Support struct field renaming

[aloucks]

There needs to be a way to rename struct fields for use with #[derive(RustcDecodable, RustcEncodable)].

For example:

#[derive(RustcDecodable, RustcEncodable)]
struct Thing {
    #[serialize(decode_name="type", encode_name="type")]
    type_ : String
}

[fuchsnj]

https://github.com/serde-rs/serde already has something like this

struct Thing {
    #[serde(rename="type")]
    type_ : String
}

or if you want different names for different serializations...

struct Thing {
    #[serde(rename(json="type", xml="type2"))]
    type_ : String
}

[redlolgeerf]

but serde is not a proper replacement for rustc-serialize, as it's missing some drammatic features like deserealising only part of json fields serde-rs/serde#60

[fuchsnj]

@redlolgeerf I agree serde is not a proper replacement. I was showing that as an example of how it could be implemented.

[redlolgeerf]

@fenhl , my point is that requested feature is a needed one, despite presence of libraries, that do have it.

[fenhl]

cc @fuchsnj (assuming @redlolgeerf's comment was supposed to be directed at them)

[aidanhs]

I'm interested in this.

[erickt]

@redlolgeerf: The soon to be released serde v0.7.0 will by default automatically ignore unknown fields, with an attribute that restores the old behavior.

[sjmackenzie]

any movement on this?

[norru]

Has this been implemented yet?

[dtolnay]

Now that Serde is a proper replacement for rustc-serialize (and more), I think the idea is you should use Serde if you need to customize the serialized representation in any way, including renaming fields.

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct Thing {
    #[serde(rename = "type")]
    ty: String
}

[alexcrichton]

I'm going to close this now that this crate is deprecated in favor of serde. We're discontinuing feature development in rustc-serialize but will still continue to merge bug fixes if they arise.