws {
        var container = encoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
        try container.encode(latitude, forKey: .latitude)
        try container.encode(longitude, forKey: .longitude)

        var additionalInfo = container.nestedContainer(keyedBy: AdditionalInfoKeys.self, forKey: .additionalInfo)
        try additionalInfo.encode(elevation, forKey: .elevation)
    }
}

But with MetaCodable all you have to write is this:

@Codable
struct Coordinate {
    var latitude: Double
    var longitude: Double

    @CodedAt("additionalInfo", "elevation")
    var elevation: Double
}

You can even minimize further using CodedIn macro since the final CodingKey value is the same as field name:

@Codable
struct Coordinate {
    var latitude: Double
    var longitude: Double

    @CodedIn("additionalInfo")
    var elevation: Double
}

Instead of throwing error in case of missing data or type mismatch, you can provide a default value that will be assigned in this case. The following definition with MetaCodable:

@Codable
struct CodableData {
    @Default("some")
    let field: String
}

will not throw any error when empty JSON({}) or JSON with type mismatch({ "field": 5 }) is provided. The default value will be assigned in such case.

Also, memberwise initializer can be generated that uses this default value for the field.

@Codable
@MemberInit
struct CodableData {
    @Default("some")
    let field: String
}

The memberwise initializer generated will look like this:

init(field: String = "some") {
    self.field = field
}

Library provides following helpers that address common custom decoding/encoding needs:

• LossySequenceCoder to decode only valid data while ignoring invalid data in a sequence, instead of traditional way of failing decoding entirely.
• ValueCoder to decode Bool, Int, Double, String etc. basic types even if they are represented in some other type, i.e decoding Int from "1", decoding boolean from "yes" etc.
• Custom Date decoding/encoding with UNIX timestamp (Since1970DateCoder) or date formatters (DateCoder, ISO8601DateCoder).
• Base64Coder to decode/encode data in base64 string representation.

And more, see the full documentation for HelperCoders for more details.

You can even create your own by conforming to HelperCoder.

i.e. while Swift compiler only generates implementation assuming external tagged enums, only following data:

[
  {
    "load": {
      "key": "MyKey"
    }
  },
  {
    "store": {
      "key": "MyKey",
      "value": 42
    }
  }
]

can be represented by following enum with current compiler implementation:

enum Command {
    case load(key: String)
    case store(key: String, value: Int)
}

while MetaCodable allows data in both of the following format to be represented by above enum as well:

[
  {
    "type": "load",
    "key": "MyKey"
  },
  {
    "type": "store",
    "key": "MyKey",
    "value": 42
  }
]

[
  {
    "type": "load",
    "content": {
      "key": "MyKey"
    }
  },
  {
    "type": "store",
    "content": {
      "key": "MyKey",
      "value": 42
    }
  }
]